Time for the Indian Cooking Challenge

The wise guy came home to this- how lucky eh!! Although I get treated to Madras Pavillion food when I return from travel (enh....who is paying attention I say!)

This month we were tasked with Dapka Kadhis for the May Indian Cooking Challenge and here it goes- a fairly straightforward recipe.

Ingredients

Dapka Recipe from Tarla Dalal

1 cup yellow moong dal (split yellow gram)
1 tbsp oil

 

1 tsp ginger-green chilli paste
1/2 tsp sugar
a pinch of soda bi carb (I did not add this, may be that is why mine turned out denser)
salt to taste
This was also home to mashed roasted eggplant (tiny home grown) and a roasted tomato (again tiny homegrown)

 

Ingredients

Kadhi from Tarla Dala

2 cups yogurt
5 tbsp besan (Chick Pea flour)
1 tsp ginger-green chilli paste
5 curry leaves (kadi patta)
3 tbsp sugar
salt to taste
2 tsp ghee
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson)

 

Garnish with finely chopped coriander (dhania)

 

To make the Dapkas

1. Soak the moong dal in enough lukewarm water for 3 to 4 hours. Drain and keep aside.
2. Blend the moong dal in a mixer to a fine paste.
3. Transfer the mixture to a deep bowl, add the oil, ginger-green chilli paste, sugar, soda bi-carb and salt and mix well. Keep aside.

To make the Kadhi

1. Combine the curds, besan and 3¼ cups of water in a deep non-stick pan and whisk well till no lumps remain.
2. Add the ginger-green chilli paste, sugar and salt, mix well and cook on a medium flame, while stirring continuously, till the mixture starts to boil. 

3. Add the dapka batter a little at a time using your fingertips to form dumplings and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes till the dapkas starts floating on top.

    
4. Heat the ghee in a small pan and add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds.
5. When the seeds crackle, add the curry leaves and red chillies and mix well.
6. Add this tempering to the kadhi, mix well and simmer again for 5 minutes.
7. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with rotli, puran poli and rice. (We ate it with rice)

Handy tips:
While adding the dapkas, add one dapka and wait for it to float up. If it does not float, this means the batter is too thin. Add a little besan to the dapka batter and try again.Alternatively, put small dapkas in a small microwave-safe plate and microwave on high for 20 seconds.

Judgement: It tasted great except I think I kept adding besan to the lentil paste and that, I think, affected it a little. My dapka's were a bit dense and therefore had to be cooked for like 10-15 min. Also I should have used a deeper saucepan.