Daal dhokli | One pot meal | Rajasthani/Marwadi cusine

Ingredients for Dal Dhokli Recipe

• Arhar Dal - 1/2 cup (100 grams)
• Wheat Flour - 1/2 cup (100 grams)
• Gram flour - 2 tbsp (20 grams)
• Ghee - 2 -3 tbsp
• Asafoetida - 1 pinch
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Red chilly powder - 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Dry red chilly - 1
• Green chilly - 1 (finely chopped)
• Curry leaves - 7-8
• Green coriander - 1 tbsp (finely chopped)
• Salt - 1.5 tsp or as per taste
• Carom seeds - less than 1/4 tsp 

How to make Rajasthani Dal Dhokli Recipe

Clean and wash the dal thoroughly. Soak in water for 1/2 to 1 hour, prior cooking. Place dal and 2 cup water in a pressure cooker. Also add 1 tsp salt and cook until it simmers once. After one simmer, cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off the flame and let the steam escape. Keep the dal as it in the pressure cooker. 

Take flour, gram flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp ghee and carom seeds in a bowl. Mix all ingredients really well. Add water little by little and knead soft flour, similar to that required for making chapattis. For kneading this much quantity of flour, 1/4 cup of water has been used. Cover the dough and keep it aside for 10 to 15 minutes to set. Dough will get puffy. 

Grease your hands with some ghee and knead the dough again. Dough for making dhokli is now ready. Make a lump from the dough and roll giving it a round shape. Dust it with dry flour, place it over the rolling board and roll out in a chapatti. Now cut it into 1-1 inch strips. Cut these strips into two halves from center. 

For cooking dhokli, take 2 to 3 cups of water in any vessel and allow it simmer. When water starts boiling, place dhokli pieces into. Cook the dhokli on high flame for 10 to 15 minutes and keep stirring at regular intervals. 

Prepare tadka for the dal:

Take ghee in a pan. When ghee in hot, add cumin seeds and asafoetida into it. After sauteing cumin seeds, add turmeric powder, curry leaves, dry red chilly, chopped green chilies and coriander powder. Saute the spices for few more minutes. add red chilly powder and mix well. Saute the masala until oil starts separating from it. 

Masala is ready. Now mix cooked dal and dhokli into the pressure cooker and masala in the vessel with dhokli. Mix everything really well and cook for 5 minutes on low flame. 

Dal dhokli is ready, mix few chopped coriander leaves into it and take out in a bowl. Garnish with some more coriander leaves and ghee. Serve steaming hot dal dhokli and relish eating. 

Ukarpendi

Being born and brought up in Maharashtra, there is a lot of influence of mahararashtrian cusine in our food preparations. Specially at my inlaws place everyone is very fond of mahashtrian food. Maharsahtrian cusine has different flavours and methods in different parts of maharashtra. My father in law likes the simple, typically less spicy and healthy versions of curries. My mother in law, being from khandesh (which is fanous for the spicy food) likes the more spicier foods (with extra tadka) :)I still remember, as a child how I loved the food, when we were invited to the mahalakshmi lunch or for ganpati dinner (in maharashtra, there is a trend to invite friends and relatives for lunch or dinner during these festivals specially if you have the deity at your home ). The food used to be so amazing, I always looked forward to going for them!! I saw this dish only after marriage and instantly liked the new taste and the health benefits of this dish. This is my mother in laws recipe where Ukarpendi is prepared using jowar flour and little besan and wheat flour. Since we had ragi also at home, and it being such a nutritive flour, I like to add a little to this. It blends very well with the other flours giving a nice aroma and increasing the health content! Ukarpendi is filling and is an extremely good option for breakfast or a lunch box item.
Ingredients
2 small katoris jowar flour
2 tbsp Finger Millet/ragi flour
1 small katori wheat flour
1 tbsp gram floor
2 onions chopped
1 tomato chopped
3-4 green chilies finely chopped
2-3 large spoon curds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander pwd
1 tsp red chili pwd
a pinch of asafetida
1-1/2 inch ginger grated
few curry leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
about 8-10 tbsp oil
boiled water for steam cooking.
Method:
Roast the flours in about 1 tbsp oil and keep them aside till they appear reddish and give a nice aroma. Heat oil and add mustard seeds, asafetida followed by green chilies. Add the chopped onions and saute. Now add grated ginger and curry leaves and mix. ( you can add veggies of choice like peas, carrot..)
Once the onions are done add turmeric, red chili, coriander, cumin pwds and salt to taste.
Now add the flours and roast it for a few mins in the oil. Mix in the curds and sugar. The curds adds a mild sour taste.
Add boiling water gradually and keep mixing. This process has to be done very fast ensuring no lumps are formed. Add water till the flour absorbs water and comes to a state of slightly loose dough.
Cover the pan and steam cook for about 5 minutes.
Serve hot with a dash of ghee on top and garnish with chopped cilantro.
Note: This dish needs oil in a little extra quantity, else it turns out very dry and becomes very difficult to eat. The spices need to added liberally to bring in the flavours