Sambar Coconut Crêpes with Fixings

First things first - even if you think you are familiar with Indian cuisine and more or less understand the flavors, I can assure you that you are not there yet! As someone who spent 26 formative years in the sub-continent and have been exposed to a fair bit of several regional cooking, I know that I can barely scratch the surface of the rich and complex food the country offers. It’s quite encouraging to see, several up-and-coming Indian origin chefs and social media influencers are now focusing a lot more on branching out beyond Butter Chicken, Garlic Naan, Dal Makhni and Gulab Jamun. Now, I finally feel quite optimistic that we are at the cusp of the beginning of a new and exciting phase for Indian Food representation, yay!

So here I am, sharing a bit of nostalgia and food from my home state - Orissa (Odisha now!) where one of the most popular dishes is called Pitha - a family of breads, dumplings and pancakes mostly made of rice flour and usually steamed or fried. This particular dish is inspired by a specific variety called “Chitau Pitha” (quite similar to the “Neer Dosa” from Mangalore) - which traditionally has ground soaked rice, freshly grated coconut and a bit of ghee in the batter and served during breakfast either with a cauliflower potato stir fry or a sweet coconut relish. While growing up, I would ONLY eat these as roll-ups smothered with the fiery Gunpowder Spice blend supplied by our neighbor Auntie and stuffed with Green Beans…well I was an infamously picky eater with weird food habits! Thankfully most of them are corrected now. To celebrate that memory, I made these tender and fragrant savory crêpes filled with fresh herbs, jammy tomatoes, fried beans and pickled elements. I would highly encourage to scout for two specialty ingredients used here - Sambar Powder and Gunpowder/Milaga Podi in your local Indian Grocery Store, if unavailable then you can totally look on Amazon or make your own (tap the links shared in the recipe). These crêpes are quite versatile actually, feel free to use your favorite sauces, fried stuff… think taco fixings?! I hope you all like it as much as I do.

Ingredients (makes 8-10)
Batter
150g Rice Flour
20g Gluten Free Plain Flour (substitute with plain flour)
1 tsp Ground Turmeric
1 tbsp Sambar Powder (to make your own just Google and pick any of the top results)
1 tsp Fine Sea Salt
1 Can or 400g Coconut Cream (NOT same as Coconut Milk)
120g Water
1 large Egg OR 50g Aquafaba (reserved liquid from canned garbanzo or cannellini beans)

Green Beans
2 tsp Neutral Oil
1 Large Shallot, thinly sliced
2” Ginger, peeled and grated
2 tsp Mustard Seeds
10g Chives, finely chopped
300g Green Beans, de-stringed and sliced into thin 2.5-3” long pieces
1/4-1/2 tsp Salt (adjust to your taste)
1-1.5 tbsp Water

Jammy Tomatoes
250g Cherry Tomatoes, whole
1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Sugar
1.5-2 tbsp Gunpowder Spice Blend (substitute with any savory Dukkah or your favorite spice blend)

Pickled Stuff
6 Breakfast Radish, thinly sliced into discs
1 small Shallot, thinly sliced
1/2 Red Fresno Chile, thinly sliced into rounds
2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 tsp Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt

9-10g Fresh Cilantro, roughly chopped
8-9g Fresh Sweet Basil Leaves, roughly chopped

Directions
💥 Combine all pickled stuff ingredients in a small bowl and keep it aside for 20 mins or so. Now heat up a small 8-9” nonstick skillet, once very hot transfer tomatoes and begin charring them. Keep the pan moving to ensure they don’t stick. Once they start softening and blistering, add pepper and let everything char/cook for 1 minute. Turn off heat and transfer everything into a bowl, immediately add paprika, salt, sugar and gunpowder (spices must be added when hot). Give it a good mix and keep it aside

💥 Put all crêpe batter ingredients in a blender, pulse until smooth and loose consistency is achieved. Adjust water quantity to get to a thinnish crêpe like batter consistency. Let it rest for 25-30 mins. Meanwhile, heat up oil in the same skillet - add ginger, shallot and mustard seeds. Fry on medium flame for 2 mins, add green beans and continue frying for 4 mins. Add chives, salt and water, mix and cover. Let it cook on low flame for 3 more mins. Turn off heat and transfer and keep those beans aside (they should be cooked with a bite)

💥 Pre-heat oven to 200F. Wipe the skillet clean and put it back on heat (no oil needed, the fat in coconut cream is enough). Give a little whisk to the batter so that it de-settles and becomes homogenous again. On low-medium flame, ladle about 1/4 cup batter and swirl to cover the base (the edges will be thinner than center). Cook for 2-3 mins or until it’s set. Then flip and cook for another minute and gently slide onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat this process to make about 8-10 crêpes and keep them warm in the oven until ready to serve

💥 Pick up a warm crêpe and stuff with some jammy tomatoes & fried green beans (refer to the image gallery). Top with pickled stuff and fresh herbs, roll up and enjoy!