Dhokla

Dhokla is chick pea flour, seasoned and steamed to spongy and moist goodness. Its sweet, sour and spicy.
It had been there in the back of mind for a long long time now, I was more interested in making Dhoklas than eating it. Has it ever happened to you, where you enjoy making something more than you would enjoy eating it? Anyway, so after pestering my colleague/friend for the recipe, google came to my rescue. I found a bunch of recipes online which I adapted to match the ingredients I had in hand. Most of the recipes I read called for "Fruit Eno", I hadnt heard of it before but I found that its primarily soda+citric acid, luckily I happened to have both. The Dhoklas turned perfecto!


Dhokla Ingredients:
1 cup Besan
1 cup Yogurt
1/2 cup water
3 finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp citric acid granules or alternately 2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
Salt as per taste

Garnish:
2 tbsp lemon juice + 2 tsp sugar + 1 sprig chopped cilantro(optional)mixed together



Method:
Mix all the Dhokla ingredients together except soda which you add in the end. Make sure there are no besan lumps left and the batter is smooth. Now add soda and stir gently. Leave the batter for 15-20 mins.
Pressure cook the batter on high heat for 30-40 mins(w/o the whistle). Switch off the gas and remove it out of the pressure cooker. Let it stand to cool. Once its cooled down completely cut it into cubes or whatever shapes fancy you. Pour the garnish on top.

Seasoning:(optional)
Heat oil and add add mustard seeds, when they start to sputter turn off heat and pour it on top of the garnished Dhoklas.

Serve as is or with any other chutney. I served it with my favorite Mint chutney.