The Daal Baati Party!

Daal-baati is a staple food item in Rajasthani cuisine. You can also find it featuring in various restaurants and homes in the 'Malwa' region of Madhya Pradesh.

Baatis are small balls of wonder soaked in enormous amount of ghee (clarified butter). If you don't like ghee, baati is not for you! Baati is largely made of wheat flour with addition of another flour in a smaller amount. I have seen them being made with makai (maize) and besan (chickpea) flour. Baatis are normally eaten with daal, where daal preparations vary in every household. Some people make it with panchkuti daal (a mix of 5 lentils), some with a mix of split urad (split black gram) and chana daal (split Bengal gram), some with a mix of tuar (split pigeon pea) and chana daal and many times, with just tuar daal. Similarly, the seasoning varies from a plain tadka (tempering) of ghee, heeng (asafoetida), jeera (cumin) and red chilli powder to a more complex one of the former plus onions, green chillies, tomatoes, garlic, ginger etc.

Accompanying daal baati is normally a dry side. Again numerous possibilities here. But in the various places I have eaten daal-baati, the vegetables used are either potatoes or eggplants or a combination of both. Most common in the marwari households in Indore is sookhe aaloo (potato chunks seasoned with dry spices). Then comes baingan ka bharta (made with fire roasted eggplants). another common side is aloo-baingan ki sabzi (potatoes and eggplants cooked with tomatoes and other spices). A new side that I tried very recently is aloo ka bharta (Indian mashed potatoes if I may).

And then there has to be a platter of pickles and chutneys. Most common being mango or green chilli pickles. Chutneys are normally green chutneys made with cilantro and raw mangoes or lemon juice. The other variety is the fiery garlic and red chillies chutney.

The right way to eat daal baati is using your hands. You are supposed to mash the baati, pour daal over it, add a stream of warm ghee, mix it all and eat with some chutney/pickle and the side sabzi in every morsel.

Now comes my experiences with daal-baati :) We never made it at home! It would be a popular picnic item when cooking was done at the picnic spot. Either a cook who accompanied us or a handful of ladies (and some gentlemen) who were baati experts would be busy preparing the lunch treat. I have clear memories of one such picnic on a field in a small village close to Bhopal. I was a kid at that time and wouldn't have cared less what was for lunch, leave alone how they were making it! So I don't know how they did it without any conveniences of a cozy kitchen!

The next time I had baati after many years was at my dearest friend N's house. Her mom made amazing daal baati, which was always served with oodles of ghee and tons of love. And all the while I was in Indore, she would call me every time she made it :) Those were the days!

And then someone told my dad about a restaurant located in the Cloth Market in Indore. It was called Prithvilok. Now let me tell you what Cloth Market looked like. Cloth market (or Kapda Bazaar) was located in the heart of Indore, a city that was once known for its cloth mills. So it is not hard to imagine the huge trading community in Cloth Market, especially whole-sale. Cloth Market is *always* full of people. To accommodate the cloth merchants who come from all over the country to buy and sell cloth, there were a number of dharamshalas/lodges/hotels in close vicinity. One such lodge was Prithvilok and no marks for guessing that they served food too. The first time we went there was on Sunday afternoon (Cloth Market shops used to be closed on Sunday). We met with a plain facade of a lodge and a long flight of stairs. As we walked up the stairs we saw dormitory like rooms with a good number of beds and people sitting there chatting or lying down. As we went up to the next floor we saw a little lobby leading to the restaurant. And there were rooms at the other end of the lobby. Probably enough to drive people away! But the fact that we were brought there by my father's colleague Mr. A and his insistence on the good quality of the food kept us going. Once we entered the restaurant we were in for a surprise! The restaurant looked nice and new and clean and actually tastefully decorated. Mr. A informed us that it has been renovated over the years. Good :) Now coming to the food, the treat would start with a glass of aam ka panna ( a sweet and tangy raw mango drink) or chach (salted buttermilk) and then followed up with a huge metal thali that a stream of servers would fill even before you could say Thali! There was daal, kadhi, 3-4 vegetables, papads, chutneys, pickles, salads... the usual Indian thali fare. But the fun started when they started bringing in these heavy weight baatis saturated with ghee. These people could continue feeding you forever and ever if you didn't say no! We would always come back with Prithvilok full enough to be sick! :) But it was one amazing place! I don't know if I will even get a chance to visit again. I could still go on about it and this post is already getting way out of limits and I still haven't talked about our own daal-baati party!

