Name: Coconut-Smothered Black-Eyed Peas (Bina’s Lobhia)
Yield: Makes 4 cups
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 1 cup dried black-eyed peas (see box); 2 small red onions; 1 cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced, 1 coarsely chopped; 4 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chiles, stems removed; 2 cut in half lengthwise, 2 coarsely chopped (do not remove the seeds); 1 teaspoon cumin seeds; ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric; 2 tablespoons coconut oil or canola oil; ½ cup shredded fresh coconut; or ¼ cup shredded dried unsweetened coconut, reconstituted (see Note); 1½ teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt; 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds; 12 medium-size to large fresh curry leaves

Preparation info

Makes
4 cups

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

I was intrigued when Bina Toniyat shared this recipe with me in her beautiful bungalow in Bangalore, India. She not only impressed me with her passion for her career in homeopathy (it came in handy when a stray dog bit me outside her gates) but also with her enthusiasm for cooking. This curry is testimony to that talent. Onions, one batch stewed with black-eyed peas, the other pureed and used as a key flavor with fresh coconut, sweeten this curry, made extra-creamy by the slow breakdown of