This post comes straight from the heart which has had a love affair with the beautiful island that is Mauritius for the last two and a half years. I’ve now spent roughly two weeks here and I’ve come to the point where I can see myself living here. Waking up early, just after sunrise, eating a piece of local fruit and practising yoga in the light. Followed by a swim in the sea and then utilising all the inspiration and focus the sun and beauty here seems to awaken in me to create new recipes and articles to share with you all. Then having a delicious homemade Mauritian curry for dinner across the table from my best friend and person who occupies the biggest part of my heart as I soak in the bounties of a day on the island.
This is of course not the most realistic of scenarios and I know it would feel completely different if I was actually living here as all the day to day commitments and stresses occur. But I love allowing myself to day dream and pretend whilst I’m here, it makes me happy and rejuvenates me. And where I’m going with all this is that some things I can take with me as I return to my roots, and settle into a daily routine again, is the delicious food I’ve discovered.
I love bringing back curry powders and other unique spice blends when I visit Mauritius and I intend to do so this time as well so I can make this recipe over and over and it will still taste like Mauritius. The excitement I had recreating and adapting my favourite food here on the island has been heart warming and I hope this will rub off on you. And as you can see below I’ve made my first cooking video. It is useful in this recipe especially because the dholl puri, a Mauritian type of flat bread, is a little tricky to wrap your head around I think without visuals. I hope you’ll take a look at the video and at my youtube channel. And please let me know what you think, and if you have any requests of what you’d like to see on my new youtube channel – simply let me know in the comments!
The dholl puri is a kind of Indian-Mauritian bread which traditionally is made with wheat flour and you can find it at market stalls sold as a wrap with bean curry and Mauritian chilli paste. As I’m intolerant to gluten, rather than allergic, I can allow myself to have a little once in a while without any major complications in the diestion department. However cooking at home I make it a habit to only use tingredients I know will not affect my diestion negatively.
Therefore I’ve changed the original recipe that lovely Roti who you can see in the video kindly taught me. I use an all-purpose gluten free flour in this recipe, a little different from my day to day flours like buckwheat and brown rice but needed to create a similar taste and texture. The bread is a little more dense than the wheat one which is suspected using gluten free flours but still delicious to scoop up the butter bean curry with.
The curry is traditionally Indian-Mauritian and Roti helped me get the flavours just right. Although eating out her in Mauritius the curries are rarely hot and spicy and usually served with a chilli paste on the side. I decided to make a more hot and spicy version using a medium hot masala curry powder recommended to me by Roti. The french influence on the island I think shine through in the use of thyme in the curry and I like this addition, it makes it a little different from other curries I’ve had the pleasure of trying.
Finally, I have not added any additional vegetables to the mix but this recipe will allow for a variety of vegetables in my opinion. Carrots, bell pepper, peas, green beans, cauliflower, the list can go on. Get creative with what’s on offer this season where you are located and enjoy the heat!
MAURITIAN BUTTER BEAN CURRY W. DHOLL PURI
PORTIONS: 4-5 portions / TIME: 90 min
1/2 cup yellow split peas + 1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp turmeric
3 cups all purpose gluten free flour (I like Bob’s Mill)
Roughly 1 cup warm water (use water drained from split peas first)
4 tbsp coconut oil
1/3 cup cooking oil (i.e. good quality rapeseed oil)
1 tbsp brown rice syrup
Pinch of salt
2 butter bean cans or equivalent dried and cooked (if cooking your own save the water and use instead of water in the curry)
2 brown onions, sliced
1-2 chilli peppers, halved
2 tomatoes, finely diced
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
4 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
4 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 tbsp fresh thyme, leaves
2-3 tbsp curry powder (consider droping the frsh chilli if powder has chilli)
1-2 tbsp arrow root powder
Water
Bring yellow split peas and water to a boil with a teaspoon of turmeric. Let simmer on a medium heat for roughly 20-25 min or until you can crush a split pea with gentle pressure between your fingers. Drain, keeping the water for the flat bread dough and leave to cool. Once cool use a hand blender or food processor to process cooked split peas into a dry paste which will crumble when mixed (see video). Leave to one side.
Place the flour into a bowl and mix with a generous pinch of salt. Then start adding the warm split pea water/water little by little working it into the flour. After adding about half a cup of water add the coconut oil and brown rice syrup and work into the dough. Keep adding water until it forms a semi-soft dough (see video).
It’s best to roll the bread out straight away followed by frying in a steady flow, therefore it’s great to be two people for the next steps- one rolling and one frying. For the rolling it’s great to keep some oil and flour at hand and use as you see fit to keep the dough pliable / not too sticky.
Roll some dough into a ball, it will make roughly 15 equal sized balls in total. Make a round out of the ball, roughly a cm thick. Cup your hand and place the dough round into it making the round into a little bowl. Place roughly 1/2-1 tsp of the split pea paste grinds into it, and then close the bowl gently capsulating the split pea mixture inside.