So with all those baati experiences it’s not hard to crave for this delicious treat. The first time I had baati in the US was when N visited me in Texas and made her mom proud by making baati for me :) And she did make her mom proud, practically mummy ka naam roshan kiya :) The baatis were so so good, thank you sweetie-pie :)

And then another time was when our marwari friend B treated us to this most amazing daal baati ever! Her recipe was so different, the baatis had a stuffing and the daal was made with split urad. We did not need any sides or any chutneys to go with it! It was just so good!

Several times we have talked about making daal-baati with our friend V (who also happens to be my ex class-mate from Indore). So one Sunday morning (after several failed plans to meet up and make daal-baati), V called his mom in India to get baati recipe. An hour or so later he arrived, armed with the recipe, 2 big eggplants for baingan ka bharta and a jar of ghee :) We set out to make, baatis, daal, baingan ka and aloo ka bharta.

THE BAATIS
Ingredients (for about 15 baatis)-
1. 3 cups whole wheat flour.
2. 1.5 cup chickpea flour (besan).
3. 8 tbsp or so of clarified butter (ghee).
4. Salt to taste.
5. 1.5 tsp baking soda.
6. water to knead.

Method -
Sieve everything except ghee together. Add ghee to the flour gradually, rubbing with your hand. Once all the ghee is mixed, gradually add water and knead as you would do for rotis. The dough has to be firmer than that of roti, more like parathas I would say. The ghee measurement I have given here is approximate. The point is to have enough ghee (yes you have to be a braveheart!) to make a smooth dough. Set the dough aside for 15-30 minutes and then form small golf sized balls with it. Sweet R did this for us, every baati was exactly the same size! :) This being our first attempt at baati, we did not dare try bigger baatis. We were worried they might stay uncooked at the core.

Now preheat your oven to 300 deg F. Grease a baking sheet and place the baatis over it. Bake for about 10-15 minutes (again approximate) I didn't look for the time as I was busy doing other things meanwhile. Sorry! When they start looking cooked, turn them over and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Keep checking back (since I was stupid enough to not note the baking time!) :D
Our baatis cracked on the top! I don't know why, may be my dough did not have enough water! But they tasted great anyways so we didn't mind. When the baatis are done, heat ghee in a sauce pan and dip each baati in it. I remember B had deep fried the baatis in hot ghee before serving.



DAAL
Daal this time for us was made with an interesting mix. R had some mixed urad-tuar left over from dinner last night and I had some tuar daal in my freezer. So here's what we did.

1. Heat ghee, add mustard and cumin seeds followed by heeng and curry leaves.
2. Add grated ginger and chopped onions. Sauté till onions are soft.
3. Add chopped tomatoes and slit green chillies and cook till tomatoes are soft and blend with the onions.
4. Now add red chilli powder and turmeric.
5. Add R's (already very tasty) and my thawed tuar daal. Add salt if needed and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add fresh cilantro when done.

You can use any combination of daals with this tadka. Most common combos are chana and tuar and chana-urad-tuar.



BAINGAN KA BHARTA
Ingredients (serves 4):
1. 2 large eggplants (the roasting variety)
2. 1 cup chopped onions.
3. 1 cup chopped tomatoes.
4. 2 chopped green chillies.
5. Oil to cook
6. salt and red chilli powder to taste.

Method:
1. Roast the eggplants. You can do this in your oven or on the stove top. I placed a perforated grill plate on the stove (at medium heat) and placed the eggplants over it. As the skin begins to char, keep rotating the eggplants to cook uniformly. This will take about 20 minutes (more in the oven, but oven is less messy and roasting is more uniform. Make sure all doors and windows are open or your home will smell like a roasted eggplant for 3 days! Lighting a candle helps :)
2. When eggplants are thoroughly cooked (insert a knife and make sure it goes all the way in easily), immerse them in cold water.
3. Ad they cool down, remove the skin with your hands and give a quick wash to the eggplant insides. mash into a pulp.
4. Heat oil (about 1.5 tbsp), add onions and sauté. After 2 minutes or so add tomatoes and green chillies. Again sauté for 2 minutes.
5. Now add the eggplant pulp, red chilli powder and salt. Mix well and suate for 5 minutes.
6. Let the bharta cook till oil separates (my oil never separated! although I did put in a lot of it!)
7. Add chopped spring onions/cilantro or both for garnishing.

