Name: Chickpea Flour Croquettes with a Blackened Chile-Tomato Sauce (Besan Chawal Vadi)
Yield: Makes 20 Croquettes
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 4 or 5 red Thai or cayenne chiles, to taste, stems removed; 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds; 1 tablespoon skinned split black lentils (cream-colored in this form, urad dal), picked over for stones; 8 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chiles, stems removed, finely chopped (do not remove the seeds); 1 tablespoon canola oil; Canola oil for deep-frying; ½ teaspoon bishop’s weed; or 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves mixed with ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; ¼ teaspoon ground asafetida; 1½ teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt; ½ cup rice flour; ¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems; 1 cup finely chopped red onion; 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems; 1 teaspoon coarse kosher or sea salt; 8 ounces tomatoes, cored and finely chopped; 1 cup chickpea flour

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

These spicy croquettes are a perfect choice for friends who are wheat-intolerant. The flours used in this recipe are not only healthful and gluten-free, they are also easily available. The croquettes are a cinch to make, but if you want to take an even easier route, any store-bought dipping sauce—even a robust salsa—will make a great condiment.

These croquettes do taste best when they are freshly fried. If you don’t plan to eat them all at once, store the uncooked patties in the ref