Dhokar Dalna / Fried Lentil Cakes in Spicy Gravy

Chana Dal is very nutritious and easy to digest. These little beans are a powerhouse of lean protein, fiber and iron. They're packed with nutrients, such as folic acid, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc. Chana Dal also known as "chholar dal" comes from India , where it's appreciated a lot unlike the western countries. "Bengal Gram Lentil"  is the British English term for what we call "chana dal" in Hindi. It's glycemia index is also very good for blood sugar levels.

Chana Dal is very closely related to garbanzo beans, or chickpeas. The differences are that chana dal is younger, smaller, split, sweeter, and has a much lower glycemic index. But you can substitute chana dal for garbanzo beans in just about any recipe.

Chana dal is the split kernel of a variety of chickpea known as desi or bengal gram. It has a sweet and earthy flavor, and the cooked bean is about the size and shape of a corn kernel. Chana Dal is one of the many lentils used to make dal, the family of Indian lentil dishes that form the foundation of Indian cuisine. Chana Dal makes a quick-cooking, exotic addition to dals, soups, curries, dips, pilafs, fritters, salads, casseroles, and rice or whole grain dishes. Toss them in a little olive oil and your favorite spices and roast them in the oven for a wonderfully tasty, healthy snack.

This time I used this powerhouse of nutrition in Bengali style and made famous Bengali dish called " Dhokar Dalna". Heard many times about this dish from many of my friends so decided to make it for dinner tonight, as I was left with 1 bowl of soaked Chana daal after making Chana Daal with Ghiya. Try making it in your kitchen as well. Until next time..................., Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya

Just like all the Kofta and Kadhi recipes, this also has two parts. One is to make Dhoka/Lentil Cakes and other is to make gravy for it. Lets start with the first part, which is to make Dhokas.

Pictorial Step-wise Method for Dhoka and Gravy:

Wash and soak Chana Dal/Bengal Gram for minimum 4 hours or overnight (for best results) .
Take the dal along with green chilies, salt, ginger and grind to a fine paste. Add little water (may be a tblspoon or so) as required for grinding.

In a non stick pan, heat oil.  Now add the dal paste in the pan along with Hing, Turmeric powder, Coriander powder, Garam Masala, Salt and Red Chili powder.

Cook it until the mix comes off the sides clean.

The dal should be cooked so that it is moist and soft but not runny or hard. Once it is cooked, transfer to a greased plate.

Apply oil on your hands and pat the paste into a flat cake, make sure the sides are tucked in. Make a 1 1/2 inch width cake.

The paste gets dried up fast, so you need to be quick in patting it down.
Once it cools down, cut into desired size and shape pieces.

Heat a Pan/Wok with oil and shallow fry Dhokas till golden brown on both sides.

Gently slide them into wok and don't flip over for the first few minutes. Fry in 4-5 at a time and drain them over a kitchen towel.

Now  peel and chop the potatoes into thing long pieces.

Par Boil them for 7-9 minutes and then shallow fry them in the same pan that you used for frying the lentil cakes.

Take them out and keep them aside until they are ready to use.
Again heat 1 tblspoon of Oil in the same pan/wok.

Add in the cumin seeds, whole garam masala and a pinch of Hing.

Add tomatoes and grated ginger, saute till tomato is well cooked and soft.

In a cup mix the spices Turmeric powder, Coriander powder, Garam Masala, Salt and Red Chili powder with a tblspoon of water and make a paste.

Add this paste to the Pan/Wok and fry the masala with tomatoes at low heat. Add in the Sugar as well.

Add the fried potatoes and about 1 and 1/2 cups of water.

Now cover and cook till the potatoes are soft.
Adjust the water and seasoning as per your choice of thickness and taste of gravy. Next add the ghee and mix everything .
Now gently add in the Dhokas/fried lentil cakes. Also add in the whole green chilies.

Simmer for 5 minutes, covered with the lid to let the Dhokas soak up some of the gravy juices.
Dhokar Dalna is ready to serve with rice or chapati.

