East Africa and the Islands · Volume 18, The Indian Ocean Islands
Gateau piment
Mauritius
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 5 hours 30
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
The core of the Mauritian gadjak culture, sold with bread as pain gato pima. No flour, no egg: the binder is the starch and protein released by grinding a drained pulse, which is why every instruction below is really an instruction about moisture.
As tradition built it
Makes about 30. Soak 3 to 5 hours, then 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 500 g dholl gram or yellow split peas
- 1 onion, chopped fine
- 3 spring onions
- a small bunch fresh coriander and mint, chopped
- 2 chillies, fresh or dried
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp aniseed or cumin
- to taste salt
- to taste oil for deep frying
Method
- Soak the peas a minimum of 3 hours in hot water, or overnight at room temperature. A second source gives 5 hours minimum.
- Drain in a colander until genuinely dry.
- Pass through a mill and grind very fine.
- Mix by hand with the onion, spring onions, fresh coriander and mint, chillies, garlic, aniseed or cumin and salt, and crush the mixture with your hands rather than blending it smooth.
- Fry in the oil at a minimum of 180°C for 3 to 4 minutes, until golden.
Notes
From Le Mauricien and a Réunionnais and Mauritian recipe source.
What a modern chef changes
The drain measured, the grinder kept cold, and the fry held at temperature
Rung 6
Method
- Weigh the drained pulse and keep going until it stops losing weight. Rung 6 made quantitative. Spread the soaked peas on a tea towel, roll, leave 20 minutes, weigh, repeat. When two consecutive weighings match, the pulse is as dry as draining will make it, and only then should it meet the mill.
- Use a mortar or a wet grinder, not a blade grinder. A blade heats the dal and turns it to paste, which is the exact failure this rung warns about, and heat also starts gelatinising the starch you are relying on as the binder.
- Hold the oil at 180°C with a probe and fry in small batches. A domestic pan drops 20 to 30°C the moment a batch goes in, which is why home gateaux piments are usually greasy: the number was right for about four seconds.
- Rest the mixture no more than 30 minutes before frying. Salt draws water out of the onion, and water is the enemy twice over. Mix, shape, fry.