mung ka dhokla recipe | dhokla made with mung daal

I can't decide whether I like mung ka dhokla more or the regular instant dhokla made with besan. These are the two variants I make more but a corn dhokla is also a winter favourite. Dhokla is a steamed 'bread' made using lentils and tempered with a mix of ingredients that make it nice tart, sweet and hot. Dhokla can be served as a gluten free snack, an appetizer or even in a thali meal. I wouldn't mind some dhokla with a salad though. 

Mung or moong ki daal is skinned mung beans considered very easy to digest and fairly rich in protein. Mung ka dhokla is a steamed bread that is served cold with a tangy hot and sweet tempering that makes the dhokla quite moist and soft. Actually I would say all types of dhokla are basically steamed lentil breads way more superior than the white commercial breads. Very similar to corn breads of Mexico but served differently. The Indian punch is unmistakable in a dhokla which is specifically a Gujrati riot of flavors.

 Besan ka dhokla is more common in our homes and most sweet shops all over north India. Everyone likes the dhokla with varying combinations of sweet, sour and hot flavours melding together with some coconut, sesame and mustard seeds in the tadka. I skip sesame most of the times although I love sesame otherwise. May be because I grew up loving the dhokla without sesame.

Mung ka dhokla is not very common but I started making it quite by an accidental lie I had to speak. Yes I do lie sometimes but I always have valid reasons for it. The valid reason for this lie came in the form of an unexpected query about the usual besan ka dhokla I had made one day. This was at my in law's place and I was a new bride on a spree to impress everyone with the things I could do. So the dhokla that day was appreciated a lot and after eating a few fat pieces of dhokla my father in law asked if those were 'mung ka dhokla'. I was startled at this question as I had got to know he can't digest besan that well and he had already eaten a lot of dhokla for my comfort. I said yes it is moong ka dhokla just to not panic him. He did not have any indigestion issues that day thankfully but then he started demanding for mung ka dhokla quite often. Later on I made the real mung ka dhokla but I wonder how could he not know the taste the first time.

This time when I visited my in laws for an extended weekend I was reminded of how he wanted mung ka dhokla last time I had gone and I could not make it then. I had time on hand this time around and made this one dish for everyone to enjoy.

There are special utensils for steaming dhokla but not to worry if you don;t have them. Keep a large vessel ready to boil water over which a metallic strainer will be placed. The dhokla will be steamed in a flat based thali (or large baking dish) kept inside the strainer and covered. You can steam dhokla in idli steamer as well.

ingredients 
(makes enough dhokla for 6 people as a hearty snack)

mung daal (skinned mung beans) 2 cups
salt to taste
soda bi carb 1 tsp
peanut oil 1 tbsp
mustard seeds 2 tsp
slit green chillies 3-4
curry patta 3-4 strings, leaves separated
grated coconut 1/2 cup packed
lime juice 2 tbsp
sugar 1 tbsp
hing or asafotida 1 pinch

procedure

Soak mung daal overnight and grind without added water the next morning. Soaking the mung daal for at least 4 hours is required so keep it ready if you need it in the evening. The paste should look like idli batter or loose cake batter in consistency.

Add salt and soda bicarb and mix really well. Pour the batter in one or 2 greased thalis depending on how large your steaming vessel is and how thick (tall) dhokla you want.

Place on the steamer contraption and steam for about 15 minutes or till a knife comes out clean.

Cool and make cuts into the steamed dhokla. Prepare a tempering to pour over it.

To make the tempering, Heat the oil and add hing to it. Now tip in the mustard seeds, green chillies and curry patta and let them cook a bit. Now pour 1 cup of water and add sugar to the mix. Let the mixture come to a boil before taking it off the flame. Add the lime juice and pour over the steamed dhokla. Let it rest till the dhokla soaked up all the water and tempering. Serve as desired, garnished with grated coconut.

This dhokla stays well for 8-10 hours on room temperature. I like mung ka dhokla better than the besan ka dhokla that I make at home. I think mung ka dhokla has it's own taste that grows on you. But Arvind likes the besan ka dhokla better. We rarely have common food choices you know.

I suggest making thinner dhokla when making it with mung daal as the rising is better this way. Or else you can add a tsp of fruit salt to the batter to make it rise more.

