Victorian Fuluri

Victorian Fuluri is a traditional Anglo-Indian recipe from the 1860s for a classic deep fried snack of chickpea flour with chillies and herbs. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Anglo-Indian version of: Victorian Fuluri.

prep time

10 minutes

cook time

15 minutes

Total Time:

25 minutes

Makes:

10–12

Rating:

Tags : Herb Recipes Fusion Recipes British Recipes

This is a traditional Anglo-Indian recipe redacted from the volume THE INDIAN COOKERY BOOK: A Practical Handbook to The Kitchen in India (author unknown), published by: WYMAN & CO., HARE STREET CALCUTTA circa 1869. The recipe comes at the end of the section on PORTUGUESE CURRY (VINDALOO OR BINDALOO), so this is a Vindaloo curry paste or a curry paste from Goa.

Original Recipe

226.—Falooree.

Take of the finely-sifted flour of the chunna ka dal, which has been previously parched, one seer; six
large Patna onions finely sliced and chopped; eight fresh green chillies sliced very fine; a
tbspful each of finely-chopped soa mattee, saug, and parsley; a dessertspoonful of salt and a
tspful of finely-ground green ginger. Put the seer of dal-flour into a large deep pan, and mix
into it all the above condiments; then keep adding to it water, very gradually and in small quantities
at a time, mixing it briskly the whole while, until it is of a consistency that if poured on a plate from
a spoon it will incline to a pyramid, or if dropped into a glass of water will not readily dissolve, but
drop to the bottom en masse. In this state the mixture will be ready to fry.

Take half a seer of the best mustard oil; put it into a deep frying-pan with some fine slices of
lemon-peel, and fry it or cook it thoroughly; remove three-fourths of the cooked oil from the
frying-pan, and into the remainder, while boiling and bubbling, with a tbsp pour in the
preparation in the shape of rocks, and allow to brown, turning them over so that top and bottom may
be of the same colour. As the oil is being expended clear the pan of all particles which may
accumulate, pour in some more of the ready-cooked oil, and continue to fry until all the mixture is
fried. They should be eaten hot.

Modern Redaction

The original recipe here seems to be Bengali Fuluri, a snack with hot masala tea in the evening. Indeed, fuluri became pholourie, also known as phulourie or phoulourie is a snack food that, today is a snack food of Indo-Caribbean origin that is commonly eaten in Trinidad and Tobago as well as in Guyana, Suriname and other parts of the Caribbean.

It's made from flour, ground yellow split peas, water, and spices. This recipe would indicate that the linguistic link between fuluri and pholourie is Anglo-Indian Falooree.

I'm using fuluri as my guide in re-constructing this recipe, but I will also provide recipes for traditional Bengali Fuluri and Trini pholourie on this site so you can compare and contrast.

After a bit of research soa matte is probably the Bengali blend soa methi (a mix of dill and fenugreek), which makes sense as it's named amongst a mix of other greens.

Ingredients

95g (1 cup) besan (chickpea flour)
1/2 large onion, sliced finely
4 fresh green chillies, sliced into thin strips
1 tbsp finely-chopped blend of dill and fenugreek (soa methi)
1 tbsp finely-chopped spinach
1 tsp parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger paste
water, to blend
400ml mustard oil
6 strips of finely-pared lemon zest

Method:

In a bowl, mix together the chickpea flour, onions, chillies, herbs, salt and ginger paste. Stir well to combine then add enough water to give a thick batter (about 160ml [2/3 cup]) the consistency of double (heavy cream).

Heat the oil in a wok or deep pan, add the strips of lemon zest and fry for 5 minutes. Remove 3/4 of the oil and set aside.

Drop the batter into the oil by the heaped tbspful (you will probably need to cook in two batches). Fry for about 5 minutes then flip over and cook on the other side. Add 1/4 of the reserved oil and continue frying until the fuluri is cooked through and golden brown.

Find more Victorian Recipes Here and more Curry Recipes Here. For the original version of The Indian Cookery book see my The Indian Cookery Book main page.