Dal Batti, a combination of hand-roasted wheat dumplings (balls) cracked open and plenty of ghee and Dhal. I had the honour of eating dhal battis. Yes, you should be honoured or privileged to eat Dal Battis. Or else you wouldn't be reading this with watery mouth, rather than reminiscing the taste...And so it goes that I was posted in Jodhpur during my Air Force days and was in this city for three years. A friend of mine told me about Dal Batti, the native food. I was very much interested in to eat this Dal Batti for a variety of resons - I like native food, it was lunch time, I was a bachelor and hence on overheads and more than anything, I was hungry. You could have mixed a bit of masala over saw dust and passed it to me as some curry and I would have eaten that. Those days I had this power of digesting anything edible and we guys were always after food and always very hungry. May be because we slogged more than four hours exercising and playing games daily.
Oh yes, Dal Batti. My friend told me that it's a ball made of pound wheat, cooked in the natural oven (over and inside fire), eaten with plenty of dal (lentils). Add to the mixture generous spoonfuls of ghee accompanied with vegetable salad (onions and lemon), by the taste, he said that I would see paradise (with Ramba, Oorvasi I wanted to ask).
So we went on a sunny afternoon (May 49 degrees) to feast on Dal Battis. Enroute we had a bet that who so ever ate the most number of bhatis need not pay for the enteinment the rest of the day. Someone suggested, we could do good if we had a chilled beer each. We took a detour, had beer and headed for the reatuarant. Oops! it wasn't actually a restaurant, but a small enclosure (nevertheless a restaurant) with for tables. We occupied a table and asked for Dal Battis.
The bearer, Raju, a bright teenager, muscular and tall (Battis must be his staple food so we thought afterwards) brought us shiny big roung thalis (plates). He then put a lot of chopped onion and chillies. We then mixed them with a dash of lemon juice and waited for the battis. It came...brown balls resembling Tippu Sultan's miniature cannon balls but only steaming. Raju dropped two bhatis on my plane. Tong! it landed on my plate and rolled on to the salad. I held it with my hand and realized how hot they were! Raju then dismembered the battis, all the while fanning and shoo shooing his hands. I tased a piece. It was just burnt wheat flour but with a good after-taste. He then asked us to break the battis into smaller pieces and offered ghee. 10 gms or 20 gms he enquired. We settled for 10 gms each. But later took 30 gms each. He then asked us to mix the battis with the ghee. We did as we were told. I tased a piece yet again. It was good - wheat mixed with ghee. raju then brought a big pain of dhall and poured all around and on the battis. we mixed the battis, ghee and dal with a spoon and as instructed by Raju waited for two minutes for the ingredients to soak. And on the word Go! we started eating the dal battis. Raju asked us to eat more salad. No words can explain the taste of batti with salad unless you eat them. Yes Ramba and Oorvasi are not required to see or feel heaven. You remember I said one should be privileged to eat battis. Our next target was to eat as many you can. The battis were small in size when they were intact, but when dismembered, they were all over the place and two battis with dal could fill your plate. I managed to eat three and a half. The most by anyone and I was declared the winner.
The result of being the winner:
- I did not pay for any on the entertainment activities, but did not participate in any because I couldn't move
- I did not pay for the dinner - I could not even think of food let alone eat
- If anyone said Dhal Bhati the next three days, I felt nauseated
- I had to take a couple of digenes
- I played more the next day to digest the battis
Ingredients (http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10294)
For the dal or lentil:
• 1/2 cup chana dal or Bengal gram lentil
• 1/2 cup urad/urd/urid dal or black gram lentil, with skin
• 1/2 cup moong dal or green gram lentil, with skin
• 1/2 cup arhar or tuvr dal or red gram dal
• 6 cups water
• 1 level tsp. or less turmeric or haldi powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt (to taste)
For Tarka or tempering:
• 1 tbs. oil or ghee
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• A large pinch of heeng or hing or asafoetida powder
• 1 tsp. grated ginger
• 2-3 green chillies (to taste) finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp. (to taste) red chilli powder For bati or dumplings:
• 3 cups chapatti atta or flour (3/4 white and 1/4 plain flour mix can be used)
• 1 cup semolina
• 1 cup yoghurt
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• Water to make dough
• A small bowl of melted ghee or clarified butter
Instructions
1. Clean, wash and cook dals with turmeric, salt and water until tender. Pressure cook the dal. Add more water if too dry. It should be stew like consistency.
2. Tempering or tarka:
- Heat ghee or oil in a ladle.
- Add cumin and asafoetida.
- When the seeds splutter, add ginger and green chillies and fry for a few seconds, until ginger is lightly brown.
-Add chilli powder and quickly add to the dal, covering the lid immediately This helps to infuse flavours.
- Keep aside
3. Making dumplings:
- Place all ingredients in a large bowl or a food processor and make a firm dough.
