Recipe: South Indian Potato-Stuffed Pancakes with Coconut Chutney

This is a recipe I got from a cookery class and it’s delicious. I added my own filling of spicy potato with my own recipe coconut chutney on the side. I’ve been to the South of India and had proper Dosas made right in front of my eyes. These aren’t proper Dosas but they’re nonetheless very nice indeed.

Ingredients

For the Coconut Chutney:

2 tbspn of grated fresh coconut or same quantity of desiccated coconut

½ tspn red lentils

1 Green finger chilli finely chopped

3-4 Curry Leaves finely chopped

A little Milk

Salt to taste

For the Spicy Potato Filling:

8-10 Curry Leaves

½ tspn Black/Brown mustard seeds

1 tbspn of Coconut Oil

2 Small or 1 Large baking potato, peeled boiled and mashed

2 Medium-sized Banana Shallots peeled and finely chopped

2 Green finger chillies finely chopped (remove seeds if you don’t like the heat)

1 Cube of Ginger/Garlic paste (see my Ingredients) approx. 2 heaped tspns

1 Medium tomato chopped

A good squeeze of tomato paste

Salt to taste

For the pancake batter:

60g chickpea flour (besan)

60 rice flour

Pinch of salt

Large Spoonful of full fat Greek yogurt

Water to make a batter

Coconut Oil to fry with

Method

To make the Coconut Chutney:

In a mortar and pestle grind the lentils down to a fine powder. Add the chilli and curry leaves and grind/pound down a little more. If using the desiccated coconut, add this to the mortar and pestle, add a little milk and leave to stand for 30 minutes. If using fresh coconut, add this to the mortar and pestle with a little milk but there’s no need to let it stand. Grind/Pound the mixture down gently adding a little more milk if too dry. You don’t need it to be fine, just enough so that the Chilli and Curry Leaves are incorporated well with the Coconut. Season to taste with salt.

To make the Spicy Potato Filling:

Peel and boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until they are soft enough to mash or pass through a potato ricer.

In a frying pan, heat up the Coconut Oil until very hot. Throw in the mustard seeds and allow them to pop for a few seconds. Throw in the Curry Leaves and stand back as they spit in the hot oil. Fry for 10 seconds and then turn the heat down low. Add the chopped Shallots and Chillies and gently fry for 5-10 minutes until the Shallots have softened. Add the Ginger/Garlic paste and incorporate fully with the Shallots and Chillies. Fry for a further 1 minute to take the rawness off the paste. Next, add the Tomatoes and Tomato Paste and mix well. Fry for a further 1 minute to cook out the tomato paste. Add the mashed potato and mix everything together really well and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Take off the hob and keep warm while you make the pancakes.

To make the Pancakes:

Mix flours and salt together. Put yogurt in a jug and dissolve in a little water. Make up to 200ml with more water. Mix into flour and beat to remove lumps. Leave to stand/ferment for 2 hours before using. Spread thinly on a hot crepe pan oiled with a little coconut oil. Cook until brown and slightly crispy. Flip and cook on the other side until brown and crispy.

To Serve:

Put a good quantity of Potato stuffing down the Centre of each Pancake and roll up. The final rolls should be about 4-5cm in diameter. Serve with the Coconut Chutney.