Khaman Dhokla ~ Indian Cooking Challenge July 2009

First, let me brief about the Indian Cooking Challenge, a monthly event initiated by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons. As she rightly points out, many of us do not venture out cooking authentic & traditional recipes. Though, it can conveniently be attributed to lack of time in the fast pace of modern life, only a part of it is true. Now a days, we get a lot of good quality, authentic dishes from various shops at quite affordable (though that's a relative term, the flourishing catering business evinces it ) prices and so we do not want to put in that extra effort. Well, even this is only partly true. One more factor is, we might not want to cook out of our comfort zone (the roti-rice routine with occasional easy to make sweets) and daringly try out the traditional family recipes particularly so when it involves lot of time, effort or utmost perfection. For eg., you can make mysore pak or rasgullas in less than an hour but you should know the tips & tricks of the trade. Calling myself a foodie & a passionate cook, it is not fair to keep away from authentic recipes by quoting the above factors. By naming it a challenge, Srivalli kindles my interest further more. So, I am game for it!

This is how it works. Srivalli had already conducted a poll and finalised a list of recipes. She will announce a dish for the month and post a tried & tested recipe. We will have to try it out and post it end of the month. It can't get easier for me! Thanks to her for all the effort she puts in. For more info, visit her announcement. I have posted the logo on my blog's side bar.

The challenge for July is Khaman Dhokla. This is a food from Gujarat and made of fermented chickpeas batter. Chickpeas is soaked overnight and ground to a batter. But we can alternatively use besan and make perfect dhoklas. The batter is spiced up with chillies, sugar, steamed and seasoned. I have tried eating dhoklas in Saravana Bhavan's Gujarathi restaurant and few other eat-outs. I wouldn't term it as my fav food but still I love to have it occasionally. I am posting the recipe here as exactly given by her.

Updates: The changes I did are, I added a little salt to the batter, I used a non-stick tawa to steam the batter (removed the handle and placed it in the cooker just as a plate) since I didn't have a thali plate and reduced the sesame seeds. I overturned the dhokla plates before seasoning. No big alterations and it turned out great. All praises to Srivalli!

Makes 20 medium sized pieces
Ingredients:
For Batter:

Bengal Gram flour / Besan - 250 gms (1 & 1/2 cup)
Curd - 1/2 cup (not very sour)
Water - 1/2 cup
Cooking Soda - 1/2 tsp

For seasoning to be mixed to the batter (to be added just before cooking)
Oil - 1 tbsp
Turmeric a pinch
G. Chili paste - 1 - 2 long (as per taste)
Sugar - 1 tsp
Citric acid - quarter tsp
Eno - 1 packet (green colour fruit lime) + sprinkle or dust few bits on the plate

For tempering

Sesame seeds
Mustard Seeds
Curry leaves
Grated coconut
Coriander leaves
Little water + Oil to be topped on dhoklas

Method to prepare:
Mix first 1/2 cup curds with 1/2 water. To this add the besan and mix well to get a lump less batter, the consistency should be of idli batter, more of dropping not pouring consistency. Slowly add more water if needed else, add the soda. Keep it aside to rise for 1 hour.

If you are using a pressure cooker, fill the pan with water, place a plate over which you will have use a plate for steaming the dhoklas. Thali plate can be used for steaming
To the batter mix in the citric acid, oil, salt, sugar, green chili paste and turmeric powder. Mix well. This has to be done just before pouring to the plate.



Meanwhile have the pan on stove, and let the water start boiling. When the water reaches the rolling stage, you can mix the eno to the batter (Save little of eno for dusting on the plate), mix gently, you will see bubbles coming out.


Dust or sprinkle the plate with eno. Then immediately pour the batter to the plate. Place the plate carefully inside the pressure pan and cover with lid. You need not use the whistle. After covering you will find steam coming out of the outlet, simmer and don't disturb for almost 5 -7 minutes.

After 5 -7 minutes, remove the lid and proof it using toothpick or knife. If the knife comes out clean and does not have any batter sticking, then its done. Cover back and let it remain on flame for 1 min and switch off the gas and allow it for 5 minutes.
In a bowl, mix 3 tsp of water along with a tsp of oil

Remove the plate from the pan, pour the water and oil mix over the top.

For seasoning, heat a pan with oil, add curry leaves, sesame seeds, mustard seeds and finely chopped green chilies. When mustard starts popping, remove and pour over the dhokla


Points to Ponder:

The batter should be filled to only 1/2 as it will rise up. After adding eno the batter should not rest. Amount of sugar can be increased on preference.

If you want perfect shaped ones and not the crumbling, cut and handle gently

Dhokla can also be steamed in kadai filled with water and a plated titled over it.

