DBC (or should it be BCD… whatever…who cares!!)

For a person who is still struggling to make perfect rotis… last Sunday came as a surprise. Well, my MIL asked me to make Daal – Baati- Choorma on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi... the thought itself sent shudders across me… but how could I say no…so with a tensed mind, I got up as 630 (on a Sunday!!) and resolved to make at least edible stuff that day…

Daal: It was the usual moong + udad ki daal. But ensure that the tadka is only of tomatoes and NO onions please. Daal has to be a bit diluted as compared to the daal normally made.

Baati: Well…This was the difficult part. Since I didn’t have Tandoor in my kitchen, making standard Baati wasn’t possible. So for this my MIL gave me the suggestion of making “baafna” baati… gosh… I had just had that once and didn’t even recollect how it looked like. Help came from my husband… no no…he didn’t cook. He just described, how it looked like… as per his description… it looks like “a spongy ball just coming out from a swimming pool of ghee!!” I discovered later that you shouldn’t ask guys for describing anything!

So the first task was to knead the dough. So for that take wheat flour, salt, ajwain, about 3-4 teaspoons of ghee and with warm water, knead soft dough and then form balls of 5 cms diameter. Boil water in a container (2/3 filled) and put these balls into the same. Let it boil for some time (about 7-10 minutes) till the wheat balls become light and start floating. Once this is done, take out the balls and cut the same into half. Heat ghee in a kadai and let these cut balls fry in the same. Ensure that it’s on a low flame. One you get the golden brownish color, take the same out… well…Baati is ready!!

Choorma: If Baati was difficult, Choorma was time consuming. So let’s start…

Ingredients:
Wheat flour: two bowls
Water : Enough to knead the dough
Sugar : we take boora, but if you don’t get it, then take powdered sugar (1 bowl [which can be increased depending upon how sweet you want])
Ghee (lots of it!!)
Cardamoms
Almonds and cashews: Again as per your taste buds

First, knead the dough after adding 8-10 tsp of ghee. Then prepare small balls, about 3-4 cms in diameter, and then flatten the same, so that it is about ½ cm in height. Now deep fry these, on low flame in Ghee. Once its golden brown in color, take the same out and crush it into smaller pieces. Then, crush it those and further crush it finely in a mixer, and sieve the same and add sugar, cardamom and other dry fruits. Add ghee to it. The quantity of ghee should be so much as to hold the choorma together.

So this was the experiment which I did on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. Spent some 2 hours in the kitchen to get everything right…and it actually ended up being right :-)

A few words of Caution:

• If you one of those calorie conscious people, this dish isn’t for you!! so starve for a week and then have this :-)

• You will really feel lazy and would feel sleepy after having this…so beware!

• It takes a lot of time, so don’t hurry up!

Ganpati Bappa… Moriya!!!!!!!!