You can always add garlic or other spices of your choice. I just did what my mom does :) and I just love her bharta . You can also add green peas with the eggplant pulp. I didn't do it this time, I had a feeling peas will break the smooth texture of the bharta needed to go with the baatis.



ALOO KA BHARTA
(serves 4)
1. Boil and peel 4 medium potatoes.
2. Add salt to taste and mash.
3. Heat 1 tbsp oil, add mustard seeds and 2 finely chopped green chillies.
5. As mustard begins to splutter, add heeng and curry leaves.
6. Turn off the flame, wait for a minute and then add 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder.
7. Add this tempering to the mashed potatoes and mix well. I heated the potatoes while mixing the tempering.
8. Turn off the heat and add lemon juice to taste.
9. Garnish with cilantro and desiccated coconut (R's idea :))



LAHSUN KI CHUTNEY (Garlic chutney)
1. We used maharashtrian peanut chutney as base for this chutney.
2. Heat oil, add 4-5 roughly chopped cloves of garlic and let them turn golden. Add 2 dry red whole chillies. Mix in the peanut chutney.
3. let cool and grind to a fine paste with salt and a little lime juice.

If you don't have peanut chutney handy, use roasted peanuts, cumin seeds and increase the amount of red chillies.

I think that is it!

We then spread out a table cloth on the floor. We had to eat our baatis right! Where sitting on the floor, cross-legged and eating with our hands is the RIGHT way :)



This is what my plate looked like (Clockwise - red chilli pickle, baingan bharta, aloo ka bharta, chopped onions, lahsun ki chutney and crushed baati topped with daal). We refrained from adding extra ghee but that would be the right RIGHT way to eat your baatis :)

Okra Gojju with Curd rice

I was blessed with two kannadiga room-mates for a while, thats when I understood the subtleties of varieties of rasam and those flavor-explosions called gojjus. So when I read about RCI karnataka, the first thing that came to my mind was gojju!

As students in Texas, we did not get a chance to visit Indian grocery stores very often and thus typical Indian vegetables did not make it to the table much. This one time when we brought some fresh okra, my sweet room-mate Roopa decided to make some bendekay gojju out of it. I loved it! It was a totally new flavor for me and a taste that I would remember forever :) So, when I decided to make okra gojju for Asha's RCI karnataka, I turned to Roopa once again. And she did send me a detailed recipe. Roopa asked me to use the measurements as a guideline and not to follow strictly. I pretty much stuck to the measurements she had given me :) I will copy-paste the recipe here as is-

"Bhindi/pumpkin gojju :
bhindi cut like that for sabji and pumpkin, cut small and long. approx 1lb.
heat up few spoons of oil (more for bhindi), splutter some mustard, add a tablespoon of urad dal and chana dal. fry till golden.
split a couple of green chillies and add (you will add more red chilli kind of spice later, this is mostly for flavor).
add the cut and washed veggie and cook till almost done or till the sticky stuff is gone.
while this is cooking roast 1 table spoon of white sesame seeds in a hot dry pan till they start to splutter. make a dry powder of it afterwards.
now to the cooked veggies add some :
water - lets say half a cup,
sambar/rasam powder -about 1 tablespoon (or gojju powder, but I use this now till my mom gets me more !),
turmeric - a pinch,
salt to taste,
and jaggery - a 1" cube kinda piece (it has to be sweet)
tamarind paste- about one teaspoon (and sour :) )
and add the sesame powder.
and now boil it till it completely cooks ! goes great with rice or chapathis ...best with curd rice ;)"

I closed my eyes and followed her recipe :) I did not have fresh okra so I used the frozen version. I had to add a good amount of oil to make sure the okra didn't turn out sticky. I heated some oil, added mustard and the lentils and added the okra straight out of the freezer without thawing. Thawing makes it real sticky! Rest of the steps were exactly the same. I did not have any home-made rasam/sambar powder, so I used store-bought 'Badshah' sambar masala.

The gojju turned out real tasty. I still think the one that Roopa had made was better! :) Using frozen okra and store -bought sambhar masala could not match the 'real' thing. But nevertheless it was quite close and very very satisfying.



