Name: Coconut-Flavored Fritters with a Buttermilk-Pigeon Pea Broth
Yield: Makes about 30 Dumplings (Serves 10)
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds; 1 cup nonfat buttermilk; 2 red Thai or cayenne chiles, stems removed; 1 tablespoon unrefined sesame oil or canola oil; 15 medium-size to large fresh curry leaves (see Tips); 1 teaspoon coarse kosher or sea salt; ½ teaspoon ground asafetida; Canola oil for deep-frying; ¼ cup oily or unoily skinned split yellow pigeon peas (toovar dal), picked over for stones; ¼ cup coarsely chopped medium-size to large fresh curry leaves (see Tips); 1 cup shredded fresh coconut; or ½ cup shredded dried unsweetened coconut, reconstituted (see Note and Tips); 2 teaspoons Sambhar masala; ¼ teaspoon ground asafetida; ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric; 1 large tomato, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks; 1 teaspoon black peppercorns; 1 cup skinned split black lentils (cream-colored in this form, urad dal), picked over for stones

Preparation info

Makes about 30 Dumplings (Serves
10
)

Difficulty
Complex

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

Similar in ingredients to the Lentil Dumplings in a Spicy Tamarind-Lentil Broth but surprisingly different because of a change in some key elements, these fritters deliver a bowlful of addiction. The coconut in the fritters is a trademark of these nibblers from Mysore, a city in south central India not too far from India’s Silicon Valley—Bangalore. The buttermilk gives the curry a pleasant tartness and mellows out the peppercorns. “Buttermilk” is more</