It’s time for Blogging Marathon #12 and I chose “Rajasthani Specials” as my theme for this week. I’ve heard a lot about Rajasthani cuisine, but never tried to make any dishes myself. So when I saw Srivalli’s theme for this edition of the BM, I wanted to try as many delicious Rajasthani recipes as I can.
For Day 1, I made the most famous dish from the Indian desert – “Dal Baati”. Recipe from a dear friend who shared her family recipe with me when I told her that I will be making Rajasthani dishes for my blog. Big thanks to her for a fool-proof modern day kitchen recipe that tasted amazing. Baati’s are traditionally baked on charcoal grills or well heated cow dung cakes. But for the modern day home cooks, ovens are the best alternate to use.
Here’s my Rajasthani thali that I made for our weekend lunch. We enjoyed everything so much and actually over-ate a little bit, we had to take a long afternoon siesta after this. Rajasthani cooking is very rustic with simple to find ingredients and hot spices.
- 1 cup Atta (Wheat flour)
- ¼ cup Rava (Sooji/ Semolina)
- 2 tbsp Besan (Chickpea flour)
- ¼ tsp Baking soda
- ½ cup Yogurt - , well beaten
- 2 tbsp for the dough & 2tbsp Ghee (Clarified butter) - for brushing on the baatis
- a pinch Turmeric (Haldi)
- 1 tsp Ajwain
- to taste Salt
- 2 tbsps Moong dal Split
- 2 tbsps moong dal Green (whole) (I used split green )
- 2 tbsps Toor dal
- 2 tbsps Masoor dal
- 2 tbsps Chana dal
- 4 chilies Green - slit
- 1 Ginger " - finely grated
- 2 Bay leaves - fresh or dry
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- ½ tsp chili powder Red
- ¼ tsp Hing (asafoetida)
- to taste Salt
- Cilantro (Coriander leaves) - for garnish
- To make Baatis: Mix all the ingredients together. Make a stiff dough by slowly adding lukewarm water. Cover with a damp towel and set aside for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Divide the dough into equal size balls, I was able to get 8 lemon size balls with the quantities given. Roll them into smooth balls.
- Place them on the prepared baking sheet. Brush the baatis with the remaining melted ghee.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and serve with the melted ghee and Panchmel dal.
- To make Panchmel Dal: Optional step: Soak the 5 dals for 1 hour. I did this to make the cooking part faster.
- Pressure cook the dals until very tender and mushy.
- Heat 1tbsp ghee in a small saucepan, add cumin seeds and bay leaves. Once the seeds start to turn golden add green chilies and ginger. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until ginger is fragrant, take the pan off the heat and add hing and red chili powder. The residual heat is enough to cook the dry masalas.
- Pour the tempering over the cooked dal. Mix well and serve with baatis or plain steamed rice.
- To Serve: Break the baatis into smaller pieces, pour a spoonful of ghee and some dal on it. Top this off with Churma (recipe coming up) and ENJOY!!!
Delicious looking thali,wish to have it now……
the dal looks so interesting..using so many different varieties
the dal looks so interesting..using so many different varieties
Wonderful spread, dal baati makes me drool..
Wow what a wonderful and traditional dish.
That rajasthani platter looks so appealing Pavani 🙂 Glad to run the marathon with you!
Thali is so tempting!….love the spread of dishes and panchmel dal is too good!
Rajasthani Thali looks delicious! Looking forward to more recipes from that wonderful state
An excellent thali. I am sure the siesta was very much needed given all these delicious items!!
Thali looks so inviting….
Can u pass the plate .. i would love to have one…. awesome work..
Great to have you in BM Pavani..the whole thali looks so inviting!..and looking fwd to the rajasthan dishes!
Great job!
DalBaati ummmm my favorite thali looks so inviting Pavani.. humm baati are perfectly baked.
soo cool, perfect rajastani thali
Tempting thali! I always though baatis were deep fried…this is a revelation 🙂 And dal looks inviting
the thali looks really wonderful.
wow…amazing…I make battis with only the regular aatta..this is different!!
Very tasty platter!!!
Nice Pavani. Great delicious back to back dishes.Ongoing Event: MurariAnniversary-Giveaway-2012
lovely thali, wud u believe, i made dal bati for sunday lunch, it is much simpler and easier than what you made, but it was my first attempt. Now I can graduate to the real recipe as you showed above
yummy … lovely thali …will try dal batti..
Love the thali, looks very nice
love the spread of rajasthani thali. Dal batti sounds yum!!!
Love everything in that thali.
What a delicious looking thaali! Looks fabulous!
Delicious thali!
i have tasted baati once before in a restaurant & it was dripping in ghee… this looks more like it, lovely texture & so crumbly too.. bookmarked 🙂
Hi, I have always wanted to prepare this thali at home but somehow could not, have eaten traditional Dal Bhati many a times but always outside. Your post looks really tempting and informative, will bookmark this and surely try it out. Thanks!
Hi, I have always wanted to prepare this thali at home but somehow could not, have eaten traditional Dal Bhati many a times but always outside. Your post looks really tempting and informative, will bookmark this and surely try it out. Thanks!