Few days back I was given a bottle of Four Seasons Viognier wine (a type of white wine) and asked to review it. I am a totally non wine drinker and pairing Wine with food comes a bit unnatural to me. I have always known Wine to be paired with non vegetarian and non Indian food. Since none of the hotels would allow me to take my wine in and also because I would never have non vegetarian food, trying and reviewing this wine was a nightmare. However, after a lot of maska polish to my wife and mom (wife was easy, mom was hell) I managed to get to sit at the dinner table with a little wine.
I had specifically asked that a mildly spiced food be prepared. The women folk at home were already pissed off with my pestering since morning so they decided to get back at me. I was served Khaman Dhoklas. Now if one were to try and guess what my expression would have been then, let me give you some clues. It was that of a contorted owl, a wide gaped donkey and snooty rat combined! How on earth can one pair wine with Gujarati food. But I was wrong. The wine went excellently with the Khaman Dhoklas. So here I have for you the recipe of Khaman Dhoklas! Now since my mom is already asleep, I can do nothing but borrow Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe. His original recipe can be found here.
Ingredients
| Gram flour (besan),sieved | 2 cups |
| Yogurt,beaten | 1 cup |
| Salt | to taste |
| Turmeric powder | 1/2 teaspoon |
| Green chilli-ginger paste | 1 teaspoon |
| Oil | 2 tablespoons |
| Lemon juice | 1 tablespoon |
| Soda bicarbonate | 1 teaspoon |
| Mustard seeds | 1 teaspoon |
| Fresh coriander leaves,chopped | 2 tablespoons |
| Coconut,scraped | 1/2 cup |
Method
- Take gram flour in a bowl.
- Add yogurt and approximately one cup of warm water and mix. Avoid lumps.
- Add salt and mix again.
- Leave it aside to ferment for three to four hours.
- When gram flour mixture has fermented, add turmeric powder and green chilli-ginger paste. Mix
- Heat the steamer. Grease a thali.
- In a small bowl take lemon juice, soda bicarbonate, one teaspoon of oil and mix. Add it to the batter and whisk briskly.
- Pour batter into the greased thali and place it in the steamer.
- Cover with the lid and steam for ten minutes.
- When a little cool, cut into squares and keep in a serving bowl/plate.
- Heat remaining oil in a small pan.
- Add mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to crackle, remove and pour over the dhoklas.
- Serve, garnished with chopped coriander leaves and scraped coconut.