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Indian chaura na poora, or Black-Eyed Bean Pancakes
You'll either need a high powdered liquidiser such as a Vitamix or a decent food processor and depending on what you have depends on how long these take to make.
If you have the Vitamix, then you don't have to soak the beans overnight, but you may have to add little extra water to the batter. Having a Vitamix, I opted not to soak the beans overnight.
This isn't the kind of batter that you would expect. It is much closer to very fluffy, stiffy egg whites or stiffly whipped whipped cream. It isn't the double cream or single cream consistency of normal pancake batter mixes. Another thing to note is that adding water will make your life harder, so minimise the amount of water you add. A thinner, more watery batter will take much longer to cook because the water has to evaporate from the batter first, so use the absolute minimum amount you can.
Ingredients (makes roughly 6-8 pancakes)
200g black eyed beans/peas
1 1/2 tbsp coarsely chopped ginger
6-10 cloves of garlic, sliced/diced or crushed
2-4 green chillies, sliced or diced, if you want hotter, keep the seeds
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
4 tbsp chopped coriander (leaves)
Salt, to taste
Method
You'll either need a high powdered liquidiser such as a Vitamix or a decent food processor and depending on what you have depends on how long these take to make.
If you have the Vitamix, then you don't have to soak the beans overnight, but you may have to add little extra water to the batter. Having a Vitamix, I opted not to soak the beans overnight.
This isn't the kind of batter that you would expect. It is much closer to very fluffy, stiffy egg whites or stiffly whipped whipped cream. It isn't the double cream or single cream consistency of normal pancake batter mixes. Another thing to note is that adding water will make your life harder, so minimise the amount of water you add. A thinner, more watery batter will take much longer to cook because the water has to evaporate from the batter first, so use the absolute minimum amount you can.
Ingredients (makes roughly 6-8 pancakes)
200g black eyed beans/peas
1 1/2 tbsp coarsely chopped ginger
6-10 cloves of garlic, sliced/diced or crushed
2-4 green chillies, sliced or diced, if you want hotter, keep the seeds
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
4 tbsp chopped coriander (leaves)
Salt, to taste
Method
- If you have a food processor, you'll want to soak the black-eyed beans/peas overnight in plenty of water and drain the beans prior to making.
- Add the ginger, garlic, chillies and onions to a food processor or high speed liquidiser (Vitamix) and blend until you have a smooth puree (add water if needed but try to minimise the amount).
- Now add the black eyed beans and turmeric, and blend until you have a very thick batter. You may need to add water but don't add much. You are after a very thick, light fluffy batter mix. It should be holding its shape exactly the same way stiff whipped egg whites would.
- Now add the coriander and the salt and process for a few moment to chop and mix the coriander in. I usually have a bright green batter by this stage.
- Heat a non-greased griddle or tawa over a medium heat and when hot, add a soup ladle full in a donut shape ensuring that the batter is sticking to the pan - yes, it must stick.... Now using the back of the ladle and in a spiral pattern, quickly work your way around the donut spreading it more thinly. I usually use a small anticlockwise circular motion in a clockwise donut shape, closing the hole in the middle at the very end. You can repeat the small anticlockwise circular motion around the outside of the pancake until the pancake mixture starts to come away with the ladle. at this point you must stop spreading the batter out.
- Now leave it to cook. It really will look like it is on the point of burning before it will come away with ease. You have to leave it alone until this point. try earlier and it will simply stick and make a mess. The beans haven't had time to cook properly, so it doesn't do what it is meant to do. The edges will look like they are burning because they are usually the thinnest part. I can't stress enough how important it is not to try to turn the pancake too early.
- Flip it when it is ready. You'll know because it will come away from the griddle with ease once you start to try to turn it, but you will need to run a palette knife or spatula under the entire pancake to ease it off the griddle. Now leave it alone for about 2/3rd of the time it took to cook the first side. Again it will stick and cook and won't come away with ease until it is almost cooked. Watch for thinner spots, they should brown but not burn.
- Repeat, only learn to leave it alone and for longer!
