Chennai Dosa, Stretford, Manchester

Chennai Dosa, a small chain of cheap and cheerful South Indian restaurants has opened a branch in the Stretford Mall in Manchester.

I’ve eaten at Chennai Dosa before a few times, most memorably in the Wembley branch before a match up the road. It’s a funny sort of place Wembley, the stadium itself situated in a sort of no-mans land of retail parks, roads and other detritus, apart from the rest of the area.

Most people heading to the stadium arrive at Wembley Park station to the East, and walk straight up the pedestrian precinct of Wembley Way and into the ground without any interaction with the surrounding suburb, but a few fans always end up at Wembley Central on the High Road in the middle of town. 

It’s a fairly typical London high street, bustling with commerce, most of the businesses independent and apparently thriving, and in Wembley’s case, mostly run by British Indians.

You can usually spot those who are stadium-bound but travelled there by mistake. There are often a few small groups of them, first time visitors down from the shires, wandering around in replica shirts, looking a little confused and unsure of themselves. The real Wembley; - scruffy, lively, independent, Indian, is somehow at odds with the corporate bastion of flag-waving Englishness up the road, and has come as a shock to the system.

It’s here that you’ll find a Chennai Dosa outlet, and I love it. The food doesn’t amaze, but it’s assertively spiced, tasty, filling and ridiculously cheap. There’s also the added fun to be had in watching Gladys from Mansfield, who just wants some food before the England game, perusing the menu and wondering what the hell idiyappams and kottu parotta and rasam vadai are.

So Chennai Dosa are expanding northwards, which is a very good thing. More people should know what the hell idiyappams and kottu parotta and rasam vadai are.

There’s still a dearth of Indian food in the North that doesn’t fit the typical British curry house Pakistani/Punjabi mould, particularly at the cheap and cheerful end of the market. There are posher places in West Yorkshire (Prashad, Hansa’s) and a few more mid-range restaurants scattered about (in Sheffield, Liverpool and Ashton-under-Lyne that I’m aware of, there are probably more) but only Dosa Express in Manchester is really a budget caff.

In terms of service, Chennai Dosa is a restaurant, but everything else is canteen style. Stainless steel jugs of water, beakers and school dinner plates; no frills wipe clean surfaces; and the fact that nothing on the menu costs more than five quid, or £4.99 to be precise.

The food at the Stretford branch is exactly the same as in Wembley; spicy, cheap and filling. Rasam vadai (£2.10), lentil doughnuts in a soupy lentil curry weren’t too heavy (sometimes eating vadai can be like ploughing through dark matter mixed with clay) and turned to a pleasing mush in the hot, sour tamarind laced rasam.

Sticking with the lentils (there are a lot of lentils involved at Chennai Dosa) I had a paneer masala dosa (£3.50) next. That’s a rice and lentil flour pancake stuffed with curried potatoes and cheese, served with sambar and chutney’s. 

Crispy pancake scooped up in hot, fresh chutney with the added bonus of cheese. What more could a vegetarian wish for? The potatoes were a bit bland though. Non-vegetarian options are also available by the way, anything with mutton in it will be worth a try.

I drank the tap water that was already on my table, so the bill was just £5.60 plus tip for a two course lunch in a restaurant with actual table service. They’re licensed too, and beer costs £2.99 a pint. Hopefully the expansion plans include Yorkshire.

7/10

Unit 119 Chester Road
Stretford Mall
Stretford
Manchester
M32 9BH

www.chennaidosa.com 

Syrian lentils

Lentils, lovely lentils. It's impossible to cock up a big pot of lentils. The worst that can happen is lentil soup. This thought is comforting me right now because I've just made a complete mess of my kitchen trying to make calamari. Deep-frying in a wok on an electric hob is not as straightforward as it might seem. Just try and maintain the oil at a steady temperature without ending up with greasy mush or a house fire. Go on, try it. Bet you can't.

Lentils pose no such dilemma. I was particularly pleased with a big dish of them I cooked on Monday (veggie night in anticipation of Tuesday evening's meat-fest), so I thought I'd share the recipe.

Little packets of pomegranate seeds were on offer in the supermarket. I was planning on cooking lentils anyway, and the pomegranate reminded me of a recipe for Syrian Lentils that calls for pomegranate molasses. I wondered if adding fresh pomegranate to the finished lentils would make an interesting alternative, and so it proved. Think of tender, earthy lentils with a hint of smoky cumin freshened up with coriander and little bursts of fruity pomegranate.

Serves 2-3 as a main meal with some bread, 5-6 as a side dish, or maybe more as part of a mixed mezze.

