Trinidad Kurhi

The first time I heard about Kurhi was from a member from my facebook group. She made a request for it, and since it was not in my already large list of recipes to do, I decided to do a post... I thought I knew what kurhi was; possibly some kind of fried dish like baiganee, but I was in for a surprise.


I had eaten it already for Divali by a friend but I didn't know what it was until I did the post; all I was told at the time was that it was a dhal made with split peas powder instead of the regular split peas. So that was what I knew it as; just dhal made with split peas powder. But that was not all, there were also the little split peas pholourie, called boulders, that was added to the dhal. Later on for ease of remembering, I just settled on calling Kurhi - split peas powder dhal with little balls.


OK! Now that I knew what it was, it would be easy to make right? Wrong! There was a technique to mixing the split peas powder for the pholourie part, that my mom's friend showed me while she made it. The batter had no baking powder in it yet it floated when dropped to a cup of water to test. Isn't that amazing? I will show you what she did.


Usually it is eaten with rice, like in the picture, but I feel that you could try it with roti as well; break and dip style. This makes a very appetizing vegetarian dish and of course you could add the different chutneys too. Enough of me talking; here's Kurhi. Enjoy!

KURHI

pholourie (boulders)

2 cups split peas powder
1/2 tsp. saffron powder (tumeric)
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. green seasoning
1 cup water

dhal

1 cup split peas powder
2 tbsp. green seasoning
14 cups water, divided
1 tsp. saffron (tumeric)
2 tbsp. oil
2 tsp. geera (cumin)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tbsp. curry
salt to taste

Pholourie (boulders)

mix all the ingredients in a large bowl thoroughly

Continue mixing and test the mixture occasionally
by dropping small blobs of batter in a cup of water until it floats.

Note: This is the technique I mentioned earlier. It seems that the constant mixing introduces air into the batter to make it buoyant.

The batter for the "boulders" is ready

Have a little bowl of water at hand to dip the spoon into before dipping it in the batter.

Note: You could use either a 1/2 tablespoon or tablespoon according to the size you want. Don't forget to dip the spoon in the water first then in the batter!

Fry until golden and drain on paper towels

Dhal

Mix the split peas powder and green seasoning in 3 cups of water

Heat the oil over a medium flame....

and add the garlic, onion, and saffron (tumeric) to saute.

Add the curry and let it fry until it is about to stick to the pot

Add the dhal and the rest of water (11 cups) and stir

Note: While stirring, the dhal will thicken. I was surprised to see how much dhal was made.

Add the hot pepper

and "boulders"

Bring to a boil.

Add geera and salt to taste

The finished kurhi: serve over rice or with roti

See how easy it was! The kurhi went well with rice and some mango chutney at the side.

Well that's it for another week of posting. More to come as usual. Ah gone!

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