Chane ka saag | chickpea greens and a steamed savory snack called patoda or girmachh...

Yes, my grandmother used to call it chane ke saag ka girmachh as it is similar in the cooking technique to the arbi ke patte ka girmachh or patra, long cylindrical dumplings steamed and then cut into slices to shallow fry as a snack. Technically it is more similar to a gujrati muthia or any greens and lentil dumpling that we steam for snacking. I always wonder how versatile and yummy these dumplings are. I have posted another version of steamed dumplings that are tempered with sesame seeds etc for tea time snacking. These can be made with any green leafy vegetables but since I have had these in my childhood, made by my grandmother who was so find of spicy food, I love recreating this in my kitchen whenever there is a chance. The chance comes only when I get Chane ka saag in the market, that is a rare happening here in Delhi vegetables markets. In high end mega malls we don't get to see such desi seasonal greens while Celery and Parsley is abundantly available. I feel sad.

We should all keep writing in the suggestion books of those high end stores to stock Indian greens as well, till they realise there is market for the abundantly growing greens in out rural fields. Anyways, we get these at out local vegetable vendors or the farmers markets around the city. Cleaning this greens is a little time consuming but it's all worth it. Just discard the tough stems and keep the leaves and growing buds. Rinse them in several changes of water, drain and then chop finely. It's difficult to chop these finely as the leaves and twigs are quite small, just make a tight bundle, place on the chopping board and keep slicing away. It's a breeze after this.

ingredients...

chopped chane ka saag (chickpea greens) 250 gm or 3 cups chopped
besan(chickpeas flour) 1 cup
ginger-garlic-green chilly paste to taste (use a little more than you think is enough as besan needs a lot of seasoning)
cumin powder 1 tsp
black pepper powder 1-2 tsp or to taste
turmeric powder 1 tsp
red chilly powder to taste
salt to taste (you can taste the dough after mixing everything)
water about 1/4 cup or as required
mustard oil (or any other) fro greasing the plate and more mustard oil for shallow frying (about 1 tbsp is enough to fry about a dozen sliced discs)

procedure...

Mix everything together and make a dough adding minimal water.

Divide the dough into tennis ball size portions and shape cylindrical dumplings.

Grease a plate (microwave safe) and arrange all the dumplings over it. See this post to get a pictorial elaboration of the process, only the shape of the dumplings is different in this case.

Cover the plate with a dome cover or an inverted bowl (suitably sized) and steam the dumplings till firm. You can use the idli steamer meant of microwave or for stove top for steaming these dumplings. They cook quickly.

These dumplings taste really good while still hot and soft. You can have them as it is, but you need to cool them down before slicing and shallow frying.

Cool and place them all in a dabba or container to refrigerate. These keep well for a week and you can slice and shallow fry a small batch for evening tea every day.

To shallow fry, heat a tawa or flat griddle or frying pan with a tbsp of oil and arrange all the sliced discs on it. Let them brown on low flame on one side, then flip and brown it on the other side too. They become crisp on the surface and crumbly inside.

And yes, you don't even need a chutney with these. Spicy and perfectly crisp with a pleasant taste of chane ka saag. Tastes great with methi ka saag (fenugreek greens) as well.

These can also be curried like kofta curry or to make kadhi, but it has been a long time I curried these dumplings. These are so tasty as tea time snack either steamed or shallow fried that we never get enough leftover to make a curry with it.

I always say our traditional recipes are healthy and make use of whole foods. Don't you agree?

mung ke cheeley or mung ka cheela | UP wala paneer stuffed mung ka cheela

Food can be nostalgia inducing. Very much so. Sometimes people stop eating their favorite foods when an unpleasant experience gets attached with it. Even when the most pleasant memories are attached with a particular food you can feel like not having it again as the memories it brings can be pain inducing. This mung ka cheela has been one such recipe. 

A cheela is a savory crepe to make you acquainted with this term.

A couple of weeks back I was at a wedding party (In Lucknow) and mung ka cheela was being served as a part of a huge range of appetizers. I told an Oriya friend of mine to take her kids to that counter as kids like it very much. They were tasting mung ka cheela for the first time and this friend was intrigued enough to ask me how did I know that her kids would love it more than the other fancier and exotic looking things around. I chuckled in my mind.