Ingredients:

For Dhoka / Lentil Cakes:

Chana Dal                                   - 1 cup  ( Cholar Daal / Split Bengal Gram Lentil )
Green Chilies                              - 2 medium size
Ginger                                         - 1 inch piece
Asafetida / Hing                          - a pinch
Coriander Powder                       - 1/8 Tspoon
Red Chili Powder                        - a pinch
Turmeric powder                         - 1/4 Tspoon
Garam Masala                              - 1/8 Tspoon
Salt                                               - to taste
Oil                                                - 1 tblspoon for shallow frying

For Gravy of Dhokar Dalna:

Potato                                          - 1 big
Oil                                               - 1 tblspoon
Bay leaf                                       - 1 big
Whole Garam Masala                 - 1 Tspoon
Cumin Seeds                               - 1/4 Tspoon
Tomato                                        - 4 medium finely chopped
Ginger Paste                                - 1/2 tspoon or you can grate the ginger
Coriander Powder                       - 1 Tspoon
Red Chili Powder                        - 1/4  Tspoon
Turmeric powder                         - 1/4 Tspoon
Garam Masala                              - 1/4 Tspoon
Ghee                                             - 1 Tspoon
Salt                                               - to taste


Method for Dhoka:

Wash and soak Chana Dal/Bengal Gram for minimum 4 hours or overnight (for best results) .
Take the dal along with green chilies, salt, ginger and grind to a fine paste. Add little water (may be a tblspoon or so) as required for grinding.
In a non stick pan, heat oil.  Now add the dal paste in the pan along with Hing, Turmeric powder, Coriander powder, Garam Masala, Salt and Red Chili powder and cook until the mix comes off the sides clean.
The dal should be cooked so that it is moist and soft but not runny or hard. Once it is cooked, transfer to a greased plate.
Apply oil on your hands and pat the paste into a flat cake, make sure the sides are tucked in. Make a 1 1/2 inch width cake.
The paste gets dried up fast, so you need to be quick in patting it down.
Once it cools down, cut into desired size and shape pieces.
Heat a Pan/Wok with oil and shallow fry Dhokas till golden brown on both sides.
Gently slide them into wok and don't flip over for the first few minutes. Fry in 4-5 at a time and drain them over a kitchen towel.

Method for Gravy:

First peel and chop the potatoes into thing long pieces.
Par Boil them for 7-9 minutes and then shallow fry them in the same pan that you used for frying the lentil cakes.
Take them out and keep them aside until they are ready to use.
Again heat 1 tblspoon of Oil in the same pan/wok.
Add in the cumin seeds, whole garam masala and a pinch of Hing.
Add tomatoes and grated ginger, saute till tomato is well cooked and soft.
Add in the Sugar.
In a cup mix the spices Turmeric powder, Coriander powder, Garam Masala, Salt and Red Chili powder with a tblspoon of water and make a paste.
Add this paste to the Pan/Wok and fry the masala with tomatoes at low heat.
Add the fried potatoes and about 1 and 1/2 cups of water.
Now cover and cook till the potatoes are soft.
Adjust the water and seasoning as per your choice of thickness and taste of gravy. Next add the ghee and mix everything .
Now gently add in the Dhokas/fried lentil cakes. Also add in the whole green chilies.
Simmer for 5 minutes, covered with the lid to let the Dhokas soak up some of the gravy juices.
Dhokar Dalna is ready to serve with rice or chapati.

Baked Moong Daal Kachori / Baked Mung lentil Stuffed Bread

Kachoris are all time favourite item in my house. We can eat them in ay meal time, be it breakfast, lunch, brunch, teatime or dinner. We eat them with tea, shakes, make like chaat or as and how we want to eat them. At the same time I need to keep an eye on everyone's oil intake and health. Afterall healthy family is a happy family.

This time when everyone demanded for Kachori I baked them. To my surprise family loved them and ate them until only 2 left for me. I'm ok with that, just because they enjoyed it. How satisfy you feel, when you see your family smiling while eating.

