Khaman Dhokla

Today is Saturday and I wanted to make something special other than the regular rice and roti. So I tried to prepare Khaman Dhokla, a traditional Gujarati dish and it came out very well and tastes yummy too. It is very simple to prepare.

Ingredients:

Rice – 1 cup

Chana dal – ½ cup

Urid dal – ¼ cup

Salt to taste

Yoghurt- 1 cup

Turmeric – 1 pinch

Ginger – ½ inch piece

Green chillies – 4

Baking soda – ½ tea spoon

For seasoning:

Oil – 2 Tsp

Mustard seeds – ½ Tsp

Slit green chillies – 2

Curry leaves

Coriander leaves

Preaparation:

Wash the rice and the dals and soak them overnight. Grind the soaked grains with yoghurt to a smooth paste. Add water if required. The dough should be of pouring consistency. Now add salt and turmeric to this dough, keep it in a warm place and let it ferment for 8 hours. Grind the ginger and green chillies into a coarse paste and add it to the fermented mix. Now to steam the dhoklas, first take a wide pan and place a stand in it and add about 1 cup of water and bring it to boil. Now take a thali like flat dish and grease it with oil. Once the water starts boiling, add the baking soda to the dough and mix very well and pour the mix into the greased thali and place it over the stand and close the lid of the pan and let it steam for 15 min. Alternatively, you can also use a idly cooker or the traditional Dhokla maker.

Once it is cooked, take the dish out and let cool. Now heat oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, slit green chillies, curry leaves and  fry them till the mustard seeds crackle. Now add the seasoning on the dhokla and spread it evenly so that the entire surface is coated. Now cut the dhoklas into diamond shape or square shape and garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves. Serve with any chutney of your choice. Today we had it with coconut chutney.