Coconut bread rolls

These coconut dinner rolls are freely adapted from a recipe by Richa Hingle; freely adapted, because the ingredients have been altered to make fewer rolls and to bear in mind that while on boats we can carry all sorts of wonderful dried herbs and spices, we generally can’t just pop along to the local farmers’ market and buy fresh. These rolls, therefore, can be made on board, with the usual ingredients that (curry-loving) sailors have in their lockers.

 

Unlike most of the rolls that I make, these are soft and fluffy (well, relatively speaking), due to the inclusion of coconut milk and, I suspect, the addition of baking powder. I give them a double rising (but only about 20 – 30 minutes each time), starting them before the rest of the meal, when I soak the beans for the curry I have with them, and then making them into little rolls that could rise while I get said curry underway. (If you're not using beans that need soaking, try to remember this extra step!)  They’re supposed to be topped with a delicious tempering, but I felt that was a step too far! The turmeric makes them come out an attractive shade of yellow.

Makes 6 small rolls

Ingredients

1/2 cup full fat coconut milk

1 tbsp (coconut) oil

1 cup wholemeal flour, plus more for mixing

1/2 tsp instant yeast

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp baking powder

small green chilli finely chopped

1 tbsp shredded coconut

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp ginger, minced or paste

1/2 tbsp hemp seeds or sesame seeds

Method:

• Warm the coconut milk (see Note) then add the oil. If you’re using coconut oil, wait for it to melt and stir it in.
• Add 1/2 the flour and the yeast and mix everything well.
• Now add salt, turmeric, black pepper, cayenne baking powder, chilli, coconut, onion powder, ginger and seeds. Mix thoroughly so that everything is evenly distributed.
• Add the rest of the flour and mix again. Now you will need to start using your hands. Add a little more flour if the mixture is too sticky, but remember that this is a nice, soft dough so you just want to add sufficient that it no longer sticks to your fingers.
• Cover the dough and let it rise for about half an hour.
• Once the dough has risen, turn it onto a board and gently work it into a ball, flouring the board if necessary.
• Divide the dough into half a dozen evenly-sized pieces and then place them in a greased frying pan.
• Cover the frying pan with a lid and let the rolls rise for another quarter of an hour or so.
• Light the cooker, put on the flame tamer and then place the frying pan on the heat. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes. Take the lid off and gently press one of the rolls. If it’s firm, turn them all over and brown the other side for about 5 minutes. It it’s still soft, cook for another 5 minutes and try again.
• Serve warm with dal or curry.

Alternative cooking in an oven

• When you have divided the dough into 6 balls, grease a 230 mm/9 in pie dish really well, or line it with parchment, then place the rolls in the pie dish.
• Brush the top with some warm water.
• Cover the dish it with a tea-towel and let it rise in a warm place, for 15-20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven at this time to Moderate.
• When the oven is the right temperature, bake the rolls for 25 minutes.
• Take the rolls out of the oven, and let them sit in the pie dish for a few minutes, before shaking them out.

Variations:

• You could use a different milk if you wanted to, but then they wouldn’t taste so deliciously of coconut!
• If you ever use white flour, in this case the rolls would probably be an even prettier yellow colour.
• If you’re cooking for other people, who you feel might find this sort of ‛hot’ roll a step too far, leave out the chilli and cayenne.

Notes:

• I use coconut powder for the milk. You can bring this to perfect temperature in the usual way of boiling half of the water and adding it to the rest before mixing in the powder. This will stop it killing the yeast from being too hot, when you add it to the flour.