Dhokla

Dhokla in Marathi

Time: 30 minutes (excluding fermentation time)
Makes: 15 to 17 medium pieces

Ingredients:
1 cup Besan (Chickpea Flour)
3 tbsp Rava
1/2 cup yogurt, beaten
1/2 cup water (you may need a 1/4 cup more)
1/2 tsp grated ginger, 1/2 tsp green chili paste, a small pinch of citric acid (tip 2)
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp Baking soda
Sugar syrup with tempering:
2 tsp Oil, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, 1/8 tsp Hing, 2 tbsp sugar, 1/4 cup water, juice of 1 lemon

Method:
1) Take a deep, medium bowl. Add yogurt and water into it. Mix together. Add besan and rava. Blend well without any lumps. Make a semi-thick batter (consistency should be a little thicker than pakoda batter)
2) Cover this bowl and place it at a warm place. Let the batter ferment for atleast 10 to 12 hours (It may take a few more hours if the weather is cold. my batter took 20 hours to ferment)
3) Once batter is fermented, add grated ginger, salt, chili paste and a pinch of citric acid. Mix well.
4) Heat water into the dhokla steamer. Water level should be around 2 inches from the bottom. Grease the dhokla plates with some oil (grease the edges too).
5) Once water starts boiling, add baking soda into dhokla batter and whisk clockwise. Batter will become frothy. Pour the batter into greased dhokla plates. Put them into dhokla steamer. Cover and steam on high heat for 10 to 12 minutes.
6) Then turn off the heat and let it stand for 7 to 8 minutes. Open the cooker and wait till dhokla cools down a bit. Run a knife around the edges and remove dhokla into a plate.
7) Take a tadka pan. heat 2 tsp oil. add hing, turmeric powder and mustard seeds. Once mustard seeds are crackled, transfer this tadka into a small glass bowl. Add 1/4 cup water, sugar and juice of 1 lemon. Add little salt. Mix well. You may add little more sugar if required.
8) When dhokla is cooled down, drizzle the syrup with a spoon. Let the syrup soak into dhokla for few minutes.
Dhokla can be served warm or cooled. Garnish it with fresh scraped coconut and cilantro.
Serve it with green chutney.

Tips:
1) You can add a pinch of yellow food color into the batter to give a readymade, store-bought kind of look to dhokla :). However, do not add turmeric into the batter, as when turmeric mixes with baking soda, the color turns to red. Ultimately dhokla will become red.
2) Citric acid gives a slightly sour taste to the dhokla. My batter wasn't fermented enough and hence the sourness due to fermentation was missing. Therefore, if the batter is well fermented, no need to use citric acid.