Last summer our family traveled to London and enjoyed lots of amazing and varied Indian cuisine including Bombay cafe fare at Dishoom, colonial-era dishes at the institution of Chutney Mary, and modern food with traditional flavors at a fabulous local chain called Masala Zone that was a midday oasis for our weary feet. One of my favorite finds at this last place – and the inspiration for today’s blog – was a fairly simple appetizer called masala pappadum. Pappadum is a super thin, crispy lentil wafer, usually fried, that is often served before or with a meal, like the bread basket or a basket of tortilla chips. In this case, each was topped with just a sprinkling of tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and coconut that gave every bite a wonderful zing to complement the crunch of the pappadum. This recipe is my attempt to recreate these flavors and textures. With summer around the corner, this is a fun alternative to the regular fresh salsa or bruschetta you might make with the season’s tomato crop.
Ingredient Notes: Tamarind concentrate is pretty easy to find these days and it’s worth having a small jar around (it seems to last for a very long time) as I don’t know of another ingredient that offers the same unique tang. However, if you don’t have tamarind paste, Nigella Lawson offers substitute of lime juice with brown sugar. If you use pappadum, the small “madras wafers” or “appalas” available at Indian stores are great here. You can avoid deep frying them by coating a few with cooking spray or brushing with a thin layer of canola oil, and then microwaving them in a single layer for about one minute. Otherwise, you can easily substitute corn tortilla chips – thin, restaurant style tortilla chips would be best. Finally, for the coconut you can use fresh grated coconut, dried coconut or some Asian grocery stores have frozen flake coconut which closely resembles fresh.
Ingredients:
- 1 ripe tomato, seeded and diced fine
- ⅓ cup red onion, diced fine
- Serrano, Thai chili, or small jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped fine
- ⅓ cup unsweetened coconut, grated or flakes
- 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 8 pappadum or approx 2 dozen tortilla chips
Directions:
- Combine chopped tomato, onion, cilantro, and peppers in a bowl.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, tamarind paste, honey, and salt.
- Pour lime and tamarind mixture over the chopped tomato, onion, cilantro, coconut, and peppers.
- Sprinkle onto crispy pappadum or tortilla chips and serve immediately. Serves 4.