Some co-workers and I went to lunch at an Indian buffet today. Most of the dishes were familiar to me (and most had labels by their dishes.) However, there was one dish that wasn’t labeled. No one tried it until we were almost done with our meal because we all assumed it was a dessert dish. It was off to the side of the buffet table, by itself near the plates and bowls. One of my friends tried it. It looked like small round donuts (complete with hole in middle) in a white, sticky sauce. It looked like it should have been sweet, but apparently it was not. It was savory, but very bland. The “donut” items were very dense and dry when cut open. Since they didn’t enjoy it, we didn’t think to ask what it was, but now I’m curious. Any ideas?
My guess would be something like this:
There are lots of different kinds of “kofta” but the white sauce seems to be pretty standard.
Gulub jamun is pretty sweet, nor does it have the white sauce or hole in the center, so that doesn’t sound like it.
Then it must have been a vada with some kind of white chutney. I don’t know any other donut-shaped Indian food.
Sounds like dahi vada to me:
The shape was definitely like the vada; but it was literally swimming in the white sauce, similar to the Malai Kofta.
Ras malai would have been my guess, and it is eaten as a dessert, but I wouldn’t call it savory. It’s rather creamy and sweet, usually flavored with cardamom and sometimes a touch of saffron. The “donut” is paneer/fresh curd cheese. (At least all the versions I’ve had, and I have it fairly regularly.) It’s perhaps my favorite Indian dessert.
ETA: Wikipedia link here.
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This is better suited to CS.
Moving thread from General Questions to Cafe Society.
This definitely wasn’t a paneer.
Did it look like the picture on this page?
That was almost definitely a “dahi vada”. Its a vada dunked in yogurt(dahi), turning a wonderful, crispy, savory treat to a soggy mess. I have no idea why people do it…it tastes like a piece of sponge - tasteless.
You do have the option of dressing it up with tamarind chutney, salty-dry masala and cilantro that makes it a bit more palatable.
I’ll be monitoring this thread–I’m curious to hear what it is. Ras malai can be a bit dense and dry, depending on how it’s made. I’ve seen recipes with flour and powdered milk instead of paneer in them, like this one. Or this one, with just milk powder and baking powder and an egg. (The versions I’ve had don’t have egg, as the Indian circles I run in are lacto-vegetarian, typically.)
Yeah, the description does seem to match this better. In ras malai, the balls are white themselves, or at least not “doughnut” colored.
That looks yummy but everybody says it’s not really. That’s false advertising.
Yes, that’s pretty close.
I like dahi vada and I think it tastes good. But, we don’t make it like the recipe on the page I linked to.
I sent that link to one of the guys who actually tried it and he agrees it looks pretty similar.
Sounds like a really bad version of medu vada. Or maybe they were using medu vada with dahi in lieu of dahi vadas. Or it could’ve been dahi vadas with the coconut chutney pre-applied.