Trinidadian Pholourie – Very RuggedTrinidadian Pholourie is one of the many East Indian street foods I grew up eating.. I remember buying pholourie from an Indian lady selling under the rum shop on Friday evenings and Saturdays. Yes, I was allowed to go to by the rum-shop as a kid and buy street food and other delicacies.
A rum-shop will be considered somewhat of a bar in the USA. I love my Trinidadian Pholourie – Very Rugged
(The lady did not sell under or by, she sold her delicious goods in front of the rum shop.)
Serve as an appetizer with a delicious tamarind sauce
This is something we never made at my house when I was growing up, my father was not a big lover of east Indian fried foods, so pholourie was one of the delicacies which was always bought on the weekends, and at recess time in school. I was about 19 years old when I made my first batch of the good tasting Trinidadian pholourie. I had moved out of my parents home and on my own, and the area where I moved to, well one can say ,there were no one selling pholourie on the weekend, instead there were things like sweetbread, coconut drops , pone etc! a lot of the creole type of sweets, but no Indian street food.
I was forced to make my Trinidadian Pholourie-Very Rugged myself.
Mix all ingredients together and blend until smooth, it should have the texture of a pancake batter or like a thick smoothie
When you drop the pholourie batter into the oil, it should immediately pop up.
Turn the rugged pholourie balls while they are frying so that they can evenly brown.
These are so nice and fluffy and tender on the inside and they are not greasy at all.
Deborah Lynch Burchell
2 hrPrep Time
15 minCook Time
2 hr, 15 Total Time

5 based on 2 review(s)
Ingredients
- ½ cup yellow split peas
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground roasted geera (cumin)
- 4 chadonbeni leaves, finely minced or 2 teaspoons green seasoning
- 6 cloves garlic, finely minced
- About 1 1/2 cups of room temperature water
- About 3-4 cups of canola oil for frying
Method
- Grind yellow split peas in a very powerful blender . Read Notes Below:
- Transfer grind peas to a mixing bowl, add flour and combine
- Add all other dry ingredients and mix together
- Add water, Mix!
- The batter texture should be like a thick smoothie or pancake mix
- Cover the batter with a damp kitchen towel or saran wrap and let it sit for 1-2 hours.
- Heat your oil in a deep fry pan or you can use an electric fryer and bring it to 375 degrees
- Dropping the batter into the oil is kind of tricky, you can use your hands and turn it upside down and allow the balls to fall through your thumb and pointer finger..
- I did not want my hands in all that pholourie batter, so I ended up using a small spoon, and dropped about 6 at a time in the deep fry pan or electric fryer depending on the size of your pan
- Avoid the outside of the pholourie burning before the middle is well cooked by carefully monitoring the heat.
- Drain on paper towel
- Enjoy with some nice chutney or spicy sauce.
Notes
If you do not have a blender or grinder, you may soak the dry yellow split peas with about 2 cups of room temp water. Leave this overnight, the peas should double in size.
The next morning, drain and rinse the peas. In a blender, put peas, garlic and chadobeni, and water to cover the peas and blend on high till smooth., then proceed with adding the rest of the ingredients and follow the same direction.as above with the exception of the water.. You have already added the water to the blender.
Or you can go a different route and leave out the yellow split peas completely.
Pholourie can be eaten on it’s own, But it’s best eaten with some type of spicy chutney or sauce.
I call it my rugged pholourie as they are not nice and round at all.
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