Thursday, December 16, 2010

Dhokla

Why am I not blogging regularly? Hmm.. no excuses, but just that there are too many things on plate currently. And lot of travel also during this time of the year, and hardly any time to catch up with a lot of activities.
Had made this Dhokla sometime ago but wasn’t able to post it immediately. The vegetable decoration was made by D’s aunt who had visited that day, who is a big food enthu, and teaches me at least one new recipe every time she visits us :)
I found too many variants of this Dhokla, and then tried this one below.... it was good enough.

Dhokla

Preparation time : 5 min
Cooking time : 15 min
Serves : 5-6

Ingredients:
Gram flour / besan - 1 cup
Sour Curds - ¾ cup
Salt - ½ tsp or as per taste
Sugar - ½ tsp, vary as per required taste
Yellow food color/Turmeric - 1 pinch
Lemon juice - 1-2 tsp, as per taste
For Tempering:
Cooking oil - 1 Tbsp
Curry leaves - A few sprigs
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Green chilies - 3-4, slit
Asafetida - a pinch, powdered
Coconut - 1 Tbsp, grated
Coriander leaves - 1 Tbsp, chopped

Method:
• Mix gram flour in curds and keep aside for 30 min
• Boil water in a steamer and grease the tin and keep ready
• After 30 min, add salt, sugar, soda, color if using and mix
• Add water if necessary to get a idli batter consistency
• Add a packet of eno/fruit salt (abt 1 tsp) and immediately pour the mixture to the prepared tin
• Steam for 15 to 20 minutes on medium heat
• Once done, allow to cool for a couple of minutes
Tempering
• Pour lemon juice over the dhokla
• Heat the oil in a pan, add mustard and allow to splutter
• Add curry leaves, slit green chilies, hing
• Pour the tempering over the steamed Dhokla
• Garnish with grated coconut and chopped coriander
• Cut into cubes and serve with pudina chutney

Tips n Tricks:
• One of the recipes told to keep the mixed flour for a couple of hours, I tried without any waiting time also, and the result was good
• If you want a moist dhokla, add a few teaspoons of water and a little sugar to the lemon juice