Alo, ki manier? Today I’m traveling (in my kitchen) to Mauritius to make Dholl Puri!
Dholl Puri is a yellow split pea puree inside a flat roti bread. The recipe I chose has a Guyanese twist. It came from Metemgee:
This recipe was challenging because I couldn’t fold the flatbread around the filling, as I would for a crepe or Turkish gözleme. Instead, I had to enclose the puree in the dough like a stuffed dumpling and then roll the dumpling flat without it spilling out. Impossible? Almost!
In this video, she makes it look so clean and effortless:
My first dholl puris were a mess. I over-stuffed them. I rolled them out with too much pressure. Nearly all of the filling spilled out.
Luckily, the recipe makes 15 dholl puris so I had many chances to practice. By the end, they looked almost passable.
To get there, I made these improvements:
I under-stuffed the dumplings.
I used a lot of flour when rolling them out.
When rolling, I let the rolling pin rest on the dumpling with no applied pressure.
I took my time and worked slowly.
Changes I Made
I went to three grocery stores but couldn’t find yellow split pea! Instead, I used green split peas mixed with yellow lentils to soften the flavor.
I pan-fried with sunflower oil.
The recipe suggests cooking on low heat and not going for golden brown. I went for golden brown anyway, but next time, I will follow her directions for the soft and doughy texture she achieves.
Here is my finished product. They’re not much to look at, but they were tasty. Joe thought they tasted like samosas. Despite all my difficulties, this is his favorite recipe I’ve made, which he affectionately calls “pea pads.”
As a bonus, the split pea filling makes A+ baby food!
