Dal Bati Churma

There are some foods that get the honor of being the face of a city or a state, the culinary pride of that place, Dal Bati Churma is that food for the state of Rajasthan! It  deserves every bit of its glory too! Its craze just refuses to die down. There are special ‘Dal-Bati-Churma’ parties held by people on special occasions where chefs are hired to make just these three dishes exclusively. And believe me, you will absolutely not feel the lack of variety on the menu!!

Panchmel Dal

I remember going to one such get together as a kid. I was pretty excited (yeah, I was a foodie back then, too) thinking about the delicacies that would be served there. When we reached there and I saw the only things on menu were Dal-Bati-Churma-Mirchi ke Tipore, I was so disappointed. I remember thinking “Who serves dal-bati-churma in a party?” I was disappointed to such an extent that I told my mum I wasn’t hungry. My younger brother (Yeah, Shame on me!!)who was equally disappointed but deciding not to go hungry, took it upon himself to make me at least taste it.

ChurmaHe squeezed lots of lemon into the dal and poured it on the broken Bati pieces. He picked one dal soaked Bati piece, took some mirchi along with it and fed me. One bite and I was in food heaven. Second bite, and I was hitting myself for almost going hungry and skipping on such an amazing food. By the time, I had my third bite, I had stopped thinking altogether. Its been more than two decade since then, but that memory and that taste has been etched into my memory forever.

Mirchi Ke TiporeRajasthani food is not for the faint-hearted. But Dal Bati Churma can scare away the most mighty ones too. What ever Rajasthan missed in green vegetables, it more than made up for, with Ghee. Bati and Churma are made many different ways and this is just one version of it. The soft and delicious Churma, the spicy and tangy dal, the rustic and earthy Batis and the hot and mouth-watering chilies make this a feast worth salivating for!!

Dal Bati Churma

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients

    For Panchmel Dal (5-6 people)
  • 1/4 cup Chana dal
  • 1/4 cup Toor dal
  • 1/8 cup black urad dal
  • 1/4 cup yellow moong dal
  • 1/8 cup green moong dal
  • 5 tbsp. ghee
  • 2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 1/2 tsp hot chili powder
  • 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 green chili, chopped or whole
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 3/4 tsp garam masala
  • a pinch of asafoetida (if strong, else double)
  • 3/4 large onion, finely chopped
  • 1 3/4 tsp salt
  • juice of 3/4 lemon
    • For Batis (12)
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup coarse whole wheat flour (see notes)
  • 6-7 tbsp. ghee
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • little less than 1 cup warm water to knead dough
  • Ghee to dip the Batis
    • For Churma (4-6 people)
  • 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 3/8 (1/8+1/8+1/8)cup besan
  • 5/8 (3/4 - 1/8) cup coarse semolina
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 5 tbsp. ghee
  • Ghee to fry the churma balls
    • Finishing Churma
  • 10 tbsp. ghee
  • 4-5 tbsp. milk
  • 1/2 cup broken cashews
  • 1/2 cup sugar
    • For mirchi ke tipore
  • 30 long thin green chilies
  • 3 tbsp. oil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp dry mango powder
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp mustard powder
  • 3 tsp coriander powder

Instructions

    For dal
  1. Wash and soak all the dals in water for 3-4 hours
  2. Cook the dal in pressure cooker as you would normally cook a dal.
  3. Make sure dal is all mashed up.
  4. In a wok, take ghee. Add cumin seeds and let them sizzle.
  5. Add asafoetida, garlic and green chili. Give it a minute.
  6. Add onion to it and let it turn pink.
  7. Add salt, chili powder, turmeric powder.
  8. When ghee oozes out, add the dal and let it boil.
  9. Add water to adjust the consistency.
  10. Add garam masala and lemon juice. Cook it on medium low till little ghee floats on top. Keep stirring it from time to time, to prevent it from sticking to the bottom.
    11. For Bati
  11. Preheat the oven to 550F.
  12. Mix the flours and salt. Add melted ghee to it. Mix well.
  13. Add water little by little and knead a firm dough. Don't knead for too long.
  14. Make 12 balls out of it. Arrange it on a baking tray.
  15. As soon as you put the try in the oven, reduce the oven temp to 350F
  16. Bake for 30 to 40 min. Flip the bati on the other side half way through.
  17. Soak the baked batis in bowl of ghee or break the batis and put ghee from top.
    18. For Churma
  18. Mix whole wheat flour, besan and semolina. Add ghee to it.
  19. Add water little by little and knead a firm dough, same as batis.
  20. Make 8-9 cylindrical dumplings out of it.
  21. Heat a pan full of water. Let it come to a boil. Add dumplings to water and let them boil until they float on the surface.
  22. Pull the dumplings out of the water and cut it into smaller pieces. Fry them on medium heat in ghee.
  23. Grind the dumplings into fine powder.
  24. To finish the Churma - Grind the sugar in the grinder till it is fine. Keep aside.
  25. In a pan, take ghee. Add the cashews and stir for half a minute.
  26. Add the churma to it and stir for a few minutes.
  27. Add milk to it and mix well. Cook for a few minutes again. Turn off the stove. Wait for a minute and add the powdered sugar. Keep aside.
    28. For mirchi ke tipore
  28. Coarsely chop the green chilies. (into round pieces)
  29. Take oil. Add garlic to it
  30. Add green chilies and stir.
  31. Add all the spices and cook till chilies are done.

Notes

Traditionally both bati and churma have the exact same dough, only difference being salt. Churma dough doesn't have salt. I have used two different doughs for bati and churma here to give you an alternative. (else I would have used coarse flour for churma too).

Using coarse whole wheat flour makes a huge difference while making bati and churma. It makes sure that the crust of the baked batis remains soft and not hard. To make coarse flour, I ground whole wheat berries (gehu) in my spice grinder to a very fine consistency and then sieved it. If you can't do this for any reason, make batis using my churma dough recipe. All of the taste in this entire feast comes from ghee and spices. Please don't cut back on it to make a healthier, skinnier version. Instead, run 2 miles that day and you will be good to go!

The dal should be just a little thicker than Indian soup and thinner than Bisque. Thick dals don't go well with Bati, in my opinion.

Please grind the sugar rather than using store-bought. The textures are different. Adjust the amount of sugar as per your taste.

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15 Comments

  2. Aishwarya

    Hello Nidhi ,
    Tried my hand on dal- bati yesterday …….having your recipe by my side I was confident from the beginning….And yippee ?it turned out perfect…. My hubby relished it ?…. Thank you again for sharing the recipe. God bless you ??

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