Crispy fried to perfection, Chef Sandeep Sharma's Charcoal Dahi Ke Kebab is a savoury dish featuring curd and cottage cheese.
It's served with mint chutney, masala onion slaw and a bell pepper shredded.
Photograph: Kind courtesy The Kai
Charcoal Dahi Ke Kebab
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 100 gm or little more than ½ cup hung curd or hung yoghurt
- 100 gm cottage cheese or crumbled paneer
- 2 green chillies, chopped
- ½ tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp chopped green dhania or coriander or cilantro
- ½ to 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp rice flour, optional
- Dash black pepper powder
- Oil for deep frying
- Mint chutney or kashundi (Bengali mustard paste) to serve
- Lachha pyaz or onion slaw, to serve (please see the note below)
- 1 green Shimla mirchi or green bell pepper shredded, to serve
For the coating
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1 menasina pudi or yellow chilly powder (or substitute with a pinch red chilly powder and a pinch turmeric)
- 1 chaat masala
- 1 to 2 tsp edible charcoal powder, optional, available online
Method
- In a medium-sized bowl, add the hung curd, cottage cheese, chopped green chillies, coriander, salt, sugar, pepper.
Using your hands, knead well to form a coarse dough.
If it is not firm enough, please add a little rice flour, to prevent the kebabs from breaking when frying.
- Combine the bread crumbs, yellow chilly powder, chaat masala, edible charcoal powder well and spread on a plate.
- Make small 1-inch diameter balls of the dough and roll it between your palms to elongate and achieve the signature kebab shape.
- Roll each kebab in the bread crumb mixture
- Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed kadhai or frying pan.
Deep fry the kebabs for a few minutes each and flip so that both sides are fried evenly.
Fry until reddish brown in colour and crisp on the outside.
Drain onto a tissue or paper towel-lined plate.
Garnish with the lachha pyaz, green Shimla mirchi shredded, and serve with mint sauce.
Note: 2 cups dahi/yoghurt makes about 1 cup hung curd
To make lachcha pyaz, finely slice one red onion in rings, then chop roughly and garnish with a pinch chaat masala, pinch red chilly powder, ½ tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp chopped green dhania.
A recipe for Lahu's Pudina Green Chutney can be found here.
Chef Sandeep Sharma is the Head Chef at The Kai, Noida.
Do you have any recipes to share? Please mail the recipe/s to getahead@rediff.co.in (SUBJECT: RECIPE) with photographs/videos of the recipe, your name, location and a photograph of yours.
