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Recipe: Gujarati Khandvi European style

Manish Mehrotra, executive chef, Indian Accent, New Delhi shares his signature Khandvi Ravioli recipe.

About the dish

I have taken an absolutely Indian dish and given it the treatment of a European pasta. The sweet flavour of the khandvi goes very well with the salty flavour of the goat’s cheese. It’s a no-onion, nogarlic kind of dish – that’s what makes it unique. You can use khandvi as a pinwheel as well and fill it with any other kind of cheese. It’s best served as an appetiser or a snack at a party.

Khandvi Ravioli

Serves 4

Preparation time: 1 hour 50 minutes + refrigerating

Ingredients

Butter 1 tbsp
Ginger 1/2 inch knob, julienned
Green chilli 6-8 chillies, julienned
Cherry tomatoes 10-12, halved
Pine nuts 1 tbsp, fried
Khakra 1, crushed

for the Khandvi

Gram flour (besan) 1 cup + 1 tbsp extra
Cornflour 8 tbsp
Sugar 2 1/2 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Yellow chilli powder 1/4 tsp
Curd 1 tbsp
Water 4 cups

for the stuffing

Goat's cheese 7 tbsp
Cottage cheese 1 1/2 tbsp
Bell pepper 1/4 tsp, chopped
Black pepper 1/4 tsp, crushed
Cumin 1/4 tsp, roasted and crushed
Fresh mint leaves 8-10 leaves, chopped

for the garam masala cream sauce

Fresh cream 4 tbsp
Butter 1 tbsp
Garam masala 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste

• To make the khandvi sheets, mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Using a whisk, combine well to make a smooth mixture. Strain through
• a fine sieve and pour into a kadhai.
• Start cooking the mixture on a low flame, stirring to avoid any lumps.
• The mixture will thicken gradually. Keep on stirring.
• Cook for 10 minutes.
• The mixture will become thick and have a glossy texture, ready to be spread.
• Pour the mixture on the back of a thali and spread evenly and thinly, to about 1-mm-thickness.
• Put the thali in the refrigerator.
• In the meantime, make the stuffing by grating goat's cheese and cottage cheese in a bowl.
• Add bell peppers, black pepper, cumin and mint.
• Refrigerate.

• To make the khandvi ravioli, cut around 40 discs from the khandvi sheet of 5 1/2-6cm using a round cutter.
• Place about 1 tsp of the mixed cheese mash on half of the discs.
• Cover using the remaining discs, to make the ravioli.
• Gently press the top layer so as to nearly seal it.
• Cover and refrigerate.

• For the garam masala cream sauce, heat the cream in a non-stick pan.
• Add butter, garam masala, salt, and water to thicken the consistency of the cream sauce.
• Remove from the heat and keep in a bowl.
• Heat the butter on a non-stick skillet, saute the ginger and green chillies.
• Add cherry tomatoes and turn the flame off.
• Place the ravioli carefully to prevent overlapping.
• Cook for 30 seconds on a low flame and flip the ravioli.
• Arrange the ravioli on the serving dish, topping with cherry tomatoes, green chillies, ginger and pine nuts.
• Pour over the cream sauce and serve with crushed khakra.

Per serving: 324.25 kcals, protein 13.05g, carbs 35.68g, fat 14.57g, sat fat 7.02g, fibre 3.69g, salt 0.7g

Read more in BBC Good Food India magazine's 2nd anniversary special issue

'It was very important to break the circle of dal makhani, butter chicken, tandoori chicken and naan that represented Indian food all over the world'

Manish Mehrotra is the chef extraordinaire at the helm of Indian Accent, New Delhi. He won the televised cooking contest Foodistan in 2012, and is considered the face of modern Indian cuisine in India and abroad. The restaurant has garnered a blizzard of accolades for its path-breaking contemporary Indian menu, which showcases experimental creations using local produce and unusual ingredients. This year, Indian Accent was ranked 41 on San Pellegrino's list of Asia's Top 50 restaurants.

Five things you might know about Manish Mehrotra

• Although he is best known for his award-winning role as executive chef of contemporary Indian restaurant Indian Accent in New Delhi, Mehrotra began his career dabbling with Southeast Asian food in the kitchens of Thai Pavilion in Mumbai in 1996.
• After five years with the Taj Group, he continued his Pan Asian explorations with the Old World Hospitality group by joining Oriental Octopus at New Delhi's India Habitat Centre. The fine dining restaurant introduced New Delhi's power lunchers to little-explored Asian dishes such as dim sum and Burmese kauk swe.
• It was while in London in 2006, as executive chef of Tamarai restaurant, that Mehrotra fi rst felt drawn towards reinterpreting Indian food in a contemporary context. Challenged by the popular notion in the West that Indian food was "heavy, greasy, takeaway" chow, he decided to change stereotypical notions of Indian food. "It was very important to break the circle of dal makhani, butter chicken, tandoori chicken and naan that represented Indian food all over the world," he says.
• In 2009, he set up Indian Accent located in the boutique hotel, The Manor. Since its early days, Indian Accent has introduced diners to a novel approach to Indian cuisine with its elegantly plated, signature creations such as Foie Gras Stuff ed Galawat, Meetha Achaar Chilean Spare Ribs and Khandvi Ravioli. Malhotra believes plating plays a key role in shaping perceptions. "In India, we only go to the extent of adding coriander leaves or ginger juliennes on our food but internationally, presentation is very important," he says.
• Mehrotra crossed over from the professional kitchen to drawing rooms when he participated in Foodistan, a televised cook-off between Indian and Pakistani chefs that aired on NDTV Good Times in 2012. He became a household name after beating 15 chefs from both countries to the title.

Five things you probably don't...

• Although the Indian Accent menu does feature meat and select ingredients from around the world, Mehrotra is passionate about using indigenous produce. In the next six months, he aims to eliminate 'foreign' vegetables such as broccoli and baby corn and include Indian vegetables such as arbi, tendli and banana stem in the restaurant's seasonal menus.
• Mehrotra's dishes draw their inspiration from a variety of sources. He created a dish called Tuna Bhel Ceviche with Nimboo Cream and Crushed Kurkure after sharing a
• packet of the popular crunchy snack with his six-year-old daughter.
• The wok is his trusty equipment of choice in the kitchen. Being a trained Pan Asian chef makes him especially partial to it. "The wok is very handy when the restaurant is in operation," he says. "It heats up quickly and you can cook all kinds of cuisines in it."
• Although he doesn't favour a particular cuisine while eating out, Mehrotra says his eating choices depend on his mood. "I am a very craving-centric guy," he says. These usually include chaat, Indian Chinese food from a roadside van and the ultimate one: mushroom risotto.
• He confesses to having a weakness for dessert, especially after midnight when it is "even more sinful". He is especially fond of hot gulab jamun with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, chocolate cake and soan papdi.