- Divide it into 16 portions and make balls.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 F or 180 C for 20 minutes.
- Turn over and cook for further 10 minutes.
- Turn oven off and leave dumplings in for a further 10 minutes. Oven times vary so make sure dumplings do not burn and are cooked thoroughly. They should be lightly browned.
- Dip each dumpling in melted ghee and take out immediately. Keep aside in a warm dish or casserole dish.
- Serve hot with Dal.
Oh yes, Dal Batti. My friend told me that it's a ball made of pound wheat, cooked in the natural oven (over and inside fire), eaten with plenty of dal (lentils). Add to the mixture generous spoonfuls of ghee accompanied with vegetable salad (onions and lemon), by the taste, he said that I would see paradise (with Ramba, Oorvasi I wanted to ask).
So we went on a sunny afternoon (May 49 degrees) to feast on Dal Battis. Enroute we had a bet that who so ever ate the most number of bhatis need not pay for the enteinment the rest of the day. Someone suggested, we could do good if we had a chilled beer each. We took a detour, had beer and headed for the reatuarant. Oops! it wasn't actually a restaurant, but a small enclosure (nevertheless a restaurant) with for tables. We occupied a table and asked for Dal Battis.
The bearer, Raju, a bright teenager, muscular and tall (Battis must be his staple food so we thought afterwards) brought us shiny big roung thalis (plates). He then put a lot of chopped onion and chillies. We then mixed them with a dash of lemon juice and waited for the battis. It came...brown balls resembling Tippu Sultan's miniature cannon balls but only steaming. Raju dropped two bhatis on my plane. Tong! it landed on my plate and rolled on to the salad. I held it with my hand and realized how hot they were! Raju then dismembered the battis, all the while fanning and shoo shooing his hands. I tased a piece. It was just burnt wheat flour but with a good after-taste. He then asked us to break the battis into smaller pieces and offered ghee. 10 gms or 20 gms he enquired. We settled for 10 gms each. But later took 30 gms each. He then asked us to mix the battis with the ghee. We did as we were told. I tased a piece yet again. It was good - wheat mixed with ghee. raju then brought a big pain of dhall and poured all around and on the battis. we mixed the battis, ghee and dal with a spoon and as instructed by Raju waited for two minutes for the ingredients to soak. And on the word Go! we started eating the dal battis. Raju asked us to eat more salad. No words can explain the taste of batti with salad unless you eat them. Yes Ramba and Oorvasi are not required to see or feel heaven. You remember I said one should be privileged to eat battis. Our next target was to eat as many you can. The battis were small in size when they were intact, but when dismembered, they were all over the place and two battis with dal could fill your plate. I managed to eat three and a half. The most by anyone and I was declared the winner.
The result of being the winner:
- I did not pay for any on the entertainment activities, but did not participate in any because I couldn't move
- I did not pay for the dinner - I could not even think of food let alone eat
- If anyone said Dhal Bhati the next three days, I felt nauseated
- I had to take a couple of digenes
- I played more the next day to digest the battis
Ingredients (http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10294)
For the dal or lentil:
• 1/2 cup chana dal or Bengal gram lentil
• 1/2 cup urad/urd/urid dal or black gram lentil, with skin
• 1/2 cup moong dal or green gram lentil, with skin
• 1/2 cup arhar or tuvr dal or red gram dal
• 6 cups water
• 1 level tsp. or less turmeric or haldi powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt (to taste)
For Tarka or tempering:
• 1 tbs. oil or ghee
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• A large pinch of heeng or hing or asafoetida powder
• 1 tsp. grated ginger
• 2-3 green chillies (to taste) finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp. (to taste) red chilli powder For bati or dumplings:
• 3 cups chapatti atta or flour (3/4 white and 1/4 plain flour mix can be used)
• 1 cup semolina
• 1 cup yoghurt
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• Water to make dough
• A small bowl of melted ghee or clarified butter
Instructions
1. Clean, wash and cook dals with turmeric, salt and water until tender. Pressure cook the dal. Add more water if too dry. It should be stew like consistency.
2. Tempering or tarka:
- Heat ghee or oil in a ladle.
- Add cumin and asafoetida.
- When the seeds splutter, add ginger and green chillies and fry for a few seconds, until ginger is lightly brown.
-Add chilli powder and quickly add to the dal, covering the lid immediately This helps to infuse flavours.
- Keep aside
3. Making dumplings:
- Place all ingredients in a large bowl or a food processor and make a firm dough.
- Divide it into 16 portions and make balls.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 F or 180 C for 20 minutes.
- Turn over and cook for further 10 minutes.
- Turn oven off and leave dumplings in for a further 10 minutes. Oven times vary so make sure dumplings do not burn and are cooked thoroughly. They should be lightly browned.
- Dip each dumpling in melted ghee and take out immediately. Keep aside in a warm dish or casserole dish.
- Serve hot with Dal.
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