Name: Chile-Hot Dumplings with Buttermilk (Paruppu Unday More Kozhumbu)
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon coarse kosher or sea salt; 1 teaspoon coriander seeds; 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds; 1 teaspoon coarse kosher or sea salt; 2 cups buttermilk; ¼ cup half-and-half; ½ teaspoon ground asafetida; ¼ cup canola oil; 1 cup oily or unoily skinned split yellow pigeon peas (toovar dal), picked over for stones; 12 dried red Thai or cayenne chiles, stems removed; ¼ cup finely chopped fresh curry leaves; ¼ cup rice flour; 1 tablespoon cumin seeds; 1 cup shredded fresh coconut; or ½ cup shredded dried unsweetened coconut, reconstituted (see Note); 4 to 6 dried red Thai or cayenne chiles, to taste, stems removed; 12 medium-size to large fresh curry leaves; 1 tablespoon canola oil

Preparation info

Serves
8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

Hearty dumplings like these are special-occasion fare in Tamil-speaking kitchens. They are not laborious to make but do take some constant stirring, which can be a bit of a workout because the mixture is dense. The dumplings are often simmered in a tamarind-based curry, but I like the clean-tasting tartness that buttermilk offers in this version. Puffy fried pooris are an ideal accompaniment to this surprisingly heavy curry.

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