Green chutney
Ingredients:

Green chili - 4-5 no
coconut - 4- 5 pieces
coriander - bunch
few mint leaves
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Lime -1 big
Salt to taste

Take all the ingredients except coriander in a food processor. Grind to a smooth paste.

Then add the coriander and again grind. Remove to a bowl, add the remaining lime and serve with Dhoklas.

Srivalli's replies to doubts posted by readers:

Lemon can be used instead of citric acid. Citric acid is basically used for giving the sourness. I confirmed with Aunty that we can replace this by adding lemon juice or sour curds.

Eno is normally not replaced with anything else. This is added to give the spongy texture. She said we can try using baking soda, but is not sure of the measurement.
She normally uses the Eno sachet which is app 5 gms,

Rolling stage is when the water starts boiling and reaches peek.

Water and oil (at room tempt) is just mixed together and added to the cooked dhoklas immediately after removing from pan, Since the dhoklas will be hot and this mixture will make it more soft and spongy. This is just to prevent the surface from getting dry. So the oil need not be hot.

Another way is to temper the mustard, curry leaves, remove the pan from heat, add water to that and pour over the dhoklas..either way is fine.
Chutney is not mandatory...I asked aunty her version so that we make both the dishes traditionally

Any small plate also can be used, but to be filled to only half..

You can use idly cooker too.. the vessel used for cooking is left to the member's choice, only thing is you should steam the dhoklas...Nowadays we get steamers for dholkas too.

Verdict: Perfect dhoklas & Roshan loved it. I survived the challenge! Looking forward to the next month's challenge.

Kreative Blogger Award

This award is passed to me by Sangi of Simply...Delicious... . Thanks Sangi for your encouragement. She regularly visits my blog and leaves her awfully sweet comments.

The Kreative Blogger Award comes with some rules :-

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

7 things about myself:

1. I am so much addicted to filter coffee that I open my eyes properly only after a dose of it, every morning.

2. I love the taste of raw onions, tomato and cilantro mixed together which makes masala pappad & masala kadalai (boiled peanuts chaat & not the fried ones) my favourite food. I generally love chaats for the same reason. Gangotri in Chennai & a chaat shop at Spencers are my fav spots.

3. I am a staunch vegetarian and don't eat even eggs. However I eat cakes since I developed a taste for it even before I knew it had eggs. But dislike it in all other forms. I love all vegetables including bitter guord and greens. I can survive on just boiled veggies. But, I do make a proper meal everyday.

4. I love to read books ( a lot of magazines & fiction), listen to good songs particularly maestro Ilayaraja's songs, mind games and solving puzzles. I love to read culinary books & blogs and one good thing is once I read a recipe, I quickly put it into my mind and don't have to see it again.(well, most times).

5. My favourite place is my hometown - Chennai. I love everything about the city and miss it. My favourite road is Sardar Patel road that runs from Raj Bhavan to Adyar. That is where my college is located.

6. Few of my favourite smells -fresh jasmine, freshly brewed filter coffee or ground coffee powder, muddy smell of rains, tempering of upma, cilantro...

7. I love to travel and see a lot of places. My long term goal is to visit as many countries as possible.

Lubna of Kitchen flavours had featured my blog on her Rendezvous with Kitchen Flavours couple of months back. Thought it is relevant to the current topic. Read it here.

I am passing this award to Ramya Vijaykumar, Divya Vikram, Chitra, Nithya, Lubna, Aquadaze & Brinda.

Click : Bi-Colour

Sending this entry to Click : July 2009 (Bi-Colour).

Paal Payasam

Payasam/kheer is a traditional Indian sweet. Particularly, in South India, no feast is complete without a bowl of payasam. Be it Onam sadya or Krishna Jayanthi, you can spot this lovely dessert/sweet on the banana leaf. (Yes, that's how food is served in South India for special occasions) There are actually numerous payasam varieties. At a basic level, it can be a combination of milk/rice, rice/jaggery/coconut milk or even dhall/jaggery. The creativity of Indians, specially in culinary area is unlimited and there are further varieties like semia (vermicilli) payasam, Ada(rice flakes) pradhaman, javarisi(sagoo) payasam.. phew! it deserves a separate blog. Good that I finally got into posting a payasam recipe.

Talk of the day is Paal(milk) Payasam which is the queen of payasam(s). Most variety has milk in it but the one cooked with rice and milk is particularly called so. The beauty of this item is its glossy pink shade & condensed milk which is obtained by slow cooking of milk. My mother has told me that in the olden days, they used to boil milk in a thick bottomed vessel for hours together along with a lot of stirring to avoid the milk sticking to the bottom and char. Only then, they could get the authentic pink colored payasam. But a few years back, I have heard this recipe from someone and found it simple and doable. Honestly, I didn't venture out doing this so far and only today I got into action. I am elated with the results and so badly wanted to post it immediately. The idea is to pressure cook the milk along with rice and sugar over slow fire for about 30 min. You don't have to keep stirring or stand near the stove watchfully. Just put it on the stove and relax. Come back and have the wonderful delicacy. This method will be particularly helpful when you got to make a dessert for a number of guests effortlessly. You can concentrate and finish off the other items while this gets ready.

