Khaman Dhokla

Khaman Dhokla

Khaman Dhokla or Besan Dhokla is one of the popular Gujarati snack or tiffin or appetizer – yet another simple recipe that can be prepared in a jiffy. As the name suggest, it is prepared with besan or chick pea flour. These steamed snacks (yayyy non-fried)  are spiced up with ginger and green chillies and also tempered with sesame seeds, coconut and green chillies. The batter needs to be fermented for the Dhokla to rise and to get the spongy texture. But to speed up the process, we use yogurt and fruit eno salt.

Different Types of Dhoklas

Before sharing the recipe, let you share some of the interesting blogging marathon themes that we had in the past. I joined this group around 2014 august and two main themes that were floating for a long time was “Different types of Dhoklas” and “Tame the Yeast”.  I didn’t even dare to pick these themes but I was so surprised and amazed by the recipes that the fellow bloggers came up with. They were posting varieties of instant Dhoklas and needless to say about breads. I learnt a lot and I pushed myself to bake only after joining this group. I am super glad and happy to be part this wonderful group. 

Any More Dhokla Recipes?

Now you may ask if I am going to post any new Dhokla recipe. Nahhh… It’s is the super simple basic Khaman Dhokla recipe. I often wonder how I miss to post some simple recipes and Dhokla comes under the category. Under Gujarati special, I have Undhiyu, Tometa nu shaak, Dabeli and even doodhi muthiyas, but no Dhokla. Finallyyyy I am posting the Dhokla recipe.   Let me do the remaining talking about Guajarati recipes tomorrow. Yes one more recipe coming up. So now back to Dhokla. I adapted this recipe from rajashri foods but modified the ingredients slightly as per our preference.

Khaman Dhokla Recipe

Ingredients:

Besan – 1 cup Water – ¾ cup + 1 tbsp Citric Acid – ¼ tsp Sugar – 2 tsps Ginger – 1 inch piece Green chili – 1 Eno – a generous pinch Turmeric – ¼ tsp Salt – ¾ tsp Pinch of baking soda 1 tsp of oil Cilantro – 1 tbsp

For Tadka

Oil – 2 tsps Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp White Sesame Seeds – 2 tsps Green Chilli Slit – 2 Curry leaves – 4 to leaves leaves Hing – 1 tsp Grated Coconut – 3 tbsps Chopped Cilantro – 1 tbsp

Prep-Work:

Seive the besan flour. Grind cilantro, ginger and green chilly coarsely without by adding 1 tbsp of water.

Steps:

In a wide bowl, take the sieved besan flour and add the turmeric powder, ginger-cilantro-chili paste, citric acid, sugar, salt, baking soda.

Now add the water slowly and mix it well.

The batter should be slightly thinner than dosa batter consistency. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes. When it is about 20 minutes, we can prepare the steaming set up. I don’t have Dhokla steamer and this is how I steam it. In a wide flat pan (with lid), I added about 1 cup of water and let it boil. Once the bubble starts to form, add small plate or like stainless steel coaster like below.

Meanwhile, grease a wide plate or bowl with 1 tsp of oil that will go inside you flat pan. At this stage add the eno fruit salt and stir vigorously. The batter should rise nicely. Now pour this batter to the greased plate and place that inside the pan and cover it with the lid.

Let it steam for about 20 to 22 minutes. Remove the lid and insert a tooth pick and if it comes out clean, then the Dhokla is done.

Turn off the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes. With a knife, go around the edges so that we can separate the Dhokla easily.

Now turn it upside down in a plate and overturn it again so that the base goes down.

Tadka:

Heat a small pan or kadai and add oil. Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, sesame seeds, hing, slit green chillies, and curry leaves and coconut. Sauté for couple of minutes and spread this tadka on top of the Dhokla. Then garnish it cilantro and chop the Dhokla into small squares or into your favorite shapes and serve it with green chutney and sweet chutney.

Notes:

Sieving the besan flour is very important. It helps in preventing lumps formation. Instead of grinding the green chilly, ginger and cilantro and you finely chop them and add them in the mix. Citric acid is optional. Adjust the spices as per your preference.

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