I also made one batch to take them with us on our Caravan Holiday. Very handy snack, when you do not have extended kitchen gadgets just like your own kitchen. Made some muffins and cookies as well for that holiday. Will post the muffin recipe soon.

The recipe is also not very complicated, I would not say very easy but still easy to make. Baking will also reduce the work of frying and less heating of you kitchen in these hot summer days. So try this recipe and this time bake the Kachoris instead of frying. I'm sure you will love them. Let me know your feedback on these baked kachoris by commenting below........Until Next Time, Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya

This recipe will also represent the blog at this Month's Monthly Masala Party at WhitBit's Indian Kitchen. Visit the link and see more Indian recipes and spread the love.

Ingredients:

For the Dough:
Whole Wheat Flour                     - 1 cup
Plain Flour                                   - 1/2 cup
Semolina                                      - 1/2 cup
Cornflour                                     - 1 tblspoon
Amchoor                                     - 1/2 tspoon
Red Chili Powder                       - 1/2 tspoon
Salt                                             - to taste - 1 tspoon
Butter/Oil                                   - 2 tblspoon
Yogurt                                        - 1 tblspoon
Water                                         - as required

For The Stuffing:
Moon Daal/Mung Lentil          - 1 cup washed and soaked overnight
Carom Seeds/Ajwain               - 1 tspoon
Turmeric                                  - 1/4 tspoon
Coriander Powder                    - 2 tspoon
Amchoor                                  - 1/2 tspoon
Red Chilli Powder                   - 1/2 tspoon
Garam Masala                         - 1/2 tspoon
Salt                                          - to taste
Oil                                           - 2 tblspoon


Method:

Wash and soak the Moong Dal overnight.
Pressure cook the daal with just 1/2 cup of water for 2 whistles, just to soften it.
Take it out from the pressure cooker and keep aside.
Meanwhile lets prepare the dough for the Kachori.
Mix all the dry ingredients listed under "For the Dough" except water, in a deep mixing bowl/stand mixer.

Add Butter and Yogurt and Knead it to a stiff dough with the help of water.

Keep the dough aside, covered with a damp cloth.

Now in a pan/karahi, heat 1 tblspoon of oil, when warm ass carom seeds into it.
When seeds start to crackle, add the Cooked daal and all the dry spices, Turmeric, Coriander powder, Amchoor, Garam Masala, Red Chili powder and salt.

Start mixing the daal in the pan with spices and oil.

Keep mixing and pressing the Daal to make it in to the mushy texture. Keep mixing and roasting until it becomes dry and starts to leave the pan from all sides.

You can roast the Daal as much as you like to make it crispy or keep it soft.
Once roasted and mixed, take the daal out on a plate and let it cool down.
Pre heat the oven to 200c. Prepare a baking tray with nonstick paper/mat.
Divide the Dough into equal portion of 18-20 balls, and shape them into balls, depending on the size you like.
I made 18 dough balls out of this quantity.
Spread balls into round discs, place a portion of cooked daal mixture, pinch the edges together and seal into a round.
Brush the kachoris with oil and place them on the lined baking tray.
Put tray in the preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
Do not over cook the Kachoris if the don't look very dark brown, as they will keep cooking with the heat inside them, just like other baking items.
Take the Kachoris out from oven once golden and keep them on cooling rack to let them cool a bit.
Serve the Kachoris with choice of Chutneys and Dips.

This recipe will also represent the blog at this Month's Monthly Masala Party at WhitBit's Indian Kitchen. Visit the link and see more Indian recipes and spread the love.

5 Lentil Dumplings in Spicy Curry Sauce - Karail

We usually see this kind of Curry/Sabzi every now and then in other blogs or websites. But nobody really knows the origin or the authentic name of it. In villages of UP we have a Dish called "Karail" (Ka-Ra-Yal). This is Authentically made with Urad/Moong Dal. Soaked and Grinded to paste, mixed with some spices and fried to the form of Pakodas. Then dunked into a spicy gravy of Gram Flour/Leftover Lentil Paste. This dish can be enjoyed with any type of Roti/Chapati or Rice.