Place a little flour on a flat surface and place the ball on the surface. Dab with a little flour and roll out gently with a rolling pin, flipping the bread a couple of times in the process. Use some cling film to help with rolling if you find that your bread sticks or breaks. The bread should be roughly 10 cm in diameter and rather thin when ready for frying. (Remember that using gluten free flours is tricky and you need to take extra care keeping the dough moist throughout the process.)
Heat a frying pan to a medium low heat and a dd a little oil using a baking brush or a little kitchen paper. Place the bread into the pan and brush/dab a little oil onto the side facing up before flipping it over and repeating the brushing/dabbing. Flip as you see fit until little brown spots appear on the surface of the bread. Keep rolling out and frying, keeping the cooked breads closed into a little kitchen foil to preserve the heat and keep moist.
Repeat with the rest of the balls (see video for visual).
Making the curry can be started whilst the split peas are cooking or it can be left until the bread is done if that is easier. Start by browning the sliced onion and halved chilli peppers in a little cooking oil and a pinch of salt on medium heat, roughly 2-3 minutes.
Add tomato, giner and garlic as well as a splash of water and let simmer away until tomatoes are soft and look mixed into the rest of the ingredients.
Then add canned/cooked beans, curry powder, fresh herbs (or dried) and water to cover by roughly and inch. Let simmer on a medium heat for about 15 min, stir as needed.
Add fresh herbs and check whether youd like your curry a little thicker. If so mix arrow root powder with a little water before adding the mixture to the pot. Mix it in and let simmer again for roughly 5-10 min. You can also give it a taste and see if you require more salt, heat or herbs and add as you see fit.
Serve with some fresh chopped coriander and some plant yoghurt if you want to stifle the heat.
Åh, så fantastisk du är! JBJBJBJBJBJBJBJB. Filmen var jättebra!!! Skulle ju bara velat se mer av dig men så tänker nog alla mamsor.
Filmen fokuserade ju på det som var viktigast: maten!
Tack snalla mamma, du ar ocksa JB!Glad att du gillar videon och ja precis som du sager, mer om maten an om mig men ska forsoka klamma in ett leende har och dar for din skull. 🙂 puss!
So much love went into making this! Beautiful, gorgeous, delicious and gorgeously yellow! 🙂 I will be trying this soon! Good luck with your next videos! Will be watching them (and you) closely. 🙂
Oh, what a lovely comment to read – and it makes me so happy that you can see that it came from the heart. And yes it is rather yellow, more colourful coming from a tropical island like Mauritius than I usually feel inspired to cook. Definitely another pro of being here. Best of luck with your cooking adventures and I really hope you enjoy it when you give the recipe a go! 🙂
M x
My dad is from Mauritius and my mum is white British. As a teenager i would go with my dad to Mauritius and fell in LOVE with the street food! Cant wait to try this! It is so beautifully presented as well! THANK YOU!
lucky you, it’s such a beautiful country with such beautiful people 🙂
I’m glad you like the look of this dish, I hope it can spark a memory or two when you try it.
it’s one of my favourites!
My mom is Mauritian!! She will love seeing this. Thank you for sharing this Mauritian curry recipe, Malin.
This recipe and I have a love-hate relationship (I say 2 hours afterwards covered in flour).
The split-peas soaked up all the water, I dropped my packet of flour and I burnt the curry trying to clean up said flour while my puppy ran through the kitchen. The Dholl Puri Flatbread didn’t work for me. I suspect it’s because I didn’t have any split-pea water left over, which I’m assuming has a similar effect to using Aquafaba? Otherwise, it was the GF flour I used.
In saying that, when my partner and I tasted it, our eyes widened in absolutely surprise. My god where has this dish been our whole lives!? AMAZING!! I’m looking forward trying this again when I have more time and bench space. (The curry on the other hand is going straight on our routine meal plan!)
Thanks for such an amazing recipe! I love your work and we lloooovvveeee your recipes! <3 x
Oh Kylie, I am so very sorry you had that experience making the bread. I must admit it is rather time consuming and a little tricky to make.
I have made it mainly with expert hands helping me but I think if you find you do not have enough water to form a good dough simply add a little more warm water to the mixture.
Also gluten free flours can all be so different, which I’m sad to say makes this a little bit of a flaw in the recipe. If you can have what I would try it with that and if not I would try adding more water like I said until you reach a good consistency.
Either way I am very happy that there wasn’t just frustration and that you and your partner really liked the curry! It’s one of our favourites too and I’m so happy you gave it a try and want to make it again.
Wishing you all the best with your cooking adventures and sending you much love! x
Lovely receipe for Dhal Puri
Butter beans receipe is really good. We make it exactly the same way in South Africa except we do not use arrowroot. We finish off the curry with Garam masala(a blend of a few spices) and garnish with coriander.
Glad you like it 🙂 I had help from a lovely Mauritian woman, Lakshmi, to learn how to make both the bread and the curry.
The addition of garam masala and coriander sounds lovely!