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Every month I am looking at all the different challenges that I am supposed to attempt.

One such interesting one is the North South Challenge. It’s a group organised by Divya of You Can Cook Indian Food where we are divided in two groups. The north team and the South team and every month the one person challenges the opposite team to try out one delicacy from their region.

Like Nabanita Das of Esho-Bosho-Aahare of the North team has this month challenged the Southern Team to make Dhokar Dalna.

I do not know about you I was sure there is dhoka in what I am reading.

It’s totally new to me and my first question was will anyone at home eat it? Should I make it?

So in this indecision I kept postponing making the curry. We are not great fans of mustard oil and to me Bengali food is synonymous with mustard oil.

But I could not shake the idea out of my head I kept reading about the dish trying to cook it mentally.

Crazy am I not?

Finally I tried it with regular cooking oil that I use and the recipe I used was a bit of mix from Nabanita and here and here.

The curry was well liked by all however the dhokar was much more appreciated. So much that I had to make it again today and this time I shallow fried them. Hubby was of the opinion that I should not fry them at all.  Wow what a lot of options for snacks! :0

So ladies let’s try out the delicious Dhokar Dalna.

Ingredients:

For the dhokar:

• 1 cup  Chana Dal
• ¼ cup toor dal
• 5-6 green chilies (adjust as per taste)
• 2 tsp ginger, grated
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• ¼  tsp pepper powder
• ¼   tsp garam masala
• Salt to taste

For the gravy:

• 1 big Potato, cut into small pieces
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
•  Garam masala(1-2 Bay leaves, Cinnamon, Cardamoms & Cloves )
• 1 tsp Chili powder
• ¼  tsp Turmeric powder
• ¼ tsp pepper powder
• ¼  tsp garam masala powder
• ½  tbsp Ginger paste
• 4-5 Green chilies
• oil for frying
• Salt to taste.

Method:

• Wash and soak chana and the toor dal for 4 hours.
• Grind chana dal coarsely (using water if needed) with little ginger, salt & green chili.
• Heat oil in a pan & add chana dal paste. Add pepper powder, red chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala.
• Stir well and fry.  Fry till moisture dries off.
•  Spread the mixture in a greased plate and leave uncovered to cool.
•  Cut in squares/diamond shapes.
• Seal the edges of the shaped cubes with your fingers and deep fry in oil till golden brown and keep aside. (This is important I tried some not sealing the edges and had had dhokar powder well fried and oil that I had to strain).

Your dhokar is ready. Let’s make the gravy now…

• In the same pan add the potatoes and deep fry till golden brown. Set aside.
• If you have too much oil reduce it to about 1 tblspn and add the bay leaf and the whole garam masala.
• Your oil is very hot so the garam masala will get done immediately  add the tomatoes and stir add the pepper powder,  ginger paste, turmeric powder, chili powder, garam masala , salt.  Fry till the oil oozes out.
•  Add water, fried potato & boil till the potatoes are done.
• Add already fried dhoklas & cook for 2 minutes.
• Toss in the green chilles and serve hot with rice.

Thanks Nabanita and Divya for a delicious new recipe that we all enjoyed.

Linking this to North-South challenge

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