Dhokar Dalna -- a lesson in Lentil Cakes

Spiced Lentil Cakes in a gravy

I am a lot like Big Sis S(BSS) or is it the other way round ? Whatever it is we both try to avoid things that are hard. Force us in a difficult situation and we will be fine coping with it and coming out stronger but given a choice we will try to avoid the difficult route.

Take BSS. She started Piano lessons some time last year. She loved it, practiced with diligence, sailed through her lessons as if she was a musical genius and played at the drop of a hat. Things started changing couple of weeks back. She started giving excuses around practice time, musical enthusiasm hit all time low and a marked drop in excitement on lesson days was noticed. A talk with her Piano teacher revealed what I already knew. Lessons had gotten harder and as Little Miss BSS was not able to sail through them as easily as on a cloud, she was no longer as enthusiastic about them.

We had a little talk, that kind of thing comes easy to me, I love it when I am at the giving end of such talks. Things seems to be better now, it is not that hard to motivate a 6 year old after all.

Take Me next. Dhokar Dalna, the master piece of Bengali Cuisine has eluded me all these years. I love Dhokar Dalna, to eat that is, to cook, I always dismissed it as "too difficult". Ok, I think I did it just once but that just reinforced my belief that it took too much time and oil to be deemed worth repeatable in my kitchen. However BSS's example triggered me. If that little girl could go back and do her "Lets Rock" or whatever sheet music several times over, I could at least try Dhokar Dalna once more.

So I made it today, I wouldn't say total success, there are these small nuances that need to be taken care of next time. I am yet to get the right texture for the lentil paste to make the cakes and some of my dhokas or lentil cakes were cracking which shouldn't happen. But I think I did conquer my fear. After all my three decades and more of existence has taught me that "Done is better than perfect"(quoted from Scott Allen), at least some times.

Dhokar Dalna, is one of the pillars of Niramish(Vegetarian) Bengali Cuisine, just like Shukto. The lightly spiced lentil cakes or dhoka are fried and then simmered in a gravy made with tomatoes and ginger, spiced with cumin and coriander. This dish traditionally is a purely satvik dish, sans any onion or garlic like most Bengali Niramish(vegetarian) dishes. Bengali widows were not allowed to eat onion or garlic and the Bengali vegetarian cuisine is mostly their contribution, that explains why it is satvik.

The dhokas are such a delight and the gravy is so fragrant that you wouldn't even miss onion or garlic in here. Enjoyed best with plain white rice, the dhoka sure brings joy, though it actually means "to cheat".

Get this recipe in my Book coming out soon. Check this blog for further updates. 

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Dhokar Dalna

To Make the Dhoka or the Lentil Cakes

Soak 1& 1/2 cup of Cholar Dal/Chana Dal/Bengal Gram in water overnight

Drain the water and grind
the lentils + 6 green chili + little salt
to a fine paste. Add little water as required for grinding

Heat Oil in a Kadhai/Frying Pan. Temper the Oil with
3/4 tsp of Whole Cumin seeds/Jeera,
a pinch of Asafoetida/Hing,
1/2 tsp of sugar,
and 1& 1/2 tsp of Ginger paste.

Add the lentil paste/ground dal to this and cook until the mix comes off the sides clean. The dal should be cooked so that is moist and soft but not runny or hard. Note: This step is really tricky.You need to stir vigorously else the paste will stick to the sides and you need to be careful to remove the moisture without making it hard. Add little oil as needed to avoid sticking.

Smear a flat plate with oil and pour the soft dal mix on this. While it is warm, pat lightly with your hands to form a flat, slightly raised round structure

With a knife make squares or diamond shapes

Heat some more Oil and fry the lentil cakes till golden brown on both sides. Take care that they do not break

To Make the Gravy

Heat Oil in a Kadhai or any other thick bottomed pan

Fry 1 potato chopped in eights till golden, remove and keep aside.

Temper the Oil with
2 small Bay leaf/Tej Patta,
3/4 tsp of Cumin Seeds/Jeera
and a pinch of Asafoetida/Hing

Add 1 tomato finely chopped and 1 tsp of freshly grated ginger. Saute till tomato is reduced to a pulp and there is no raw smell.

In 1 tsp of Yogurt, mix
1/2 tsp of Corriander Powder, 1/2 tsp of Roasted cumin Powder(or Regular Cumin Powder) 1/2 tsp of Red Chili Powder
and a little turmeric to make a fine paste.
Add this paste to the Kadhai. and fry the masala at low heat.

Add the potatoes and about 1&1/2 cups of water. Add salt to taste and cover and cook till potatoes are done.

