Archana Pidathala’s quick snacks for friends
Recipes for huli avalakki (tangy flattened rice with tamarind and coconut) and nuchinunde (steamed lentil dumplings) and an essay on adapting traditional recipes to modern kitchens.
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Welcome to Vittles Recipes! In this new weekly slot, our roster of six rotating columnists will share their recipes and wisdom with you. This week’s columnist is Archana Pidathala. You can read our archive of cookery writing here.
Archana Pidathala’s quick snacks for friends
Recipes for huli avalakki (tangy flattened rice with coconut) and nuchinunde (steamed lentil dumplings) and an essay on adapting traditional recipes to a modern kitchen. Words and photographs by Archana Pidathala.
One Sunday last year, I finally made chapatis in my rental kitchen in Barcelona after resisting it for months. It took me forty minutes of fiddling with the built-in teppanyaki-style griddle to make it suitable for preparing chapatis, whereas previously I could make chapatis in ten minutes on the cast-iron tawa I used to use. Since our move from Bangalore, the alienation I have experienced in the kitchen in the first few months has been the most painful, even more so than living in a new language or finding my way in a new city. I had predicted that a move would mean adapting to new approaches in the kitchen, but hadn’t expected how much I would miss my old ways – flame stovetops resilient to heat and mess, sturdy metal cutlery that holds flavour within it.
When I try to bring recipes created in my Indian kitchens to this hi-tech Barcelona one, there is a kind of resistance, as familiar recipes and ingredients struggle to morph into new forms. I felt this struggle again on a recent spring afternoon while making nuchinunde (steamed lentil dumplings) and huli avalakki (tangy flattened rice with tamarind and coconut), recipes I learned from my late grandmother-in-law, or ajji, as I called her. On days when I feel fragile, I remember ajji’s resilient spirit and find myself turning to the flavours and textures she taught me. I try to imagine what she would say if she saw the immersion blender I use instead of a mortar and pestle to grind spices and make batter, or the delicate cooktop that comes alive with the press of a button but that turns itself off, much to my frustration, every time I cook rice and a bit of water bubbles over.
When we moved, most of my kitchen – and the recipes and memories and instincts stored inside it – was left behind. But as much as I complain about this, I have found that cooking centuries-old family recipes with modern gadgetry has been a kind of reclamation, and a way to adapt. By making these recipes, far away from their origin, it feels possible to bridge the gap between my old life and this Spanish interlude, even if there is loss in the process – of flavour to the blade of a machine, or of taste to new terroir.
I often make ajji’s nuchinunde and huli avalakki as snacks for friends who come over. They are quick, easy, and reliable recipes to whip up for the new people in my life. I can feed them with ease, as ajji fed me, when I perched on her kitchen counter, watching her cook, listening to a scurry of squirrels squeaking outside.
Huli avalakki (tangy flattened rice with tamarind and coconut)
This is a dish in which coarsely crushed beaten rice – note, only thick poha (flattened rice), and not rice flakes, will work here – is soaked in sweetened tamarind water and quickly tossed in a tempering, which adds spice and crunch. Light and fluffy, with a couscous-like texture, each broken piece of rice surrenders for a brief bit in the tangy tamarind sauce before coming into its own. When I first tasted it, I can remember thinking, So much flavour with such little effort!
Serves 4
Time 30 mins
Ingredients
150g thick poha or thick flattened rice (available online and in Indian grocery stores)
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp jaggery powder (see notes)
for the spice mix (see notes)
½ tsp vegetable oil
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
¼ tsp fenugreek seeds
2–3 dried red chillies (adjust per spice tolerance)
¼ tsp turmeric powder
4 curry leaves, optional
for the tempering
2 tbsp vegetable oil
¼ tsp mustard seeds
¼ tsp dehusked split black gram (urad dal or split urad lentil)
¼ tsp dehusked split Bengal gram (chana dal or split chickpeas)
2 dried red chillies, chopped
1 tbsp unsalted peanuts, pumpkin seeds, or cashew nuts
8–10 fresh curry leaves (optional)
a pinch of asafoetida (optional)
to serve
1 small handful coriander leaves, roughly chopped
2 tbsp grated fresh coconut or finely chopped coconut pieces
Greek yogurt
lime wedges
Method
1 Start with the spice mix (if making). Heat the oil in a shallow pan over a high heat, then add all the other spice mix ingredients except for the turmeric. Fry for a minute until aromatic, taking care not to burn the spices, then remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. Tip into a spice grinder, add the turmeric, and grind into a fine powder (you can also use a pestle and mortar to do this).
2 Toast the thick poha for 2–3 mins over a medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent it from burning. Set aside to cool completely, then pulse it into a coarse rubble using a food processor and transfer to a bowl.
