When I visited Trinidad, a lot of the curries I tried were served with dhalpuri, a roti that is filled with seasoned split peas! This is just one of Trinidad’s many flatbreads that are served with various meat and veggie dishes. It is popular in other countries that have large Indian population. Of course with a far reaching Indian diaspora, food in countries like Trinidad have a strong Indian influence. Places like Mauritius and Guyana also have their versions of dhalpuri though sometimes spelt differently, eg. dholl puri.
Dhalpuri
This recipe is a bit time consuming to make but if you make the filling on one day, then make your roti the next, this process is smooth sailing! The original recipe is by Cooking with Ria! Please check out her Youtube videos and website for true authentic recipes. Dhalpuri is traditionally made so that the filling is crumbly on the inside but other chefs have made this recipe where the filling is a bit more moist. For my first go of it, I made it how it is typically served and enjoyed it with some spicy curry chicken!
Ingredients
Filling
To Boil
- 1 heaping cup of dried split peas
- water as needed
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 tablespoon of salt
To Grind
- 5 garlic cloves
- small bunch about 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/2 tablespoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Dough
- 4 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups of lukewarm water
- 1/8 teaspoon of dry active or instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil
- neutral oil or ghee for frying
Instructions
Prepare Filling
- Note: You can make this ahead of time, store in air tight container and keep in the fridge for 1-2 days. This would split up the work involved in this recipe.
- Rinse your split peas till the water runs clear
- Soak your split peas in a bowl of water overnight or for at least four hours
- When ready to cook place your split peas in a pot, cover with enough water so that it is about 3 inches above the peas, and add a half teaspoon of turmeric, and add salt, and boil until the peas are cooked but not mushy.
- You should be able to press a pea between your fingertips without feeling any grains of resistance but you should not cook the peas long enough that they turn to mush in the water.
- Strain the water from your cooked peas and leave your steamy peas to dry completely. If you are in a rush, and want them to dry faster, spread out on a baking sheet. This also helps a lot of moisture in your peas evaporate.
- When completely dry, pulse in food processor with your garlic cloves and your cilantro. This is traditionally made with a leafy green culantro/shado beni so you can use those for a more authentic recipe if you can find it. Make sure to pulse until it is an even crumbly texture but is not mushy. You may have to do this in batches to make sure everything is pulsed well. The texture should be crumbly, almost like slightly moist breadcrumbs. If you squish it in a fist, it should hold together.
- When you are done pulsing place in a bowl and mix in your salt and cumin and set aside.
- I optionally, place this entire mixture in a pan, add a tablespoon of oil or ghee and stir for 3-5 minutes until a crumbly uniform texture forms. This help remove any extra moisture if any and blend the flavours and toast the dhal a little. If you do this step, set aside and allow to cool again completely.
Make dough
- Place your yeast in a cup or bowl with your lukewarm water.
- In the mean time in a. operate bowl mix all your dry ingredients, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Add your yeast and water to the dry ingredients and mix your your hands.
- Pour your ingredients onto a clean, lightly floured work surface.
- The dough should be firm but not too hard to too soft. Essentially, you should be able to knead it easily without it sticking to your hands. You need to knead for about 3 minutes. The dough will not be smooth, but everything should be mixed together and it should come together in ball easily.
- If the dough is sticking too much, do not simply add flour, you may end up adding too much. First wash and dry your hands, and then rub a bit of flour on your hands and start kneading again. Usually washing gunk off your hands and flouring them helps prevent the dough from sticking to them.
- After 3 minutes of kneading, place your dough back in your mixing bowl, pour over oil and rub the oil in.
- Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, divide your dough into 8 even pieces and cover with clean kitchen towel while you work on the others.
Form your dhalpuri
- Take a piece of dough flatten it out with your palms and make a well. I usually make an effort to make the edges of the well thinner (since they will be pinched together) and make the bottom of the well (inside the curve) thicker since it will be stretched out.
- Pack 3 to 4 tablespoons of filling inside the well of your dough and carefully pinch it sealed like a dumpling. Don’t worry if some filling comes out, just be purposeful and intentional and work over your filling bowl just incase to avoid making a mess.
- Once you have pinched the dough, flatten it with your finger and palm into a disk and place seam side down on a work table.
- Repeat with all your other dough balls.
- Roll out each dish, using a lot of flour on your work surface and rolling pin till it is thin but not too thin as to break the dough and have filling come out.
- Flour on both sides and place on either a parchment paper or a floured work surface.
- Repeat with the rest of your disks. You can stack your rolled out disks but you have to flour each disk a lot to prevent sticking and work fast! I have stacked them and waited about an hour before frying and even though I floured, they stuck together and my batch of roti was ruined.
- If you are able to, you can also try frying as your roll our your disks. This all depends on how good you are at multi tasking or how much space you have in the kitchen.
- When frying, have your tawa (griddle), cast iron or frying pan on medium to high heat.
- Place a 1/2 a tablespoon of neutral oil in your pan and place your rolled out dhalpuri in the pan. After 15-20 seconds, flip and baste with bit of oil, I use a kitchen brush with oil on it. Sometimes I do not baste at all, because after a few turns of the dhalpuri, residual oil in the pan is able to coat both sides.
- Your dhalpuri It should start to puff up after your turn to over. If it doesn’t, your heat may not be high enough (you want it hot, but also not too hot because it may burn early without cooking through). Reasons it may not puff up include, minuscule holes in the dough so steam escapes, the pan is not hot enough, or material of your cooking pan. It is okay if it doesn’t puff up, just keep going.
- After a couple turns with a spatula or if you are like me, I use my finger, your dhal puri should have golden brown specs on each side.
- When they are cooked, place on a plate and cover with a clean kitchen cloth. Dhalpuri is supposed to be soft so the clean kitchen cloth helps it steam up a bit and soften even more.
- Between each fry, I wipe my pan a bit incase there are burnt bits and I add more oil. Repeat with the remainder of your rolled out dhalpuri and serve with a curry of your choosing. I served mine with curry chicken.
- You can store by placing in a ziplock bag and place in your fridge, I just heat mine up in the microwave in 10 second intervals when I want to reheat. I wouldn’t keep mine for more than 2 days in the fridge, freshness goes out the window relatively quickly.
