Today I present to you another authentic trini recipe, Pholourie (pronounced po-lor-ree…the “ph” is pronounced as is and not as “f ” in Standard English). The origin of it is somewhat obscure, like doubles, since no one person can say they were the first to make it, although everyone would have their own story as to how it came about.
Pholourie is basically a batter, fried in oil by the spoonfuls and served with a sauce or chutney of some kind. Usually the popular sauces are tambran (tamarind) sauce, mango chutney or any other chutney for that fact. I personally salivate when I see pholourie served with chadon beni chutney, there's absolutely nothing like it in this world. See what I mean,…I'm actually salivating as I write about chadon beni chutney.
Now, as with all recipes, everyone has their own spin to this recipe, some people like to make pholourie with a little split peas powder added to it, others don't (like myself). When we make pholourie we don't use split peas powder but that's just our own tradition at home. So if you feel like experimenting you could try it with a little split peas powder. In fact you don't even have to make the batter from scratch anymore, because there is instant pholourie mix being sold.
Pholourie is sold everywhere (at palours, the market, and busy street corners); it is popular at football matches, family day celebration, harvests, and even parties and fetes. Wherever there are people enjoying themselves, look out for Pholourie. It is perhaps more popular than doubles because of its versatility. This finger food is delicious and loved by all.
(from top left) chadon beni chutney, tambran sauce, and mango chutney.
Pholourie goes with just about any sauce. I like it with chadon beni chutney, as I said before , and when I organized the sauces and the pholourie for this picture, I felt as if I had forgotten to invite all my sisters and their husbands to a little lime.
However, I don't recommend you eat this snack everyday, it is a little too oily. Lately, I've found that you can oven heat the pholourie to remove some of the oil from frying. It comes out crispier and drier. You can also heat it like this if you freeze them for later use.
So, I hope you enjoy making this recipe. The method I show here is very easy to make and easy to clean up when done.
Pholourie
Ingredients:
1 lb. all purpose flour ( 3 1/3 cups )
10 leaves culantro (chadon beni)
5 small cloves garlic
1 small hot pepper
1/2 teaspoon saffron ( turmeric powder)
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Oil for frying
Directions:
Mix the flour, yeast and baking powder. Add the saffron and salt. Mix well.
In a separate bowl mix minced culantro leaves, minced hot peppers, garlic and water. Add about three tablespoons of it to the flour a little at a time while mixing. Until all of the mixture is incorporated. Mix to a smooth thick paste and leave to raise for about an hour
Use a tablespoon to drop batter into oil for frying. The spoon should be dipped into a cup of water before it is dipped in the batter. This allows the batter to drop freely from the spoon. Heat oil in a heavy skillet and drop batter of tablespoonful into the hot oil. Cook until slightly brown.
Drain and place on paper towels.
Pholourie, ready to be served and enjoyed!
That's it for this post. See you for another exciting post tomorrow. Bye!
Pholourie
Ingredients
- 1 lb. flour
- 10 leaves culantro
- 5 small cloves garlic
- 1 small hot pepper
- 1/2 tsp. saffron
- 1 tsp. yeast
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- Oil for frying
Instructions
- Mix the flour, yeast and baking powder. Add the saffron and salt. Mix well.
- In a separate bowl mix minced culantro leaves, minced hot peppers, garlic and water. Add about three tablespoons of it to the flour a little at a time while mixing.
- Mix to a smooth thick paste and leave to raise for about an hour. The spoon should be dipped into a cup of water before it is dipped in the batter.
- Heat oil in a heavy skillet and drop batter of tablespoonful into the hot oil. Cook until slightly brown. Drain and place on paper towels.
great! can’t wait to use the recipe. Did not know you don’t have to use split peas….
I find that the pholourie comes out lighter but that’s just my opinion.:^)
Jean, I feel happy to represent Trinidad and Tobago in this way. But I’m not alone my good friend Chennette does an exceptional job herself. Thank you for such an uplifting comment. Do pass by again }|{
I love your blog!!! I am so proud of you. I get so excited when I read your posts. All my favourite foods. Keep dem comin…
Hello,
Do you ever use split pea flour to make this?
Personally I don’t use the split peas flour to make pholourie but some people use it when they’re making pholourie. It’s just my personal preference I guess. Thank you for your comment :^)
true pholourie has split peas powder in. your version is what they call “flour pholourie” the modern way to save especially when made for sale! it taste good none the less however i real recipe should have the split peas.
Seems like everyone is waiting for that recipe (smile)I’ll have to do it soon.
