I am a huge fan of recipes from Gujarat (except Gujarati sweet daal}. This one is one from the top of my top list. Whenever choti Jiji comes over to our place from Baroda, we always make it.
You’ll need:
2 cups Rice 1 cup Toor daal (Tuvar daal / Arhar daal / Split pigeon pea ) 1/2 cup Chana daal (Split Bengal gram) 1/2 cup Sour yogurt (dahi) 3-4 green chillies 7-8 cloves of garlic 1 tbsp peanuts (moongfali / shengdaana) – lightly roasted to peel off skin 2 heaped tsp white sesame seeds (safed til) 1/4 tsp soda bicarb Salt to taste Water
For tadka 3 tsp mustard seeds 1 tbsp vegetable oil red chilly powder to taste
Preparation:
Soak rice, toor daal and chana daal in about 3-4 cups of water and set aside for a couple hours. Drain, grind coarsely along with yogurt to create a batter of medium consistency. Use the water you drained to adjust consistency. Add salt and leave aside to ferment for about 5 hours. Crush together garlic, sesame seeds, green chillies and peanuts. Mix with the above batter. Adjust salt, add soda bicarb and whisk well. In a shallow frying pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add red chilly powder and then pour the batter over it till it forms about 1 inch thick layer. With a spoon get the oil to spread over the batter. Cover with lid and let it cook for about 7-10 mins. Open the lid and insert a fork in the center of handvo to check if it is done. The fork will come off clean if it is done fully. Carefully turn it upside down and cook till it becomes golden brown on both sides.
Cut into wedges and serve hot with tomato sauce and/or green chutney. Tastes great just by itself also. Can work as a breakfast item or main course. Ideal for those rainy Saturday evenings when you don’t feel like having just rice-daal-roti-subzi.
Some more variations: – Add finely chopped methi (fenugreek) leaves to the batter. – Add grated lauki(bottle guard) to the batter. Adjust water *after* adding lauki. – As a side grate some raw coconut and add to it chopped green chillies, a little salt and a little sugar. Super!
Try it!
