Transcript
Today I am making Dal
Dhokli, which is such a Gujarati classic.
It's basically lentil soup
with diamond shaped dumplings
and it is delicious.
It's tangy and spicy
and a little bit sweet.
It's just perfectly balanced.
Traditional, classic gujarati flavors.
And it's a one
pot meal perfect for the winter.
So let me show you how to make that.
This looks like a lot of ingredients,
but I promise it's a really easy recipe.
And I'll also show you
some of the things that you can leave out
if you don't have it to still make
a perfectly delicious dhokli.
Okay, I'm going to make this dal dhokli
in the instant pot because cooking
dal in the instant pot is so much easier
than doing it on the stovetop.
But you can definitely do it
honestly on the stovetop
or in a regular pressure cooker as well.
So I'm going to start with my rinsed tuvar
dal or toor dal.
I have a cup of dal here
at about three cups of water to that
and a little tiny
bit of ghee to avoid the foaming.
S et the valve
to sealing and cook
9 minutes on high pressure.
I'm going to actually set this aside.
And while that is cooking,
I'm going to make the dough
so I have a bowl here
and I have some whole wheat flour.
So this is Indian rotli no lot or atta
and this is just really super
finely ground, whole
wheat flour, a little bit of salt,
some turmeric.
So essentially
what I'm making here is a tikhi bhakri
no lot, which is a spicy roti.
And these are going to be our dumplings,
a little bit of red chili powder.
We add some carom seeds
and just mix that around with my hand.
I'm going to add a dollop of ghee.
About a teaspoon
and just mix that in, just distribute
that evenly across the flour
looking for a sandy texture here.
So just break that up.
That looks evenly distributed.
Okay, So now I'm going to need my dough
with some water.
Add just a little bit of water at a time,
and the amount of water that you need
will differ based on
what the weather is like that day,
how much moisture there is in the air.
So you'll need to kind of
adjust it by the day.
So that's why it's really important
to add a little bit of water
at a time,
almost there.
We're looking for a medium consistency.
So we don't want
it to be too wet or too dry.
The dough is ready.
I'm just going to cover this
and set this aside
for a couple of minutes
while I go wash my hands.
I'm just using a towel
to put in my adni on
so that it doesn't move around.
This is a traditional Indian rolling board
that we call adni in Gujarati, and
I have my Gujarati rolling pin.
But really any rolling pin will do.
And I'm
just going to roll those into thin rotli.
So grab a section
and you can use some dry flour
if you need to roll these out,
Just roll it
the way you would normally roll rotli
The technique is to kind of
have a fist on one hand and open hand
and just gently roll
around the center outwards.
So that rotli rotates and rolls out
evenly.
You can see that this is pretty thin.
I'm going to get
it a little tiny bit thinner
and then move on to
the next one.
That's perfect.
So you can see how thin that is.
So I'm going to set them on a plate.
So this one is done.
Set it over here and roll out
the next one.
He's a little bit of dry flour.
Ok. That is done.
So now what I'm going to do
is just going to get this ball out of here
and I'm going to cut these rotlis
into diamond shaped little pieces.
So just cut in the middle on the diagonal
and you can make them
as big or small as you like,
and then a diagonal on the other side.
And they don't have to be perfect.
You can just guess at the size,
not a big deal if they're not exactly
the same, just do your best.
It's really important to do is make sure
that you cut all the way through
and you separate each piece.
I'm just going to separate it
and put it into my dough
bowl.
I'm putting all of my pieces
on top of each other in this bowl.
And this is
because there's plenty of dry flour
and they're not sticking to each other.
But if your dough is a little bit more
wet and your pieces are sticking
to each other,
you can lay them out on a sheet pan
or on a plate so that they don't
end up in a big sticky lump.
Or you can just make sure
that there is plenty of dry flour on them
before you transfer.
So my dal is cooked,
just going to move it back to the center.
So open that up.
Okay, so the dal is nice and cooked.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to mash
with the back of my spoon about 10
to 15 times to get that really good
dal texture, the silky smooth dal texture.
So just kind of push the dal
against the edges
of the instant pot and stir.
Okay, that looks perfect.
So I'm going to set this to saute mode.