Ingredients:

Milk - 3 to 4 cups (I used 2% milk.)

Rice (Raw rice or basmathi rice) - 1 tablespoon ( I have heard of Kerala's payasa arisi. I didn't get a chance to use it so far. You might try it as well for the authentic Kerala Paal Payasam)

Sugar - 1.5 tablespoon (twice that of rice; but I added sweetened condensed milk and lessened the sugar)

1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk (optional)

1 clean stainless steel spoon (yeah)

To garnish (optional) - Cashewnuts, raisins fried in ghee; 3 strands saffron, 1/4 tsp cardomom powder
(Actually the payasam doesn't require any garnishing)

Method:

1. Add the rice to a pressure cooker. The capacity of the cooker should be atleast twice than that of the milk you use. Add milk and put on the lid. Don't forget to put in the teaspoon.(It prevents milk from leaking out)
2. Cook for 10 min in medium flame and add sugar & condensed milk. Put on the whistle.
3. Cook on low flame with the whistle on for 30 min. (I have hot plate at home and kept the heat on 2)
4. Switch off and leave it for 10 min.


Now your pink coloured payasam is ready to garnish and serve. (Ofkors remove the spoon :))

This worked perfectly for me. If you find your payasam still white in color, you can close it again and cook for some more time. (10 to 15 min)

You can even serve this chilled. However, I like my payasam hot-hot.

Update: sterilise the cooker(all parts including weight) by cleaning with hot water to avoid the milk from breaking.
You might have used the cooker to make other dishes and that might cause the milk to break.

Channa Pulav

This is a protein packed pulav cooked with spices and greens. I had a sudden craving for channa and wanted to make something different from usual. Till i got down to make this, I had no definite recipe in mind. :) Lemme brief how I decided on the recipe.

Just raided my fridge and found mint,cilantro and tomatoes. So decided to use them in my recipe. Jeera and ghee are must-adds for any pulav. I just love the aroma while seasoning jeera in ghee and frying lengthwise chopped onions along with green chillies. I didn't want the chopped tomatoes in my pulav and so decided to grind them. When I pressure cooked the channa, I got reminded of the fresh potatoes which I bought the day before and decided to add them too. Sometimes, I add boiled potatoes in my chole masala and I love the combination. Actually I don't like to have a lot of mint in my food since it has a pungent smell. So I just added 5 to 10 leaves.
Coming to spices, I always prefer red chillies to green chillies and not particularly like the flavour of cinnamon. So just added cloves. When I opened my fridge to take out the curd, chole masala got my attention. An idea struck and I decided to add it too. Thus, originated the recipe.

Now, for the verdict. The pulav tasted sooooo tasty. I should mention something here. Normally, when I cook with no definite recipe in mind and just keep adding on the ingredients, the outcome is better than religiously following an authentic recipe. Hope, you don't conclude that I have a poor grasping power! Instead, I would be more than glad if you acknowledge my creative power :D Well, I am trying to be defensive here.

Ingredients:

Basmathi Rice - 1 cup
Boiled Channa - 1/2 to 1 cup (Soak Kabuli Channa overnight and pressure cook with water and turmeric)
1 boiled potato (Peel the skin and cut into small cubes)
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Onion - 1 medium chopped lengthwise
Jeera - 2 tsp
Slit green chilli - 1
Chole Masala - 1.5 tsp
Ghee - 3 tsp
Oil - 3 tsp
Salt to taste
To grind into a smooth paste
Tomato - 1
Mint leaves - 5 to 10
Cilantro - a handful or more if you like
Red Chillies - 2
Cloves - 2
Garlic - 2 pods

Method:

1. Soak the rice with 1.5times water for 10 min. Heat 1 tsp ghee in a pan, fry the rice without breaking it and cook with the soaked water under a lid. Add salt when half cooked and cook till done.
2. When the rice gets cooked, get ready with the ground paste, chopped onions, cut potatos and channa.
3. Spread the cooked rice in a plate.
4. Heat the remaining ghee and oil in a pan, season with jeera. Fry the onions and green chillies.
5. Add the ground paste and cook well.
6. Add potatos, channa and a little water. Add salt (salt is already added to rice) and chole masala.
7. Let the water and masala get absorbed by the channa. Switch off and cool a bit.
8. Mix the rice and reheat once.
9. Garnish with tomato ring and chopped coriander.

