Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The Fastest Dhokla Ever

You are just up from a sunday afternoon nap sipping your tea and still a bit groggy when you get a call from friends saying that they are coming over in 20 mins. First of all you think "Oh let them come ,I am not going to make anything to eat, thay can have tea and some biscuits." But then slowly the foodie in you comes alive and starts nagging you to take the effort and make something. You reluctantly get up and go through your kitchen cupboard to see what you can make and stumble across a packet of Eno Fruit Salt. And you immediately know what you are going to make. Its the Fastest Dhokla Ever.


Here's how:

2 cups besan (chickpea flour) , 1 Glass water, 1 tblspn Sugar, 2/3 cloves garlic finely crushed, 4/5 Green Chillies finely chopped, 1 tspn lemon juice, 1 tspn Eno Fruit Salt (any flavour will do,I had the lemon flavour), 1/2 tspn Turmeric powder, salt to taste.

For the tempering:

2 tblspns oil, 2/3 tspns mustard seeds, 2 pinches asafoetida, 6/7 curry leaves

For the lemon -sugar syrup: 1/4 cup water, Juice of one lemon, 1 tblspn sugar. Just mix it all together.

Process:

Mix the Besan and Water to form a smooth batter.

Add the crushed garlic , chillies, turmeric, salt and sugar and give it a good stir. Taste the batter. It should be sweet and sour and hot all at once.

Grease a steel vessel that goes into your pressure cooker. Place this vessel in the cooker and place the cooker on the gas hob. After the water in the cooker begins to boil add the Eno to the dhokla batter, stir again quickly, you will immediately see the batter rising.

Now quickly pour this batter into the cooker vessel and put on the cooker lid. Steam the Dhokla for 8 to 10 mins without pressure.

After 10 mins open the cooker and let the Dhokla rest for a while. When it is warm to touch mark out the slices with a sharp and well oiled knife. Spoon the lemon-sugar syrup gradually over the marked slices. The syrup is absorbed by the dhokla making it extremely moist from the inside unlike shop-bought dhoklas which are terribly dry from within.

Prepare the tempering by adding the mustard, asafoetida and curry leaves to hot oil. Cool it and then spoon this over the dhokla. Garnish with fresh coriander and fresh grated coconut.

I served this with sweet and sour tamarind and jaggery chutney and lightly fried green chillies. For the chillies you will need 5 to 6 long green chillies. Slit them vertically without cutting them into 2. Stuff them with a mixture of salt and asafoetida. Lightly fry them on a tawa with a little oil. Cover them while frying or else everyone in the house will be coughing in minutes.

Your guests will love these home-made Dhoklas

19 comments:

Vaishali said...

A wonderful wonderful recipe, Anupama. The best part of it being the lemon-sugar syrup tip. The Dhoklas I made so far fluffed up well, but they were always dryish. Meaning you can't have two pieces without a sip of water in between. :) I am gonna try this soon.
And hey, I know that I'll get some goodies even if I drop in at your place with a 20 minute notice.

Anonymous said...

Hi Anupama

May be there is typo in the lemon-sugar syrup part? instead of sugar you said water. please check.
And this is a good recipe for Dhokla. I never had success in making it earlier.Shall try yours now.

Regards
Rayna

Anonymous said...

typo again :-) My name is Ratna .

Anonymous said...

It seems to be Dhokla time in the blog world...I saw Hema's and made some yesterday, and then I just came from Nandita's and you are serving dhokla's too...Your dhoklas look nice and fluffy...and do u have a recipe for the sweet n sour chutney ?? :)

Anonymous said...

Oh wow...that looks easy. I had read about a similar recipe, but was a bit hesitant to make it becos of eno. Is it the same eno fruit salt used for gastric problems?

Anupama said...

vaishali, you are most welcome.

Ratna: Thanx for pointing out the typo. i have corrected it.

Priya, i'll go over to Hema's and check out her Dhokla Recipe too. the sweet and sour chutney is very easy. You need 2 tblspns thick tamarind juice, 5 tblspns jaggery, 1 tspn chilli powder, 1 tspn Dhana-jeera powder, 1 tspn salt. Put all these together and blend them to make a smooth sauce.. Add more jaggery if you find it too sour

Shilpa, yes it is the same Eno Fruit Salt one needs for gastric problems

Ashwini said...

I love the syrup tip...I find home made dhoklas boring bcoz of their dryness. Thanks Anupama

Unknown said...

Haha You bet! Great minds or no, we surely think alike, same post on same day - is that a co incidence or what- I like the nifty details you provide. I generally pour lemon juice with sugar dissolved over the top, but omitted in this recipe.

Green chillies look yum, my hubby loves the chillies fried exactly the way you've described, but i never do it at home. Triggers off my oh-so-sensitive nose and sneezing!

Anonymous said...

lemon & sugar syrup, now I know what I missed! And the green chillies, R will like Dhoklas more of the chillies were an accompaniment

Krithika said...

Wow ! its dhokla time in Blogosphere. Looks good. THanks for sharing

Anonymous said...

Wonderful dhokla recipe. Beats buying ready mixes any day.Thanks.

FH said...

I just came here from Nandita's ,dhoklas every where!! More the merrier!! I love them anyway!! Thanks Anupama..

Anonymous said...

Never tried my hand over dhokla...Thanks for sharing & that nice tip of yours.

Prema Sundar said...

I have seen dhoklas in naditha's blog too and here is one more..looks yummy especially with mormilagai.. thanks

Anonymous said...

Hey..its my hubby's Bday today n dhokla was on my mind as one of the recipe's..was a bit apprehensive coz havent ever made it..but ur recipe sounds coll..will try it out..

Anonymous said...

very nice recipe.easy too. thanks. one question... did u grease the steel vessel before putting the batter? will the dhokla come out easily??

Sharon said...

Hi Anupama,

Just tried out the recipe for breakfast this morning and they came out awesome. Thanks for the recipe.

I would just like to add that maybe it would help to grease the dhokla pan a bit, so that none of it sticks to the pan when its time to life the dhoklas out:)

- Sharon
www.thekeybunch.com

Debora Myrtle said...

Hi Anupama,
Tried ur dhokla recipe. Hmmmm... just luved it. I'm a south indian n dhoklas r not a regular item in our menu, but i've read abt them n wanted to try them for a really long time. Finding ur easy recipe was the trigger that shot me into action. luved the sweetness n the lemony tang. thank u once again.
Debora.

Colette (Coco) said...

Lovely! Can't wait to try it. Thanks.