Dhokar Dalna/Lentil Cakes Curry...

Food is not just a mean to satisfy our hunger, rather it serves as an art characterised by distinct techniques with a mix of specific culture. Various factors like local ingredients, traditions, and customs get involve in the process to create a unique dish. Therefore here I present before you a very popular recipe of the Bengali households- "Dhokar Dalna", prepared to relieve all from the daily toil of excavating some distinct cuisine at the dinner table to please your taste buds. Let's try our hands on this special recipe today.

Dhokar Dalna/Lentil Cakes Curry...
Ingredients- 

For grinding the Lentil for making the Dhoka or the Lentil Cakes-

1 cup Chana Dal/Bengal Gram, makes about 25 small cakes.

3-4 Green Chillies

1/4 tsp Salt

1 inch Ginger

For Sauteing the Lentil batter and Frying-

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

A pinch of Asafoetida/Hing

A pinch of Sugar

1 tsp Ginger, grated

Oil for deep frying.

For the Gravy-

1 cup Potato

1 tbsp Mustard Oil

2 small Bay Leaves

1 tsp Cumin seeds

2-3 Cloves

2 Cardamoms

1 inch stick of Cinnamon

2 medium Tomato Puree

1/2 cup Curd/Yoghurt

1 tsp Coriander powder

1/2 tsp Cumin powder

1 tsp Red Chilli powder

1/2 tsp Black Pepper powder

A Pinch of Turmeric powder

1/4 tsp Garam Masala

1 tsp Ghee

Salt to taste

Method-

To make the Lentil Cakes-

Wash and soak chana dal/Bengal gram in water overnight. Change the water a couple of times and drain the water. Take the dal along with green chillies, salt, ginger and grind to a fine paste. Add little water as required for grinding. In a nonstick pan, heat oil, temper with cumin seeds, hing, sugar and ginger paste. Fry for a couple of seconds. Now add the ground dal paste to the pan and cook until the mix comes off the sides clean. The dal should be cooked so that it is moist and soft but not runny or hard. Once it is cooked, transfer to a greased plate. Apply oil on your hands and immediately pat the paste into a cake, make sure the sides are tucked in. Make a 1 & 1/2 inch width cake. The paste gets dried up fast, so you got to be quick in patting it down. Once it cools down, cut into 2-inch squares or diamonds. Heat a kadai with oil and deep fry the lentil cakes till golden brown on both sides. Gently slide them into oil and don’t flip over for the first few minutes. Fry in batches and drain them on a kitchen towel.

For making the Gravy-

Peel and chop the potatoes into small pieces. Deep fry in the same kadai that you used for frying the lentil cakes. Sprinkle a bit of salt after draining from oil. Keep it aside. Heat oil in a kadhai or any other thick bottomed pan. Temper the oil with bay leaf, cumin seeds, whole garam masala spices and a pinch of hing.

Add tomato puree and saute till tomato is well cooked and there is no raw smell.

In a cup, mix the curd with coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, black pepper powder and turmeric to make a fine paste. Add the curd paste to the kadhai and fry the masala at low heat.

Add the fried potatoes and about 1 & 1/2 cups of water. Add salt to taste and cover and cook till potatoes are done. Adjust for any seasoning, add a pinch of sugar. Next, add garam masala and ghee and gently mix. Now gently slide in the pieces of dhoka or the fried lentil cakes. Simmer for a couple of minutes to let the dhoka soak up the gravy. Serve with Steamed Rice.

Please do try this recipe at your home and let me know how it was in the comments section below. Also do share and follow me for more such easy, tasty and delightful recipes. Thank you. Enjoy.