Pidi - Rice Dumpling Soup from Kerala

On one of the many cold Melbourne evenings, all I wanted was a bowl of warm and comforting goodness, that would take the wanderer in me back home! Thus was born the idea to make pidi :)
This is a dish from the Malabar regions of Kerala that my mother makes when she feels really lazy to cook anything else. This is one complete dish in itself - rice dumplings cooked in curry. Usually it is chicken or mutton curry. Pidi or rice dumplings can also be made in itself without the curry by cooking it in coconut milk. What I have here is a cross between the two, in an effort to encourage vegetarian food habits - Pidi in tomato curry with coconut milk, a comforting dumpling soup.


Ingredients :


For the Pidi:
Roasted Rice Flour -1 cup

Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 2 cloves crushed and finely chopped

Cumin seeds -1 teaspoons

Shallots - 2 nos crushed and finely chopped
Salt - 1 teaspoon

Water - 2 cups

For the curry:

Thick coconut milk - 1 cup

Tomato - 3 nos , sliced

Onion - 3 nos, sliced

Green chillies - 2 nos

Frozen green peas - 1/2 cup thawed (optional)

Clarified/melted butter - 2 teaspoons

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Chilly powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon

Water - 3 cups

Salt - 2 teaspoons

Method:

To make the Pidi:

Boil water in a wide pan and add salt. Once water is boiling briskly, add chopped garlic and shallots.

Switch off the flame and immediately add roasted rice flour, coconut, cumin to it and knead well with a spoon. The Mixture would be hot so kneading should be done carefully. Knead to make a soft dough. Make small marble sized balls out of this mixture and keep aside.

Since the flour is mixed with boiling water, it would have got partially cooked. We can add these balls directly into the tomato curry and cook them together. Alternatively, you could also steam these in a steamer.

To make the curry

Heat clarified / melted butter in a pan on low flame and add curry leaves, green chillies and onions. Fry till the onions soften.

Add turmeric powder, chilly powder and coriander powder and saute for a few seconds until the spices heat up.

Add the sliced tomatoes, green peas and water. close and cook until the tomatoes soften.

Add the Pidi balls to this. You can flatten the balls to make small discs. This will help it cook better.

Cover the pan and cook for 20- 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, open the pan and pour in the coconut milk. Let it simmer in a low flame for another 5 minutes.

Pidi in tomato curry is ready . Serve into a bowl. Perfect for a cold and calm evening!