What you will need:

250g brown lentils
2 medium onions
4 fat cloves garlic
a small bunch of fresh coriander
2 heaped teaspoons cumin seeds
1 lemon
a large pinch of dried chilli flakes
1 tsp palm sugar (or demerara)
a handful of pomegranate seeds
salt and black pepper to taste
olive oil

What to do:

1. Finely chop the onions.

2. Warm a couple of tablespoons of oil in a pot over a low heat, then add the onions.

3. Cook the onions slowly so they soften without colouring. Give them a good 15-20 mins to allow them to sweeten.

4. In the meantime crush the garlic, and finely chop the stalks from about a third of the coriander bunch. Also prepare the lentils by giving them a good rinse in a couple of changes of water.

5. When the onions are soft and sweet make space in the pot, turn up the heat a notch and throw in the cumin seeds. Let them fry for a minute or so, making sure they don't burn.

6. Add the crushed garlic, chopped coriander stalks and pinch of chilli to the pot, and fry for a couple of minutes. Boil the kettle.

7. Add the lentils then pour over enough boiling water to just cover them. Bring to the boil then turn down to a gentle simmer.

8. Simmer until the lentils are soft and just starting to break up. The time this takes varies wildly from one batch of lentils to the next. These took ages, around 70 minutes in total. Check the pot every now and again and add a little more water if it looks a bit dry.

9. When the lentils are ready have a taste. They will need a generous grind of salt and pepper, then take them off the heat and add the juice of the lemon.

10. Roughly chop the coriander leaves, then add the pomegranate seeds and as much coriander as you like to the lentils. Serve immediately, ideally with some flat bread.

Tarka Dal

Here is my recipe for tarka dal. I'm no Indian food expert so it's probably completely inauthentic, but it tastes good. It's a very comforting dish to eat, gently warming rather than eye-wateringly spicy with a soothing nutty, buttery, garlicky flavour. I like to eat this when it's cold and I need a day off from consuming meat.

You will need:

This will make enough for 2-3 people as a main course, or at least 6 as a side dish.
250-300g yellow split peas (chana dal)
1 tbsp cooking oil (groundnut, sunflower or whatever)
a small cinnamon stick
2 cloves
2 cardamom pods
1 small onion
2 heaped teaspoons good quality curry powder (I think the stuff in tins is best. Bolst's is good. You can get it at most asian supermarkets)
3 fat cloves garlic
a big chunk of ginger (thumb sized if you have fat thumbs, if you don't then bigger than thumb sized)
1 fresh chilli
1 tbsp butter
a small bunch of coriander
Salt, pepper and lemon juice for seasoning

What to do:

1. First you need to rinse the lentils and get them cooking. Rinse them in cold water until the water is running clear then put them on the boil in a large pan.

 
2. The cooking time for lentils seems to vary quite wildly so you'll need to check them, but it will probably be around 30 minutes. A lot of scum will rise to the surface of the boiling water. Strain this off with a slotted spoon.

3. Once the lentils are on the boil prepare the other ingredients. Chop the onion as finely as you can be bothered to. Cut the stalks off the coriander and chop them finely (these definitely need to be chopped finely otherwise you'll end up with stringy bits in the finished dish). Also roughly chop the coriander leaves. Grate or finely chop the garlic and ginger, and last but not least chop the chilli.

4. If you're really slow at chopping stuff you might need to check your lentils at this stage. If not you'll have time for a tea break. I suggest a nice strong brew with a couple of hobnobs. The lentils should be cooked through but not starting to disintegrate yet. When they're done drain them and set aside.

5. Warm up the oil in a heavy based pan over a medium heat. Add the cinnammon, cloves and cardamom pods and fry for a few seconds until they start to release their fragrance, then add the onion.

6. Fry for a few minutes until the onion has started to soften, then add the chilli, ginger, garlic and coriander stalks and fry for another minute or two. Make sure it doesn't start to burn at any point as it will go bitter and unpleasant.

7. Now add the curry powder and fry for another minute or two, before adding the lentils and pouring over boiling water. Add just enough water to barely cover the lentils, then simmer for another 5 minutes or so until the lentils start to break down and the whole thing thickens up nicely. The final texture is up to you, I like the lentils to retain a little bit of their shape, rather than be completely dissolved into a uniform mush.

8. Finally stir in the butter. I've suggested about 1 tbsp, but it's a bit like mashed potato in that it can pretty much take as much butter as you can throw at it. I don't know if a 50/50 butter/dal ratio is feasible, but it's probably worth a try if you think your arteries can handle it.

9. Season to taste with salt, pepper and maybe a squeeze of lemon juice, then sprinkle over the coriander and serve with chapattis or plain boiled rice.