Vadouvan Balls
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2.5 hours
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon fenugreek
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cloves, ground
- Oil for frying
- 900g/2lbs eschallots, finely chopped
- 12 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 inch piece ginger, grated
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped curry leaves
Step 1 - Heat a frypan onto medium high heat and toast all of the dry spices first until fragrant. Remove from the pan and set aside. Then add some oil and add the eschallots, garlic, ginger and curry leaves and saute on low heat for 30 minutes. Add back the spices into the mix and saute for 10 minutes.
Step 2 - Preheat oven to 135C/275F. Line a baking tray with parchment and spread out the onion spice mixture thinly. Roast on this low heat for 2 hours. Then cool and shape into balls. These balls freeze well if you do not use them straight away.