Serve hot with curd/raitha.

Vendaikka (Okra) Sambar ~ Simple Dal Sambar

Sambar is an integral part of South Indian cuisine. What dal fry is to rotis, sambar is to rice. This is the south Indian way of consuming proteins in the form of dal. A south Indian meal is never complete without sambar.

Though, I made it sound like a generic dish so far, every state (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala & Tamil Nadu) has its own version of sambar. Well, there are umpteen variations even within regions and it also varies with each house hold. You can make a simple sambar with a ready made sambar powder or arachuvitta sambar (sambar with fresh ground spices).

Again, what goes into the sambar powder varies with each household; some add pepper, some add spices like cinnamon. The Karnataka sambar has cinnamon in it. (MTR sambar powder) I always go for the 777 Madras sambar powder for the authentic tamil sambar. You can also make it at home. I will post the recipe soon. Dhania seeds, red chillies, turmeric, channa dhall are must-adds for any sambar powder. Further tweaking is done based on personal/regional taste. It is surprising that I have not posted sambar recipe so far. It is so basic for a south Indian that I was never thrilled enough getting down to record the recipe.

We can make sambar with different vegetables and sometimes with a mix of vegetables too. But generally, the amount of veg in a sambar is less and the gravy is more. This time, I made sambar with okra. You can make with carrot, tomato, drumsticks, potato, brinjal, raddish, shallots or even normal onions. Well, the choice is not limited. You can use any vegetable you wish to.




Ingredients:

Okra - 8 chopped into 2'' pieces
Toor dhall - 1 cup cooked with twice the amount water, a pinch of turmeric and a tsp of oil (You can cook with more water and save the water for Rasam)
Tamarind - 1 lime size
Sambar powder - 4 tsp (I normally use 777 brand to get the authentic madras sambar. I also have limited stock of homemade powder. So mix both and use)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Hing - 1 pinch
Curry leaves - a few
Methi seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard - 2 tsp
Oil - 3 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Chopped Cilantro to garnish

Method:

1) Soak the tamarind in warm water for 10 min and extract the juice.
2) Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard, fenugreek & hing.
3) Add okra and fry. Add the turmeric powder and fry for one more min.
4) Add the tamarind water and cook for 2 min.
5) Add sambar powder, chilli powder and salt. Bring everything to boil.
6) Add mashed dhall and a little water if the sambar is too thick. Boil till frothy.
7) Garnish with curry leaves and coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rice and a south Indian curry or papad or potato wafers.

I made tindora fry to go with this. I made it as a normal fry curry with oil, salt and chilli powder.

Click here for variations of tindora curry.

Arbi / Sepankizhangu Fry

Arbi/ Sepankizhangu / Taro root - I am quite familiar with this root vegetable right from my childhood days. Though it was not cooked very frequently like weekly once, it was made atleast once per month. The vegetable as such do not have a characteristic taste (or so it is to me) but can be cooked tastefully to make an altogether yummy dish. It took various forms in my home like sambar, more kuzhambu, masiyal and the ultimate roast curry.

The problem with arbi is, it tends to get gooey on overcooking. So you got to be perfect in cooking it to the right level. I generally fill enough water in a pressure cooker, immerse the veg and cook without the whistle on for 10 to 15 min. I have added rasam powder in my recipe just for the extra zing. The brand I use(sakthi masala) adds a great flavour to the curry. Check on the flavour of your rasam powder and add to taste. Or, you can conveniently omit both rasam and sambar powder and go for an extra spoon of chilli powder. I like experimenting with various ingredients and it proves fruitful. This roast is good to go with any south Indian main course and best had straight from the stove.


Ingredients:

Sepangizhangu/arbi/taro root - 8 to 10 pieces
Besan /gram flour - 2 tablespoon
Chilli powder - 1.5 tsp
Sambar powder - 1 tsp
Rasam powder - 1 tsp (I used sakthi masala)
Oil 1 tablespoon or more (I am very stingy when it comes to oil)
Mustard - 1.5 tsp
Urad dhall - 1.5 tsp
Hing - 1 pinch
Salt to taste

Method:

1) Cook the arbi in a pressure cooker with enough water to immerse, till 3/4 th done. Maybe, you can check it after 10 min and cook it more if required. Don't overcook.
2) Peel off the skin and slice them thin.
3) Mix Besan, chilli powder, sambar powder, rasam powder and salt. Coat the sliced pieces with this mixture.
4) Heat oil, season with mustard, urad dhall and hing. Add the coated pieces all together and fry till golden brown.
You can also resort to deep frying the pieces. You can omit the seasoning part then.
I prefer it this way.

The fry is ready to serve. Have it straight from stove. On packing this, the fry loses the crispiness.