The reason why I knew it was, Mithi loved it too. I remembered the time when other kids used to play with Mithi and this mung ka cheela used to be a hot favorite with all of them whenever they were together in my home. Probably it is the mildly favored slightly chewy nature of this cheela that kids find great to munch on, not that we adults find it like baby food.

It is a great breakfast dish but more popular as an appetizer in wedding parties I guess. The rolled up cheela sliced in 2 - 3 small portions seems to be very popular as I have witnessed. I am talking about the wedding parties in UP .

So I didn't make this particular cheela for a long time. Some 8 years to be precise, the time since Mithi stopped taking solid food. And I never felt like cooking her favorite foods ever again.

When I saw these small kids enjoying this cheela I realy felt good and when we came back home I soaked mung daal and made cheelas with freshly made paneer. Nostalgic I was but in a good way.  Now that her proud momma has learned to remember her good healthy days with a smile the nostalgia is good.

The cheela feels complex by it's looks but actually gets ready within 30 minutes at leisurely pace...when you start from soaked mung daal and cold skimmed milk from the fridge ...enjoying the process while making it.

ingredients...

skimmed milk 500 ml
2-3 tsp of white synthetic vinegar or lemon juice to curdle the milk
soaked mung daal withou skin 2 cups
turmeric powder (optional) 1 tsp
chopped onions 3/4 cup
chopped green chillies as per taste
salt to taste
black pepper powder 1 tsp for the stuffing
ghee to make the cheelas 1 tsp per cheela

preparation....

Heat the milk in a saucepan and grind the soaked mung daal while the milk comes to boiling temperature.

Mung daal paste is quick to make as the daal is quite soft. Add salt to taste and turmeric if using, adjust consistency to make thin pancakes or crepes.

Add the vinegar or lemon juice as soon as the milk reaches boiling temperature. Slowly adding the curdling agent helps in getting softer paneer or chhenna as it is called in some parts of UP. Strain the curdled milk as soon as you see the clear whey separating from the curdled milk.The solid part is panner also called cottage cheese. The whey can be used to knead chapati dough .

Add chopped onions, green chillies, salt and pepper to the paneer and mash to make a soft crumbly mixture .
Make thin crepes on hot griddle using very little ghee, it is usually cooked on one side as mung daal cooks quickly. Other side can be cooked if you feel like.

Spread the mixture over the crepe then fold the sides overlapping each other, pressing to flatten the rolled up cheela so the paneer stuffing sticks well to the moist inner layer of cheela.

Serve hot with any chutney of your choice, it can be served with a raita of your choice if you are having it for a meal.

A green coriander chutney goes well with it when it is served as a snack. The cheela can be roasted deep brown or light brown.

The browning has little difference on the final taste, browned ones are crispier though. But both get soft when cool and taste equally good at room temperature too and that makes it a good tiffin box option too. Those who are avoiding or minimizing carbohydrates in their diet  will find this recipe great.

 Mithi used to like this cheela any time of the day and it was a great distraction for her too. I could keep her occupied by giving her this cheela broken into small bits ( sometimes little paneer with just salt as a stuffing and sometimes plain cheela) as she used to pick up every bit with care using her thumb and index finger, popping the bits in her mouth immaculately, neatly. Those are happy memories ...

Make this cheela if you haven't had it already and let me know if it becomes your favorite....I made another version with tofu and i am sure you would like that too...

Note : some readers have indicated that this mung ka cheela could be similar to Andhra pesarettu. I have posted pesarttu earlier. The only similarity between this cheela (crepe) and pesarettu is the ingredient mung daal but the similarity ends there. This is an interesting example of how an ingredient behaves differently in it's different forms. In pesarettu the mung daal used is with skin and the texture and taste of the dosa is very different. Here the husked mung results into a mild flavor and an almost glutinous texture. I have indicated that the roll sticks by itself and stays in shape, that is because if the slightly sticky nature of the mung crepe here. The flavor of the yellow mung is so delicate that another version of mung ka cheela , which includes some seasoning in the batter, tastes very different from this one.

tea party for the two of us ......... yeasted savory paneer scones with masala chai

 I like my cup of tea as I like it 'at the moment' and I don't want any disturbances. The morning cuppa is a light brew of darjeeling tea, a large kettle full lying between us when we read the newspapers, huge mugs full of the golden brew filled twice.....no disturbance tolerated...:)

A couple of mugs of green tea during the day and the evening tea is definitely masala chai, the masala being different in different seasons .... and the tea time snack is mostly prepared fresh if we are not having jhaal muri or roasted chana masala .... it can be the crunchy sabudana vadas or rolled up khandvi or a fluffy dhokla . If we feel like having something fried it can be cabbage fritters or daal ke pakode or homemade samose .

