Vengayam Adai (Multi-lentil pancakes with onions and tomatoes)

These aren't really pancakes in the sense we usually mean the word in Canada; they're savoury, a bit spicy, and best served as accompaniment to a curry, although you can eat them on their own (and they are quite tasty). Served with curry they're great either as a side dish, or topped with curry and eaten that way.

As written the recipe calls for just chopping the onions and stirring them into the batter; symbol and I both think it would be much improved by browning the onions first, since they don't really get a chance to brown while the pancakes are cooking.

These are really at their best right off the stovetop; the batter will keep in the fridge for at least a week, so if you don't want a full batch, prefer to refrigerate the batter and cook more as needed rather than cooking a batch of pancakes and reheating them.

Multi-lentil pancakes with onions and tomatoes

660 Curries

Ingredients

• ½ C long-grain white rice
• ¼ C chana dal (yellow split peas)
• ¼ C moong dal (skinned split green lentils)
• ¼ C toovar dal (skinned split yellow pigeon peas)
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 4-6 dried red chiles, stems removed
• 2-4 fresh green Thai chiles
• 1 C plain yoghurt
• 1 C finely chopped red onion
• 1 large tomato, cored and finely chopped
• ¼ freshly chopped fresh cilantro
• 25-30 curry leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground asafetida

Directions

1. Combine rice and all three dals in a medium-size bowl. Fill halfway with water, and rinse the legumes by rubbing them between your fingertips; the water will become cloudy. Drain the water and repeat until the water becomes relatively clear.
2. Drain, then fill the bowl halfway with warm water and add the coriander seeds and dried chiles. Cover and let it sit at room temperature until the legumes soften, 1-4 hours; then drain.
3. Combine the legumes, fresh chiles, and 1 C water in a blender jar. Blend until they form a slightly gritter batter.
4. Return the batter to the bowl; stir in the yoghurt, onion, tomato, cilantro, curry leaves, salt, and asafetida.
5. Heat a bit of oil in a medium-sized nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pour ½ C of the batter into it and spread it out with the back of the ladle to form a flat circle (it's too thick to flow out on its own). Cook until small bubbles start to form on top and it loses its sheen, ~5 minutes, then flip and cook the other side, 2-4 minutes. Eat immediately.