I’m a Trini living in Botswana and am starved for Trini street food! I have had no choice but to learn to make these things on my own. I have to say that I also prefer pholourie made without split pea flour. I find that when you add this flour it gives it a heavy texture.
I tried ur recipe and I really enjoyed it. I had it with tamarind sauce since we don’t have green mangoes this side. It’s been a while since I had pholourie and it just reminded me of my school days! Now all I want is a good doubles recipe!!
Annehara thank you for commenting. I’m glad that you enjoyed the pholourie. The doubles recipe is in the works so you don’t have to wait too long. Have a nice day.
I am sorry, you cannot substitute self-rising flour in this recipe. The self-rising flour has more salt and baking powder than is called for in the recipe.
1 cup of self-rising flour has 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. salt.
How should I modify the recipe if I have self-rising flour?
can you do without the culantro in this recipe
The chadon beni gives it a different taste. But if you can’t get it you can use cilantro.
I love this recipe, put in more new ones for this babylon year 2011!
It is very easy and simple! Bring more recipes for this babylon year 2011!
Excellent recipe! I tried it and my family loved it! Seeing that we live in the U.S its difficult to find these delicacies…but NOW I can make them on my own and feel like I’m back home thanks to you. 🙂 5 stars from me.
I really enjoy your recipes. I just made 2 batches of Pholourie today because I made the mistake of using a split pea recipe and I sure didn’t like it. This recipe was amazing; the Pholourie came out just how I like it. Thanks again.
You’re welcome Rissy. Might I ask where you got the other recipe from? Just curious 🙂
Hi Felix
I tried the split pea one from Sarina’s website.
But I like the flour one better too and I have used yours before and it does taste like home 🙂
Thanks for all your hard work and time to share these with us
Thank you my Trini sista for trying out the recipe 🙂
1lb of flour to 1 cup of water, am I reading this right? Its not working for me, its not coming out as a smooth paste, more like a tough dough. Help! I’m making this for company!
This recipe has been done by many readers without any problems. Double check your measurements and follow the instructions and you’ll be on the right track. If you still have any questions you can contact me. 🙂
I truly think you should be honored for your works. The recipes are accurate and result in the most flavorful and delicious. Thank you for taking your time to making Trini cooking easy and worthwhile.
Thank you Meli 🙂
Thanks for taking the time and effort to post these delicious trini recipes, they help pass on traditional recipes to us Trinis living abroad and to our children
My daughter wanted pholourie for her birthday and I used your recipe and it turned out perfect.
She had to help cook it but 🙂 it was fun.
Thanks for your recipes!
Hi!! Could the water be adjusted to help it reach the “smooth thick paste” consistency? I think I need more than one cup to the 1 lb of flour…….
Those measurements should not be tampered with. If you add more water the batter will fall apart. What you need to work on is your technique….You have add the water gradually and mix. only then you will get the the “smooth thick paste” consistency.
Gracias, maybe that’s where I went wrong the gradual mixing, so I just add three tbsp until it’s all incorpotated then? I need the extra help and I am hopeless in the kitchen 🙁 Thank you so much! I really want to make this for a get together cause no one here has ever had that, I found tamarind so I made the sauce already 🙂
Hi Kaitav I see you’re very excited to make the pholourie but when trying to make a dish that has some level of difficulty you have to take your time 🙂 OK let’s see what I mean by that…. You’re not just adding 3 tbsp of the “seasoned water” mixture. You are going to add the mixture gradually, 3 tbsp at a time, until all the mixture is incorporated into the batter. I guess this was the confusing part for you. Anyhow, I cleared it up a bit for future readers. Thanks… and save 2 pholourie with tambran sauce for me lol 🙂
Hey there, I want to try this. 1 lb of flour equates to four cups and I think that is too much to experiment with (plus it’s just me and the huzzie). So can I half the measurements then, so half pound, which will be 2 cups and half cup water? I don’t want to experiment till I get ur expert advice, oh and I will have to adjust the yeast too…..duhhh
Ok Lyanna before I get to halving the recipe your measurements have to be adjusted. 1 lb of flour = 453.6g = 2 cups …. Now that you have the right measurement would you still want to half the recipe? write me back and I’ll try to help. Thanks for commenting 🙂
I looked all over the internet for a converison and all the sites I saw for flour it’s four cups, with rice it’s two for eg: http://www.barryfarm.com/How_tos/how_many_cups_in_a_pound_of.htm
I also checked it on the conversion table infront of the Naps cook book.