Adjust for any seasonings, add a little sugar. Add about 1/4 tsp of Garam Masala and 1/2 tsp of Ghee and gently mix.Now gently slide in the pieces of dhoka or the fried lentil cakes. Simmer for couple of minutes to let the dhoka soak up the gravy. Note:If like mine some of your dhokas are cracking do not add them to the gravy, rather place them on the serving dish and pour the gravy on them.

Serve with hot white rice.


Other Dhoka Dalna around the Blogosphere with little variations:

Dhokar Dalna but with onion and garlic -- from One Hot Stove

Dhokar Dalna from Ahaar

Dhokar Dalna from SJ

Indrani's Dhokar Dalna

Sudeshna's Dhokar Dalna

Winter Wonderland

Spring, where art thou ?

Pudina Dhaniya Chicken -- Chicken in Mint Corriander Sauce

Sometimes readers will leave a comment asking "How much salt?". A weighted question with no answer that I know of. Honestly, I don't know how much salt. My salt adding tactics while cooking is start with less salt --> taste --> add a little more --> taste again -->...repeat steps till equilibrium is reached.... Yes do that and do not dip the same spoon again and again without rinsing and same goes about your finger, ok not the finger maybe.

Talking about salt did you know that every winter the salt dumped on US roadways is 13 times more than that used by the Food Processing Industry. Yes, the salt that prevents your car from skidding is actually seeping into groundwater supplies and into lakes and streams thus disrupting aquatic plants and animals. So is there an alternative that is as cheap ? Not really unless you accept more judicious use of the salt like salting only the main roads and highways and using sand on the inner roads. Or salting just before the storm hits rather than later. Or just staying indoors until the snow melts and it is Spring.

Now to the chicken which is a direct influence of the Chicken Hariyali Kabab recipes from Aayi's Recipes

That recipes is perfect and any normal person would not have messed with it.

Me, I am "Cuckoo", as Big Sis S says. I wanted to make a Chicken with Mint and Corriander, wanted a gravy based dish and loved the Hariyali Kabab recipe. So then this followed. The chicken is first cooked exactly as in Hariyali Kabab and then the gravy follows. If you don't want the gravy stop when the chicken is done, eat them all up, lick your fingers and then lament the loss of the gravy.

If you want a minty gravy, go ahead and make the gravy. Depending on your taste, increase or decrease the amount of mint and corriander in the gravy. In lack of a better name I just call it Pudina Dhaniya Chicken or Chicken in Mint & Corriander Sauce.


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Influenced by this Chicken Hariyali Kabab Recipe

Pudina Dhaniya Chicken/Chicken in Mint & Coriander Sauce

What You Need


Chicken ~ 2 lb skinned and cut in small pieces

To make a Masala for Marinade

Chopped Corriander Leaves ~ 1 cup
Chopped Mint Leaves ~ 1/2 cup
Green Chili ~ 4 (add more depending on your heat level)
Ginger ~ 1" peeled and chopped
Garlic ~ 4 fat cloves

Clove ~ 4
Cinnamon ~ 2" stick
Black Pepper Powder ~ 1 tsp

Thick Yogurt ~ 1/2 cup
Salt ~ to taste

For Gravy

Onion ~ 1 cup of finely chopped red onion
Garlic Paste ~ 1 heaped tsp

Kasoori Methi ~ 1 tsp crushed between your palm
Red Chili Powder ~ 1/2 tsp
Salt ~ to taste

Oil ~ for cooking

To make into a Masala Paste for Gravy

Chopped Corriander leaves ~ 1/4 cup
Chopped Mint leaves ~ 1/2 cup
Poppy Seeds ~ 1 tbsp
Cashew ~ 2 tbsp
Little water


How I Did It

Cooking the Chicken

Make a thick Paste with all ingredients listed under Masala For Marinade. Marinate the washed and cleaned chicken pieces with this spice paste for 2-4 hrs. or even overnight. The least I have done is 1 hr.

Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade, shake off any excess and arrange the pieces on a baking tray. I drizzle a little oil on the pieces before they go into the oven.

Preheat Oven to 350F. Bake the chicken for 20-25 minutes. If you DO NOT want to proceed to gravy then cook till chicken is done. Note: These are my Toaster Oven settings

Making the Gravy

While the chicken is in the oven, make a wet spice paste with all ingredients listed underMasala Paste for Gravy.We will add this masala paste to the gravy later.

Heat Oil in a saute Pan

Add the chopped onion and fry till onion is soft and translucent

Add 1 tsp of garlic paste and saute till fragrant.

Add the masala paste(that you made) and saute for couple of minutes. Add the remaining marinade(from the chicken) if any and cook the masala till you see oil seeping out from the edges

Crush the Kasoori Methi between your palms and add it to above. Saute for a minute. Add 1/2 tsp of Red Chili Powder. Adjust Chili Powder according to taste.