This dish used to made on some special occasions, when there is any happy moments in the house like births, marriages or engagements in the family. This dish is also made in the sad moments in the house like once after any death , the first cooking would be with "Karail" with rice.  How strange, when I see thats how food can be associated with big moments in your life.

I always loved eating authentic food from my native place and this one dish is my favourite dish. I used to eat it with Rice. Once I get to know that my mum is going to make this, I was like "Make in Plenty pls". I keep on eating 4-5 times in a day and even in mid night . I used to be on mission to finish it as soon as possible, to get my mum to make it again. As I always said , My mum is the best cook in this whole world. She cooks everything to perfection.

So we were talking about this dish. It has goodness of lentils and gramflour. You can also avoid deep frying the Pakoras and make them in a healthy fryer. I'm in process of choosing one for me. Spice levels can be adjusted according to taste. This can be accompanied by your choice of Chapati and rice. We ate this with gobhi musallam, Rice, Raita and Aloo ki Roti (Potato Roti). This dish always takes me to the golden days of my childhood. My Kids also love to eat this, as I make it mild spicy for them.  Try this dish and let me by dropping comment to the post. Until next time.......Happy Cooking Friends, Saumya

Ingredients:

For Pakoda/Dumplings:

5 Lentils / panchmel Daal     - 1 cup soaked overnight
Salt                                        - To taste
Amchoor                               - 1/2 tspoon
Garam Masala                       - 1/2 tspoon + 1/4 tspoon
Red Chilli Powder                 - 1/4 tspoon
Asafetida                                - 1 pinch
Oil                                          - to deep fry

For The Gravy:

Cumin Seeds                        - 1/4 tspoon
Asafetida/Hing                     - 1 pinch
Onions                                  - 2 finely chopped
Garlic                                   - 4 finely chopped
Ginger                                  - 1 inch chopped
Tomatoes                             - 3 large finely chopped
Gram Flour                          - 1 tblspoon
Kasoori Methi                      - 2 tblspoon
Turmeric powder                 - 1/4 teaspoon
Amchoor powder                 - 1/4 teaspoon
coriander powder                 - 1/2 teaspoon
Garam masala                      - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt                                       - to taste
Oil                                        - 1 tblspoon for tempering
Water                                    - 2 cup or as per your choice of thickness
Fresh Coriander                    - 2 tblspoon finely chopped

Method:

For Kofta balls:

Wash and Soak the 5 mixed lentils (Panchmel Dal) , I used, Urid, Mung, Toor, Masoor and Chana Dal for this, Overnight or at-least 5 hours.
Grind the lentils to smooth paste in a grinder.
Mix , Salt, Amchoor, Garam Masala, Asafetida and red chili powder in it.
Mix it well and keep aside, Mean while heat oil in a Deep Pan/Karahi.
Once it's medium hot, pinch  ping-pong size balls out of the lentil paste and drop carefully in the oil.
Do 5-7 balls at a time depending upon the size. Fry them until golden.
Pinch the balls and fry them until the lentil paste is finished, Keep them aside.

For The Gravy:

Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds and asafetida in it.
Once Cumin start to splutter, add Onion, Garlic and Ginger in it. Cook until onions are translucent.
In a grinder, add fried Onion, Garlic and Ginger along with tomatoes.
Grind all this to a smooth paste.
Now pour this smooth paste into the same Pan.
Add Gram flour, Powdered Spices and Kasoori Methi into it, mix well.

Lower the flame to slow and fry for 2 minutes.

Now add the water into the paste to make it thinner gravy.

Let the gravy boil for atleast 10-15 minutes to get into a bit thicker consistency and also to cook the gram flour well.

Sprinkle some finely chopped coriander on the gravy.
The gravy is ready. Check the consistency of gravy as per your choice.
I keep this gravy a bit thick else Pakodas go very soft and fall apart in the gravy.
Keep all the fried Pakodas in a deep serving bowl, Just before serving pour out the Gravy on to the Pakoras.

They will take few minutes to absorb the gravy and get dunked into it.
Garnish with some freshly chopped coriander and enjoy with Chapati, Paratha or Rice.