3 Dissolve the tamarind paste in around 235ml of hot water, then stir in the salt, jaggery powder, and 2 tsp of the spice mix. Pour the spiced tamarind water over the poha, then briefly stir, cover, and leave to rest for 15 mins. Don’t worry if it looks a bit paste-like initially – the texture will completely change once the spiced tamarind water is absorbed.
4 Fluff the poha up with a fork – the texture should be like couscous – and set aside.
5 Next move on to the tempering. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over high heat until smoking hot, then add the mustard seeds. When they begin to splutter, add the remaining tempering ingredients and fry for a minute, then add the poha and mix well for 15 seconds. Reduce the heat to medium, cover with a lid, and cook for 2–3 mins, then remove from the heat and leave to rest, covered, for another 5 mins.
6 Take off the lid and fluff up the poha with a fork once again. Scatter over the coriander leaves and grated coconut to serve, with lime wedges and a generous dollop of Greek yogurt on the side.
Notes
If you don’t have time or all the ingredients to make the spice mix, use rasam or sambar powder, which you can get online and in Indian grocery stores.
The ground poha keeps well in an air-tight container, so you could make a large batch of it, making it easy to churn this out at a moment’s notice in future.
You can replace jaggery powder with panela, rapadura, or soft brown sugar.
Nuchinunde (steamed lentil dumplings) with a quick mint and coriander chutney
Ajji was very amused when I fell in love with her nuchinunde, which none of her grandchildren cared for much. Nuchinunde is a South Indian dish named after the Kannada word ‘nuchu’ meaning broken, in reference to the ‘broken’ lentils used in the dish. In it, soaked lentils are coarsely ground, spiced, shaped, and steamed to make earthy patties with a texture reminiscent of the inside of a falafel.
Makes 12
Time 30 mins, plus 3 hrs soaking and 30 mins chilling
Ingredients
100g yellow lentils (toor dal)
100g dehusked split green gram (yellow moong dal)
50g dehusked split Bengal gram (chana dal or split chickpeas)
2 fresh green chillies, roughly chopped (adjust per spice tolerance)
1½ tsp ginger, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp coriander or dill leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp grated fresh coconut or finely chopped coconut pieces
1 tsp neutral oil
to serve
mint and coriander chutney (see recipe below)
masala chai
Method
1 Soak the yellow lentils, split green gram, and split Bengal gram in plenty of cold water for 3 hrs, then drain thoroughly – there should be no excess water.
2 Pound the chillies and ginger in a pestle and mortar into a coarse paste, then transfer to a food processor along with the drained lentils and the salt (see notes). Blitz into a coarse mixture. It’s fine if there are still whole lentils – they’ll add a nice textural dimension to the dumplings – but don’t be tempted to add any water.
3 Transfer the mixture into a bowl. Add the cumin seeds, coriander or dill, and coconut, mix well to combine, and season to taste. The mixture shouldn’t be dry, but should hold together when shaped.
4 Use your hands to roll the dough into even-sized balls – you should be able to make at least twelve dumplings. Once all the nuchinunde are shaped, put them on a tray and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.
5 When you’re ready to cook, grease a flat steamer basket with the oil and place above a pan of boiling water. Arrange four or five nuchinunde in the steamer, making sure to leave sufficient space between them. Working in batches, steam the dumplings for 12–14 mins, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
6 Enjoy with mint and coriander chutney (see recipe below) and a steaming hot cup of masala chai.
Notes
Rather than using a mixture, you can make these dumplings with just one type of lentil if that’s all you have. You could also try adding finely chopped onion or grated carrot to them.
The nuchinunde can be used instead of meatballs in your favourite curry or stew.
If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a hand immersion blender to pulse the lentils to a coarse mixture.
Quick mint and coriander chutney
Ingredients
1 cup coriander leaves
1 cup mint leaves
1 tsp ginger, chopped
1 green chilli, chopped
½ tsp sugar or jaggery powder
juice of ½ lime
salt, to taste
Method
1 Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz till smooth. Taste and adjust with a little more sugar, lime, or salt as necessary.
Credits
Archana Pidathala (@archana.pidathala) is a writer and publisher based in Barcelona. Her first book, Five Morsels of Love, a cookbook based on her grandmother’s 1974 Telugu cookbook, VanitaVanṭakālu, was shortlisted for the 2017 Art of Eating prize. She spent over a decade working in technology before quitting her product management job to venture into writing and publishing. Her recent cookbook is Why Cook.
Vittles Recipes is edited by Rebecca May Johnson, Sharanya Deepak, Jonathan Nunn, and Odhran O’Donoghue, and proofed and subedited by Odhran O’Donoghue. These recipes are tested by Georgia Rudd.