The chicken is done by now so add the chicken pieces to the pan and mix in with the spices. If there is liquid drippings in the baking tray do not add all the liquid now.

Cook the chicken with masala for a minute or two and then add the liquid drippings from the bake tray. Add little water as needed for gravy. Adjust for salt and seasoning and cook till the gravy thickens and is just enough to coat the chicken.

Once the chicken is done sprinkle some black pepper powder to give a nice heat effect.

BandhaKopir Tarkari -- a quick cabbage stir fry

For the better part of the last 7 days I have been home and so has the kids. That meant almost no computer time and no blog hopping either. Who would have the heart to keep sitting at the computer when the wireless mouse has been carried off by the little kitty ? And who would dare to open the laptop when one remembers what happened with endless plugging in and unplugging of the former ? The littlest one seems to have a penchant for doing everything that needs to be reprimanded with a big "NO" and then that doesn't stop her either, it just diverts her to doing the next.

By the time they went to bed it would be very late and the precious little me time I had there after, I spent reading Ruth Reichls' "Garlic and Sapphires", a charming read about her life as a food critic for New York Times, more precious because I could savor only a few pages each day. Something that she said in the first few pages of the book had struck a chord and remained with me.

"There is no right or wrong in matters of taste", she says " It's just a matter of opinion. And in the case of restaurants an extremely subjective one, given that no one has the faintest idea if what you taste when you bite into an apple is the same thing that I do." -- Ruth Reichl in Garlic and Sapphires

Isn't that true ? While I may praise the steamed Hilsa and prostate before it, you might find the pungent mustard smell disgusting. While you may be thinking Curd Rice is the ultimate in good food, I might think "blah" ! If we still narrow it down to two homes from the same region and same culture, I might think the cabbage dish with potatoes and spices that I have had since childhood is the only decent way to throttle the suffocating cabbage flavor you might say that the way cabbage was at your place, lightly spiced was the best.

When I had posted BandhaKopir Ghonto last time, a reader wrote in saying he had found the dish more spicy than he is used to. Perfect, that was his opinion. In the same post there was a comment by Eve's Lungs about a Bandhakopir Tarkari( a Cabbage Dish) done with the minimal of spices. I loved her recipe for its simplicity and yet was not sure if I could endure cabbage with so less to camouflage it's true nature. It turns out her cabbage dish is another favorite in Bengali Kitchen and my friend N vouched for it too.

So I went ahead and made it, I had little to lose, it was very simple to make anyway. The simplicity of this Cabbage dish floored us. To my utter disbelief, I loved it. The husband again said, this was like the cabbage dish from his neighborhood picnic. He had said the same thing about the BandhaKopir Ghonto, remember ?And I realized I have no idea what he is tasting when he is taking a bite of that cabbage and that a lot about what you are tasting has to do with the memory you are matching it up with.


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Bandhakopir Tarkari -- a cabbage stir fry

What You Need

The Vegetables

Cabbage ~ about 6-7 cups chopped in shreds
Tomato ~ 1 whole chopped small

Spices

PaanchPhoron ~ 1 tsp
Dry Red Chili ~ 2-3 whole
Roasted Cumin Powder ~ 1/4 tsp (optional but good)
Red Chili Powder ~ 1/4 - 1/2 tsp according to taste

Salt ~ to taste

Oil ~ for cooking

How I Did It

Chop Cabbage in fine shreds. You can also use the packets of coleslaw. I had about 6-7 cups of shredded cabbage. Soak the chopped cabbage in water for 10-15 mins and wash well.

Heat Oil in a Kadhai/Saute pan

Temper the oil with 1 tsp of Paanch Phoron and 2-3 Dry Red chili

When the spices sputter add 1 whole juicy tomato chopped. Saute till tomato softens and has no raw smell

Add the cabbage, a little at a time. As you add the cabbage saute and fold in with the spices.

After you have added all the cabbage add salt and Red Chili Powder to taste, mix and cover. Intermittently take off the cover and saute. Covering and sauteing helps in cooking the cabbage faster and also requires less oil I think. You may need to sprinkle a little water while cooking or the cabbage will stick to the pan and char.

When the cabbage is almost done, add 1/4 tsp of Roasted Cumin Powder (dry roast whole cumin seeds and grind to fine powder) and mix.

Once the cabbage is done adjust for salt and seasonings. If you want you can add a little lime juice to the end.

Now for the extra crunch, I crushed about 1/4 cup of dry roasted peanuts and added them to the dish. This step is optional and NOT part of the traditional method. Note: This adding peanut thing is totally my idea and I liked it since of course it was my idea :). Add peanuts at your own risk.

Enjoy by itself or as a side dish with rice and dal for lunch