If you are Rajashtani then you are definitely aware of dal baati churma. Not only in Indian state Rajasthan but also it is very popular in other states in western India as well as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh etc. Dal baati is actually two items but as it is served together that is why these two items become inseparable. People also prefer to have churma ( a sweet dish) along with dal baati.
If you do not belong to those areas or you do not eat outside or avoid trying different regional foods then you may not have heard about this food. In West Bengal, many people even never heard about this food. Though there are so many Marwari people are living in the city and many restaurants are also offering some Rajasthani foods.
Dal is prepared with different lentils & some spices whereas baati is something different. It is prepared with flour & spices and cooked in tandoor or even in fire by using coal or wood at an open surface. Nowadays people use gas tandoor or electric tandoor instead of using large size coal/wood fire tandoor.
This was even new to me until 2009 when the first time I ate dal baati in Jaipur, Rajasthan and I found it was good. I went there for few days because it was a short tour. After that I did not have an opportunity to try this but when I came to Mumbai. I tried dal bati there so many times. It is normally not so hard when it comes to enough ghee & properly cooked but sometimes you may find it hard to break, haha. so you may need to keep those baati in dal for sometimes. It will help baati becomes soft. Mostly when I tried dal baati churma in a restaurant, they actually break it into many pieces and serve dal over it and churma is served in a separate small bowl or sometimes even whole things are served in a multiple compartments plate. so that they can adjust everything in the same plate. Spicy pickle is also offered along with Rajasthani dal baati.
Try these too: 20 minutes tofu lo mein, potato tacos and vegetable lo mein
I even contacted with a tiffin-wala who used to provide lunch. He used to give dal baati during weekends along with a sweet dish. Those are basically homemade traditionally cooked dal baati. I liked those very much. Thereafter I tried to make dal baati many times. Making dal was not that much difficult but making baati is easy because you can enjoy this if your baati is hard enough to bite. So you need to make a perfect dough with all ingredients and you need to properly cook this. But you need a tandoor to make this. Traditional large tandoor is not available at home unless you live in a village where people may have a large tandoor in the courtyard or in unused land in the backyard. But it would be luxury to have a large traditional tandoor for people living in urban area. So they normally use electric tandoor. Nowadays gas tandoor also becomes very popular. You can even buy it online.
Dal baati recipe
- ½ cup wheat flour (atta)
- ½ all-purpose wheat flour, refined (maida)
- ½ semolina, suji/rava
- 2 tbsp Bengal gram flour
- 2 tsp ajwain
- 1 tbsp ghee
- Water as needed to make dough
- Salt as needed
- 1 cup of mixed lentils (tuvar/arhar, moong, chana/split-Bengal-gram dal in equal quantity) + 1 tbsp urad/split black lentils
- Spices (1.5 tsp garam masala, 2 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp chilli powder, 2 tsp coriander powder, 1.5 tsp whole cumin seeds, pinches of asafoetida, 3-4 bay leaves)
- 3 Green chilies
- Dry mango powder/ lemon juice / tamarind pulp as needed to bring sour taste
- ½ tbsp ghee
- ½ tbsp vegetable oil
- Salt as needed
- 1.5 cups water
- Mix all ingredients for baati and add little water to make soft dough and wait for 30 minutes
- Now make 6-7 small balls with that dough, keep those in tandoor and cook for 15 minutes, after each 3-4 minutes check baati, change position of baati if possible so that those will be cooked perfectly in all sides
- Before serving, add ghee on the top of baati and keep those baati on a hot pan for 5 minutes and serve, you can even use microwave oven
- Cook all lentils for 3-4 whistles and keep aside for further use
- Now heat oil in a cooking pan, then add all spices (except garam masala) one by one, add finely chopped green chillies and fry
- Now add boil mixed lentils with water and mix properly, let it starts boiling
- Then add garam masala & sour taste (dry mango powder,/lemon juice or tamarind pulp) and stir to mix
- Allow it to be cooked for next 5 minutes, switch of fire and add extra ghee & mix before serving
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