Mama's Savory Cake Recipe - Khatta Dhokla

Khatta meaning sour in gujju language and dhokla means steamed and spongy cake concoct through fermentation. Gujjus are die-hard food fanatics for the most part when it is dhoklas. Yellow dhoklas are eaten conventionally and cooked most of the times at my home in Mumbai be it as breakfast, lunch or dinner. Yellow dhokla comes in two forms, if we talk about the taste – the sweet ones are the Khaman dhokla and another is Khatta dhokla which is totally opposite from the taste of the Khaman. I have also shared the recipe of White dhokla that does not necessitate fermentation.

Khatta dhokla contains bengal gram and rice where they are soaked together and fermented for a number of hours. They are not only sour, but peppery in taste due to the addition of ginger and green chilies. We also put in Eno salt so that the batter rises rightly but you can skip this ingredient by adding baking powder and baking soda as its substitute, I will share the recipe of dhokla without ENO salt any time. Due to the addition of unflavored ENO and asafetida or hing, dhokla is easy to digest food. I have put a blanket of tempering elements on the final steamed cake so that it becomes moist and succulent in taste. You can also garnish these pieces with chopped mint leaves and cilantro. It goes well with coconut mint chutney and red chili dipping. Let’s start by soaking the pulses.

Mama's savory cake recipe - khatta dhokla

Preparation Time: 10-15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 2 persons

Ingredients:

½ cup Rice + ¼ cup Bengal gram or Chana dal – soaked overnight

½ cup sour yogurt

4 tablespoon cooking oil

1 stick curry leaf

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

5 chopped, green chilies

1 inch peeled and chopped ginger

¾ cup water

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon salt, as per the taste

1 teaspoon ENO salt

½ teaspoon asafetida meaning hing

Method:

• Fermentation 1: Soak the above mentioned measurement - cups of pulses together for minimum 5 hours or overnight.
• After that, drain all the water and grind the pulses along with 5 green chilies and 1 inch of ginger, add water as needed. Remove that smooth paste and set aside.
• Fermentation 2: In this smooth paste, add ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, salt, ½ teaspoon asafetida powder, ½ cup sour yogurt and mix it well. Cover the bowl with lid and leave it to ferment for 10 hours. I would suggest you to follow Fermentation 1 procedure in the morning and Fermentation 2 procedure in the evening and allow it to soak overnight so that the next day the batter is ready to steam.
• After soaking overnight, add 2 ½ tablespoons of cooking oil and 1 teaspoon ENO salt in the batter and mix it properly.
• Now boil 1-2 glasses of water in steamer and allow it to turn hot, grease the steamer plates with a few drops of cooking oil, pour the dhokla batter and place the plates in the steamer. Note that you have to organize the plates in such a way that the plates should be above the water level and shouldn’t touch each other similarly like we steam momos.
• Allow the dhoklas to steam for merely 20 minutes on a medium flame, immerse a tooth pick and check if it comes out without any sticky batter on it and it is done. Remove the plates, allow it to cool for 10 minutes max and cut into any shape you like.
• In a small pan, heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and add mustard seeds, allow it to splutter.
• Add curry leaves, asafetida and when the leaves turn fragrant, immediately pour the tempering all over the steamed dhokla.
• Serve it hot with red chutney, coconut sauce or simply with tomato ketchup.
• Refrigerate the remaining batter if any. You can use this batter for the next 2-3 days and take a break from cooking!