Dhokla

Ingredients

Batter

• 300 ggram flour
• 100 gfine semolina
• 250 mlwater
• 200 gyoghurt
• 1 tbspginger and green chilli paste
• 1 tspsalt
• 1 tspsugar
• ½ tspturmeric
• 1 tspfruit salt

Tempering

• 3 tbspoil
• 1 tbspmustard seeds
• 1 tspsesame seeds
• 10curry leaves
• 2green chillies, slit
• 1 tspsugar
• 100 mlwater
• juice of ½ lemon

To finish

• grated coconut
• chopped coriander
• green chutney

Directions

1. Whisk the gram flour, semolina, yoghurt and water into a smooth batter with no lumps at all, then cover and leave it somewhere warm for 4 to 6 hours.
2. It should smell faintly sour and be visibly bubbly. This is an ordinary batter ferment, the same as for idli, and it is where the flavour comes from.
3. Stir in the ginger and chilli paste, salt, sugar and turmeric.
4. Oil a steamer tray and bring the steamer to a full rolling boil before you go any further.
5. Add the fruit salt with 1 tbsp of water, stir for about five seconds, and pour the batter into the tray immediately.
6. From the moment the fruit salt hits the batter you have seconds. It fizzes, aerates, and then collapses, and a batter left standing for a minute steams into a dense pancake instead of a sponge.
7. Steam for 15 to 18 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
8. Cool for 10 minutes, then cut into squares.
9. For the tempering, heat the oil, pop the mustard seeds, add the sesame, curry leaves and slit chillies, then add the water, sugar and lemon juice and bring it to the boil.
10. Pour the tempering evenly over the cut dhokla and leave it to soak in for 10 minutes.
11. That watery tempering looks wrong and is entirely correct. The sponge drinks it up and becomes moist, and dhokla without it is dry and crumbly.
12. Scatter with grated coconut and coriander and serve with green chutney.

Technique

• Have the steamer boiling before you add the fruit salt. Everything after that point is a race.
• Fruit salt is sodium bicarbonate with citric acid. Bicarbonate plus a teaspoon of lemon juice does the same thing.
• It is Gujarati farsan, sold by shops that make almost nothing else, and eaten at breakfast or with afternoon tea.

Substitutions

• Bicarbonate of soda with lemon juice in place of fruit salt.
• Instant dhokla flour, which skips the fermentation entirely and tastes noticeably flatter.

Variations

• Khaman dhokla, made with gram flour alone and no rice or semolina.
• With grated carrot or peas set into the batter.
• Cut into squares and shallow-fried the next day as a snack.

History

Gujarati steamed cake of fermented gram flour and rice, sold by farsan shops and eaten at breakfast with green chutney.

Frequently asked questions

What is Dhokla?

Dhokla is a snack from India: steamed fermented gram-flour sponge tempered with mustard seeds; Gujarati. Gujarati steamed cake of fermented gram flour and rice, sold by farsan shops and eaten at breakfast with green chutney.

How long does Dhokla take to make?

Dhokla takes 20 min plus 5 hr fermenting of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes 1 tray, 16 pieces. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Dhokla?

Yes, within limits. Bicarbonate of soda with lemon juice in place of fruit salt. Instant dhokla flour, which skips the fermentation entirely and tastes noticeably flatter.

What is the most important thing to get right in Dhokla?

From the moment the fruit salt hits the batter you have seconds. It fizzes, aerates, and then collapses, and a batter left standing for a minute steams into a dense pancake instead of a sponge.