In any case – I TRIED it, with four cups of flour which is what I saw as the conversion, I didn’t measure the water but I did use ur measurement for everything else.i.e the yeast, baking powder etc and it came out as I wanted it to, they were super light and uber crispy on the outside.
Now my confusion is, if u measurements are for two cups and I indeed used four, how come they came out so good?
My conversion was based on an online converter http://southernfood.about.com/library/info/blconv.htm guess I can’t trust those converters lol. Did a bit of checking using one of my more accurate nutrition software and it’s closer to 4: 3.63 actually. So 4 cups is the closer measurement. That’s why it came out so good. I’m gonna add that little info to the recipe. Thanks 🙂
Yay!! That’s why I guess some other users were having trouble with the water ratio and reaching the consistency, I guess it would be two cups then…. I just incorporated till I was satisfied with the batter. Now I feel like a pro pholourie maker, we ate to out hearts delight !! My huzzie kept referring to them as fritters, had to correct him ever so often “iz pholourie boi”
Here is another link to the conversion of flour:
http://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/cooking-questions/cups-in-pound-of-flour-00420000012884/
boy, yuh have ny mouth watering jus watching dem pholourie. By d way, if is one ting you cud spell.
Thank you for your comment Shaarmila 🙂
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Omg thank u so much for this recipe …I search high and low before I found this, I followed the recipe as written and it came out great, just like the ones I grew up with in South Trinidad….Brought back childhood memories of buying this @ my school .25cents for 2:).
Hi I tried the recipe last night. I had some split peas powder so I mixed with the flour too. It tasted great but I found that they came out…well flat- as in not round and spherical like pholourie should lol My son’s babysitter told me she thought it was little bakes – not good impression to have lol What may have been the problem? I was wondering if it was the pot cause my only iron pot is kinda large and so the oil level was low. Should the oil be high – what height so? Help!! lol 🙂
You guessed right Ayana. You need about 1 1/2″ to 2″ of oil so that it floats.
Thanks so much!!! I figured so…well i will try again soon, and i will do it fully your way- no split peas powder. I made mango chutney sauce the last time and it came out almost like the best sauce a lady used to make in my old primary school. Just to perfect the pholourie and I will be good! Thanks again – I love your site. PS You need to get your own TV show – I will definitely watch!
Hi Felix, OK so I’ve been craving some and just made it. However, my dough wasn’t as wet looking as yours before letting it “rest.” My pholourie came out out thick and not light and fluffy. I followed everything exact, what did I do wrong? Not enough water? I’ve grown so used to having my mom and aunts make this now I’m having to learn this stuff on my own. Oh boy!
Ok this is a consistent problem with some first timers. So I have to ask, how did you mix the flour and the chadon beni mixture?
Hello I want to thank you for this recipe. I made the pholouri and it turned out marvelous. Again, thank you :-)!!
P.s -> I’m so Trini Now Lol..lol
Thank you very much for this recipe .
Hi. I’m very anxious to try this recipe. But before I do, I guess I have a few questions, orsuggestions. You mentioned to use yeast in the recipe. Can you specify the type of yeast to use? Am I using the yeast where I just mix in with the flour, or am I using the one where I have to mix with water? Also I read a previous comment about cutting down on the recipe. I would like that cause I want to try it first before I make a big batch.
Thanks!
I usually use ferminpan instant yeast, so no need to mix in water.
Hi Felix 🙂
I tried this recipe for the first time yesterday and they came out great.
I had to add a little more water to the mix though for the paste effect.
I also made the tamarind chutney to go with it.
Both 5 stars!
Thanks so much for all your recipes
You’re welcome Tamica “beef soup girl” :).
I’m on my 4th batch in two days. My family is hooked. My son says its better than what they sell in the savannah!
Honestly though, 4 cups of flour to one cup of water just doesn’t work. Not even when I’m making fried bakes would that make a soft dough. If your original recipe was based on 2 cups of flour then the 1 cup of liquid would make more sense. I used about 2 cups and I had light, fluffy pholourie. Love that you season the batter. It makes all the difference. I also add 1tsp of curry powder for more flavor. I also add some moringa leaves since hey … why not. Thanks again for your great recipe!
I would check it out LaLaDonna..but I’m glad you adjusted it yourself and it worked. Thanks for commenting 🙂
Just an update: I did some research and found that 1lb all purpose flour = 3 1/3 cups. Finally I can put this debate to rest.
Hi, I tried your recipe, however when I was frying, just before i took them out they all started to burst and pitch hot oil, what have I done wrong… I am a lover of pholourie…. so please help
Maybe the oil was too hot or the dough too soft. My best guess.