Dahi Bhalla is a tasty snack or a side served with full course meal. It is like a Lentil Dumplings Dipped in Creamy Whipped Yogurt. It can be made plain or stuffed with boiled potato or even dry fruits.
Dahi Bhalla is a delicious yogurt based snack, chat or even a cold accompaniment with festive food. It is made using dumplings of urad dal which are deep fried in oil. Then soaked in yogurt. It is served with topping of salt, roasted cumin powder (bhuna jeera), red chili powder, green coriander mint chutney and saunth.
After last week of Moong Dal Cheela, which is staple at most North-Indian weddings or parties serving traditional menu, here is another delicacy.
Dahi Bhalla as the name suggests is a dipped in thick, creamy rich curd and served with spicy and tangy tamarind-jaggery sauce and some dry roasted spices like cumin seeds.
It is made of lentil batter and then deep-fried. Afterwards soaked in water to release extra water as well as soften it. It is usually very lightly filled with some chopped cashews and raisins.
Most of Indian weddings, I skip the food as it is too rich, but Dahi Bhalla is a dish I just can’t resist.
The trick lies in transferring the batter to the hot oil for deep-frying without splitting the dumpling open outside/ inside the oil or burning yourself.
If you are careful enough, there is no reason, why you can not successfully make this at home. One such trick of transferring the batter I have already covered on LiG some time ago. In which you take a strainer and place the blob of batter on it and quickly release it in hot oil using the strainer.
In this recipe, I will explain the traditional method of making bhallas using muslin and transferring it to the oil.
Dahi Bhalla
Ingredients
for bhalla
- 1 cup urad dal split black gram
- a pinch asafetida hing
- 1½ tsp cumin seeds jeera
- ½ inch ginger finely grated or paste
- few sprig fresh cilantro fresh coriander leaves
- 1 tbsp cashew nut kaju, coarsely chopped
- ½ tbsp golden raisin kismis
for yogurt gravy
- 1 cup yogurt homemade hung curd
- ¼ cup cream
- to taste salt & black pepper
- tamarind chutney saunth, for topping
- coriander mint chutney for topping
- roasted cumin powder
Instructions
- Soak the urad dal overnight.
- Wash and drain the lentil. Grind it into a fine paste using very little water.
- Mix all the above ingredients together except cashews and raisins.
- In a wok, heat oil for frying.
- Meanwhile, wet a muslin clot or an old handkerchief, squeeze it gently to remove excess water.
- Spread the wet muslin on the work counter, place a blob of batter on the muslin, sprinkle some chopped cashews and raisins. Press them gently.
- Now turn one side of the batter onto the other side of blob by holding the muslin and turning it over with the blob. It essentially folds the blob into half using wet cloth.
- Lightly wet your fingers. Gently turn the wet muslin further and transfer the folded and filled blob onto your fingers and quickly release it in the hot oil.
- Deep fry till golden brown. Repeat for as many bhallas you want to make.
- Place the bhallas 1 hour prior to serving in water. Allow them to become soft by absorbing water and releasing extra oil.
- At the time of serving, remove them from water and gently squeeze them without breaking.
- Prepare yogurt gravy by mixing cream and curd together in a bowl. Add salt and little pepper.
- Dip the soaked bhallas in the curd bowl and allow to soak for another 10 minutes.
- For serving, remove the curd-soaked bhallas onto a platter. Pour some more curd-cream mixture if required.
- Sprinkle salt, pepper, roasted cumin powder and tamarind-jaggery sauce. Serve cool.
Notes
- Instead of turning the folded blob on your fingers, you can transfer it to the underside of strainer as explained here and quickly release in the oil for frying.
- After deep-frying the bhallas you can store them in air-tight container in refrigerator and use as and when desired.
