GATEAUX PIMENTS

Savoury spice balls

This recipe is from the kitchen of Fred Hopper, and is originally from the isle of Mauritius. Fred often serves these as delicious late-night snacks, to accompany drinks.

Ingredients

(Serves 4-6)

200 g chana dall (split yellow peas)
3 small onions (button sized)
6 spring onions
4 sprigs watercress
2 green chillies
1 sprig parsley
5 ml turmeric
5 ml thyme
5 ml salt
1 ml black pepper (freshly ground)

Procedure

Soak the dall in cold water for a day, then drain thoroughly.
Chop all the vegetable ingredients finely.
Place the dall in a food processor and process to a paste. Decant into a bowl, add turmeric, salt and pepper, and vegetable ingredients and mix well.
Heat oil in a deep-frying pan. When it is hot, roll walnut-sized pieces of the paste in the palm of the hand and drop in to the oil to fry until golden brown.
Remove from the oil and drain the gateaux on kitchen towels. Serve hot, with drinks.

Notes

The choice of drinks served will depend on how spicy you make the gateaux: cool beer or lager usually goes down well.

Rating

Difficulty: moderate.
Time: 1 day soaking dall. 30 minutes preparation, 10 minutes cooking.
Precision: Weighing of ingedients is best, but measures can be approximate.

Contributor

 
Dr. Fred Hopper, NERC Computer Services, 
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, UK. 
 
Submitted by David Osborne 
Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham, UK) 
osborne@vaxa.nott.ac.uk

Recipe last modified: 27 Jan 87

Original header

Path: decwrl!recipes
From: Osborne@VAXA.NOTT.AC.UK (Dave Osborne)
Newsgroups: alt.gourmand
Subject: RECIPE: Gateaux piments (savory spice balls)
Message-ID: <11651@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: 11 Sep 87 03:12:02 GMT
Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM
Distribution: alt
Organization: University of Nottingham, UK
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Approved: reid@decwrl.dec.com

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On the etymology of the name 'Gateaux piments', I wonder if
it's derived from 'piedmonts', but that's only a guess.