I'm going to just whisk you really fast
a couple of times.
Okay.
I'm going to add about two cups of water.
Give that a good mix.
Now I'm going to add
the papdi which is just seeds
and the skins of the padpi.
But you could use edamame, you could use
fresh peas, you could use tuvar seeds.
So pigeon peas, really
any kind of green bean work.
So you could use chopped up green beans.
Also, those work really well.
I have some ginger paste
now. The rest of the salt,
the turmeric,
the red chili powder,
the kokum.
And if you don't have kokum,
you could use lemon juice you can use.
I'm sure the point of the kokum
is to add some sourness.
So really anything you have
that has a sour flavor will work.
Some green chilies
and the jaggery.
You can also use brown sugar
or regular sugar if you like, or
even maple sirup will work just fine
and give that a good mix and
actually going to move this aside again
and do the vaghar for this dal.
So add a couple of teaspoons of ghee
and let that get nice and hot.
Add the mustard seeds (or the “rye”).
Add the cumin seeds,
the hing,
a piece of cinnamon,
three cloves some fenugreek seeds
or methi dana and curry leaves.
Let those cook for a few seconds
and then we're going to pour them
into our dal.
So I'm just going to move this away
and then I'll pour that in,
pour this into the dal.
Give that a good stir.
So the tricky part here
is to make sure that I'm cooking
both the beans and the and the dhokli.
And so depending on
what kind of beans you're using,
you may have to cook a little bit longer
before you add that.
Okay, So you want to make sure
that the consistency of the dal is nice
and thin before you add that dhokli,
because it's going to thicken it.
This is looking a little bit thick to me,
so I'm going to add a half a cup of water
and bring this to a rolling boil.
The dal has to be at a rolling boil
before the dhokli goes in.
Otherwise it's going to stick together
and you're going to end up
with lumpy messes in there.
You want the dhokli to be nice
and separate and fluffy
and just beautifully cooked in the dal.
Okay, now it's at a nice rolling boil,
so I'm going to add the dhokli
It's really important to add the dhokli
one at a time,
so I'm just going to grab them one
at a time
and start adding them in there.
So after adding a few,
be sure to very, very gently stir
because we want to make sure
that they don't stick to the bottom.
There it is.
All the pieces are in.
Give it a gentle stir
and I'm going to
cover this
and cook for about 10 to 12 minutes.
All right.
So this is done.
Let me check to see how it is
to take one out on my plate and
taste it and check.
Now is a good time to kind of check taste
for making sure the spices are
where you want them, has enough salt
and that the dhokli is cooked.
That's perfect.
It is a little bit thicker than I like
because I think it's
really delicious when the dhokli is
a little bit more liquidy.
So I'm going to add a little tiny
bit of water,
just kind of
get it to the consistency that I like.
You could add as much water
or as little as you like if you prefer
a thicker
dhokli that it's entirely up to you.
Perfect.
This looks fantastic.
I also want to show you that
if you look at the thickness
of the dhokli, it has thickened
from when we put it in because it
fluffs up while it cooks.
You can adjust the sour or the salt,
if you like.
At this point,
I'm going to add a little bit of ghee
because we're Gujarati
and we add ghee to everything at the end.
So just a little dollop is perfect.
You can skip the step if you like.
Add that in
and then some cilantro leaves for garnish.
And there you have it.
Perfect dal dhokli
Such a fabulous winter dinner.
Delicious.
I'm going to add some cilantro.
I know there's kokum in there,
but I like it a little bit more sour.
So I like to add a little bit of lime
juice or lemon juice at the end.
And then if you're so
inclined, a dollop of ghee never hurts.
So excited.
I'll start. Yes.
So good
and so comforting.
It's just warm and delicious.
The soup part, teh dal, is very similar
to a traditional gujarati dal.
It is sweet and sour and spicy,
and the dhokli are basically just
spicy flour dumplings
and they just add this
chewy and delicious texture and it's just
just such a perfect comfort food.
Yeah.
So if you'd like to follow me for more.
Gujarati recipes or things that I make up
with Indian flavors,
please subscribe to my YouTube channel
and check out my blog.
Indiaphile.com.
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