Dhokla is, thanks especially to Bollywood, the most famous food item from the Indian state of Gujarat (even though the version thats most popular is actually Khaman and is misunderstood as Dhokla by most)… Dhokla’s original form is made by steaming a fermented Rice and Chickpeas paste along with Ginger, Chillies, Coriander, etc along with Baking Soda and its commonly eaten as either a snack or as a meal itself and sometimes as a side-dish as well… It is usually served with fried chillies and coriander chutney… There are different kinds of Dhokla based on the ratio of the Rice and Chickpeas used and also the ingredients used…
The recipe I am showing here is the kind of Dhokla called Rava Dhokla… This is a quick and easy alternative to the traditional Dhokla which takes quite a lot more effort and time (fermentation process itself takes at-least 5-6 hours)… This particular recipe was improvised / perfected by my Mom and it uses Rava / Sooji / Semolina with curd / yogurt instead of the fermented paste and the whole process won’t take even an hour of your time… The pic below shows how it looks like when done… Quite frankly, this is the version that’s our personal favourite and my mom makes this quite often here…
Heres the Recipe:
Ingredients
- Batter
- Rava / Sooji / Semolina: 1 cup
- Green Chillies: About A Handful – Chopped [To Taste]
- Ginger: About A Handful – Chopped [To Taste]
- Curd / Yogurt: 2 cups
- Baking Soda: 1 tsp
- Salt: To Taste
- Tadka
- Cooking Oil: 2 tbsp
- Mustard Seeds: About 1/2 tsp
- Green Chillies: 1-2 nos – Chopped / Slit
- Dried Red Chillies: 1-2 nos – Chopped / Slit
- Asafoetida powder: To Taste
- Curry Leaves: 1-2 sprigs
- Water: 1/4 cup
- Sugar: 1/2 tsp [To Taste]
Procedure
- Crush the chopped Ginger and Green Chillies and mix them in with the Rava with salt along with 1 cup of curd / yogurt… It is very important to avoid lumps and that they mix really well…
- Let the mixture rest for 5-10 mins and then mix in the remaining 1 cup curd / yogurt and again mix well to get a smooth batter thats ready for steaming… We are looking for a sort of Rava-Idly batter kind of consistency and so, if its too thick, feel free to add just a little bit of water and mix to achieve that…
- Add the baking soda and mix till bubbles start forming in it… Don’t over-whisk…
- Grease a baking tray with oil and pour in the batter till half full (we need the room for it to expand) and then steam it in a steamer for 20mins medium heat…
- Use a toothpick at the center (the usual test for cakes) to check if the Dhokla has been cooked fully and if it is, take it out of the tray, transfer to a serving plate and put aside to rest…
- Next up is the tadka… For this, first, take a small kadai and heat 2 tbsps of cooking oil…
- Once the oil heats up, drop in the mustard seeds and allow it to crack (watch out if the kadai is too small)…
- Once the mustards are cracked, add in the green chillies and dried red chillies, followed by the curry leaves and also the asafoetida powder and sauté them till they all get fried and crispy (depending on your stove, this would be a matter of seconds)…
- Once everything is well sautéed, add in the water and also the sugar as well and mix everything well till the sugar dissolves…
- Take the tadka off the heat and sprinkle the whole mixture evenly over the entire top of the Dhokla and let the dhokla rest for a minute so that the tadka ends up being absorbed…
- Now the Dhokla is ready to be consumed 🙂
The end result should look like the pics above… Please note that the color in this case is the natural color of the Rava used… Here it was the one called Bansi Rava and hence its color…
The Dhokla is typically enjoyed, accompanied by Coriander-Mint Chutney and Tamarind Chutney… But sadly, we were out of both coriander and mint leaves and so just had the Kerala style sweet Tamarind, Chillies and Ginger curry known as Puli-Inji (pic below shows a piece of the Dhokla with just that)… Usually, we have this Puli-Inji and the Coriander-Mint Chutney together with it and its a great combination thats a must try…
So, that was another recipe thats a must try… Please do try and let me know how it went in the comments section below 🙂