I made simple curd rice to go with it. Cannot vouch for the authenticity :)
1. Cook rice and let it cool. Mix some curd, chopped cilantro and salt with the rice. Curd should be enough to make the rice thoroughly wet.
2. Heat a little oil, add mustard seeds, chopped green chillies, heeng and a dry red chilli. Add this to the curd rice and mix well.



Okra gojju with curd rice is my entry for RCI Karnataka, hosted by Asha of Foodie's Hope.

Tomato Chutney

I am very fond of this chutney. Parthiv loves coconut chutney as an accompaniment to idlis and dosas. But this chutney now happily finds its way to his plate :) Its extremely easy to make and is really delicious. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients -
1. 2 large tomatoes, washed and cut in large chunks.
2. 0.5 tsp mustard seeds
3. 2 tsp split black gram (dhuli urad daal)
4. 2 tsp daaliya/bhuni chana daal/split roasted gram
5. 2 tsp whole coriander seeds
6. 3-4 curry leaves
7. A pinch of heeng (asafoetida)
8. 2-3 dry red chillies
9. 1 tsp sugar
10. 1 tsp tamarind paste
11. 1 tsp oil
12. Salt to taste

Method -
1. Heat oil in a sauce pan, add mustard seeds and wait for a few seconds.
2. Add ingredients #3 to 8 and saute till the colors change to just a shade darker and the seeds get fragrant.
3. Add chopped tomatoes, tamarind paste, salt, sugar. Mix well and cover.
4. Cook till tomatoes are soft.
5. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool down.
6. Grind to a fine paste.
7. Serve with idlis/dosas/uttapams.

Check out tomato chutney's picture in this post

Veggie Quesedillas

My husband is a picky eater when it comes to eating veggies. Think about it, a vegetarian, picky about veggies... doesn't add up :D But wrap and roll the veggies in sandwiches, mash them in a bhaji, stuff them in parathas, simmer them in tomatoey gravies, blend them in a soup, hide them in a quesedilla and he won't complain! You get the picture right? So, this recipe of quesedilla works very well for me and he loves it! This recipe is again inspired by Nupur's Wild Mushroom quesedillas :)

Here's what you need:
1. Tortillas
2. Any cheese of your choice, we *always* use hot pepper jack and love it!
3. Veggies like onions, mushrooms, bell peppers (all possible colors :)), zucchini, corn, chopped spinach and anything else that you can think of! I like to use veggies which get tender on a little sauteing and are not watery.
4. Butter
5. Salt and black pepper

Here's what you do:
1. Heat a little butter in a frying pan (wider the better) - add onions, corn and mushrooms, saute for a couple of minutes.
2. Add rest of the veggies and saute till just tender. Add spinach at the end. Add salt and pepper. 3. Place a tortilla on a flat surface, sprinkle some cheese all over. Spread the veggies. You can add pickled jalapeno rings too.
4. Spread another layer of cheese and place another tortilla over. Make sure the tortillas you pick are similar sized.
5. Now heat a flat pan (tava), apply a little butter and place the quesedilla on it. The flame should be medium-slow. Press slightly and flip after a minute or so. Repeat on the other side.
6. Remove from flame and cut into slices.

Here's how you serve: We normally eat quesedillas with fresh salsa, guacamole and light-sour creme (occasionally).

For the salsa: I use the chopper attachment in my hand-blender to prepare salsa. I chop 1 tomato, a little bit of onion, some cilantro, a little lime juice, salt, and 2-3 pickled jalapeno rings (or you can use any kind of fresh green pepper, depending on how hot you want your salsa). Slightly blend all this together to get a chunky salsa.

For the guacamole: Take the flesh of a ripe avocado, mash it or blend it in your blender. Add lime juice while doing this to avoid discoloration. Add a 2 tbsps of finely chopped onions, tomatoes and cilantro. You can also add green pepper and garlic if you prefer. Add salt and guacamole is ready. Very tasty and very healthy!



Parthiv loves these quesedillas and I do too! They are quick, colorful, tasty and you can make them quite nutritious with a wise selection of veggies. You can also add any kind of cooked beans to the veggies while sauteing. It makes a good appetizer when serving to a large crowd. They can be made in advance and lightly reheated in the oven before serving. Or if you will have time to roast the tortillas, you can assemble them in advance and roast just before serving.