 Sometimes I make some snacks which can be stored in the fridge and just warmed or stir fried with our evening tea, like that soft  fara or the patodas or basan ki katli . Cakes and cookies have become very rare although I remember I was on a cakes and cookies land just after our marriage, that explains the weight gain. Thank god I came back to healthy eating, now a days I bake cakes n cookies only if I am expecting kids at home or for gifting somebody.

I saw a pretty scone somewhere and was tempted to make one myself . I wanted a savory scone , I make one with spinach and ricotta but this time it had to be something different. I wanted fresh herbs but all the fresh herbs in my garden have succumbed to the heavy rain after a scorching summer, only a celery plant surviving though it looks battered by the bullets of raindrops ( it is really that forceful sometimes in this season ) ...

I used some dry rosemary and lots of peppercorns , the scones are yeast scones made without butter or baking powder . I like them better because I am more of a bread person than a cakes and cookies lover. 

ingredients...

yeasted bread dough (using whole wheat and APF in 1:1 ratio )

make the dough by rising the yeast in warm water with sugar , adding 1 teacup each of APF and wheat flour with a tsp of salt and kneading to make a soft elastic dough , rise the dough in a warm place till it doubles , knead again with oiled hands and it's ready to use

whole milk paneer 150 gm
celery leaves and thin stalks roughly chopped 1 cup
dry rosemary 1 tsp
black pepper corns 1 tbsp
black pepper powder 1 tsp
salt to taste
a little butter for brushing

preparation...

Pulse the chopped celery and black pepper corns in the chopper , now cut paneer in chunks and dunk it into the chopper too. Pulse for a minute so it becomes a coarse granular mixture. I wanted bits of paneer into the scones. Paneer can be grated and the celery finely chopped , most of the black pepper corns will remain whole and a few will be crushed. Add salt and pepper into it and then empty the contents into a mixing bowl.

Now place the yeasted bread dough over the paneer mixture and press to flatten . Fold the flattened dough with paneer side in and press it again on the paneer mixture . Keep pressing and folding till all the paneer mixture is incorporated into the layers of bread dough . Bits of paneer keep sticking to the surface of the dough and a few celery leaves can be sprinkled over the surface too.

Flatten the dough over a chopping board or any other surface , about 2-3 cm thick , and cut in squares or triangles.Place the pieces on a greased baking surface and let them rise till they double in thickness.

Bake in a preheated oven at 250 degree C for 12-15 minutes , or till cooked with a golden brown crust and feels light weight .

Brush the surface with butter and cool on wire rack . Best consumed warm, gorgeously buttery taste even though it does not have any butter in it . Paneer makes it soft and brushing with butter makes it even more fragrant ..

Celery is not the most favorite herbs of mine but it tasted really good with hot peppers and paneer , rosemary was a slight hint as it was not fresh . The scones are light with a gorgeous crust and soft pillowy interior , bits of paneer and celery are yummy.... perfect for any kind of milky tea ..

I made the scones in the late afternoon when it was still day light and the pictures are nice . But tea got very late in the evening so the tea pics are dark , but i still like the pictures with tea ...

The rustic look of these square shaped scones i like , if it is a bit too peppery for you , the quantity of whole pepper corns can be halved . And some more paneer can be added if you want it rich .

I saw scones at this tea party and wanted to have some instantly , made my savory version and now this tea is going to The mad tea party . Take a look what she has to say about freedom  .... I agree absolutely ..

I wanted to include a bunch or lovely pink Gomphrenas but the picture got really dark, blame the husband being very late from office...

Never mind , the tea and the scones are great. Have a good time.