Recipe: Suji-Besan Pudla Pancakes

Suji-Besan Pudlas, a tasty breakfast or tea-time savoury pancake, is a cross between a dosa and a chila and stuffed with greens. Zelda Pande adapted it from a traditional Gujarati recipe. It uses seasonal green garlic, but a little extra crushed garlic will do just fine.

Suji-Besan Pudla Pancakes

Servings: 4-5

Ingredients

• 1 cup besan or chickpea flour
• 1¼ cups suji or semolina
• ½ cup greens of spring onion, chopped fine
• ½ cup whites of spring onion, chopped fine
• ½ cup greens of green garlic, chopped fine
• 10-12 garlic pods, crushed
• ½ cup fresh methi or fenugreek leaves, chopped fine
• ½ cup green dhania or coriander or cilantro, chopped fine
• Handful fresh pudina or mint, chopped fine
• 1½-inch piece ginger, grated
• 10-12 curry leaves, chopped fine
• 1-2 tsp red chilly powder
• Pinch hing or asafoetida
• ¾ tsp salt
• ¾ to 1 cup water
• 3 green chillies, chopped fine
• ½ tsp black pepper powder
• Ghee, for frying

For serving

• Dahi or yoghurt
• Methi sambariya, available in spice and masala shops, or online, or in kirana or provision stores selling Gujarati food condiments, optional
• Coconut chutney, optional (please see the recipe below)

Method

• In a large bowl mix the suji, besan and salt.
  Add the rest of the ingredients and about ¾ cup water.
  Add the water carefully to make an almost kneadable very soft dough/batter.
• In a large frying pan, preferably non-stick, warm a little ghee and add about half a cup of the dough/batter and flatten into a large thin pancake circle, with uneven edges.
  The dough should be stiff enough that when each pudla is fried, it's possible to flatten them with your fingers to form into the thin round pancake shape required.
  The more flattening is possible, the thinner the pancake will become.
  Fry on both sides till the pudla develops light pink dots.
• Repeat for balance dough/batter.
  The batter should yield about 5 pudlas, but it depends on how thin the pudlas turn out.
  Serve piping hot with yoghurt and/or methi sambariya and/or coconut chutney.

Note: Green garlic is seasonal and mainly available in winter and can be substituted for a few pods of additional garlic. You can grow green garlic on your windowsill or on your balcony at home, year-round, in small pots and it is a handy addition to dal, raita or parathas.

For Jain pudlas, use only the green of the spring onions and omit the bulbs. Also omit the garlic and ginger and replace with a tsp saunth or ginger powder (which is part of the Jain diet).

For vegan pudlas, pan fry in oil and a little cashew butter (available online).

Zelda Pande's coconut chutney recipe: Grind in a mixer/blender ½ a fresh coconut with ½-inch piece ginger, chunks of 1 medium red onion, pinch salt, 4-5 pods garlic, 100 gm dahi or yoghurt, small handful cilantro, 1-2 green chillies and a tiny bit of filtered/boiled/mineral water.
Baghar or do a tadka or temper with ½ tsp rai or mustard seeds, pinch of hing or asafoetida and 4-5 curry leaves heated till the rai pops in ½ tbsp oil in a small frying pan and pour over chutney.
Chill the ready chutney before serving and freeze what's leftover for another day.

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