Dal Bati Recipe

I have decided to try something new, I am going to put up the recipe for Dal bati. Let me know if you actually make it at home. I will come over to try some, just kidding, maybe on your second or third attempt.

Ingredients For Bati
1. Wheat Flour - 2 cups
2. Sooji (Semolina)
3. Ghee/Clarified butter - 4/5 Table spoon
4. Salt
5. Water

Preperation for Bati
Proportion of Wheat flour to sooji is 3:1. Mix the wheat flour, sooji, salt and ghee to make the dough, the dough should be consistent, without lumps as in the case of chapati dough or paratha dough. Make round balls out of this dough, about size of your palm. This is called bati.

Insert the batis in water and boil for a few minutes, the top layer of the bati will become a bit white. Stop boiling at this time.

Pre-heat the oven at 450F. Put the batis inside the oven for 10 minutes. Turn them upside down and let them bake for another 10 minutes. The batis are done when they become brownish. The batis will have a hard outer shell. Break the outer shell a bit my pressing them in between your palms. The batis will be hot so you might need a piece of cloth to protect your hands.


Take a soup bowl and fill about half the bowl with ghee. So much for you watching your calories or your cholesterol. :) Immerse couple of batis in the the ghee and let them soak for at least 5 minutes.




Ingredients For Dal
1. Toor Dal / Lentil - 2 cups.
2. Tomato - 2
3. Onion - 1
4. Jaggery - 4 tablespoons
5. Olive Oil (Boy, we are getting healthy here!)
6. Mustard
7. Cumin Seeds - Jeera
8. Garlic Flakes.
9. Ginger.
10. Curry Leaves.
11. Green Chilli.
12. Red Chilli
13. Lemon - 1
14. Turmeric - 1/2 table spoon
15. Red Chilli powder - 2/3/4 table spoons - according to taste
16. Salt
17. Coriander Leaves.

Preperation For Dal

Pressure cook the toor dal in water for 10 minutes. Beat the pressure cooked Toor Dal to form a consistent paste (I do not like blobs of dal) and leave aside. Finely chop the onions and tomatoes.

Splutter the mustard and cumin seeds in oil, add all the spices (8 - 12 above) to the oil. Then fry the onions in healthy olive oil till golden brown, add the jaggery and tomatoes at this time. Add the red chilli powder and turmeric powder to this mixture. Add the toor dal and 1 -1 1/2 cups of water to the mixture. Add salt and let the dal boil for 5-10 minutes. Squeeze the lemon after the dal has boiled. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Side Dishes

1. Chopped onions, with red chilli powder, salt and lemon.
2. Shredded Mango, with red chilli powder.
3. Heated oil with mustard, cumin seeds and lots of red chilli powder. This can be added on top of the dal to make it spicier.
4. Green Chutney
5. Tamarind - Date chutney
   

Any combination of the above side dishes can be used. Whatever you like.

Serving

• Crush the ghee dripping bati to form small pieces. The bati will be soft on the inside. Only the outer shell is a bit hard.
• Add more ghee to the bati, If you do not do this, just because you are are calorie conscious, your stomach is going to have some difficulty digesting. You have been warned!
• Serve the side dishes.
• Serve the Dal in a bowl.
• Take some portion of the bati, add some dal on top of it. Mix the side dishes and enjoy!

The taste you are going for here is a combination of ghee, sweet and lemony. This dish is extremely filling and sleep inducing. Usually a guy can have 2 batis and a girl can have 1 to 1.5.

Drink lots of water! especially after your meal. The wheat needs it.

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Here is the audio

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This is a good article for Roth IRA's

Thyagaraja Aradhana - Cleveland

This weekend RS and I went to the Thyagaraja Aradhana in Cleveland, OH. We were accompanied by two of our friends Satish and Sujan who are into Carnatic music. RS and I were looking for a relaxed weekend away from our to-do lists.

The aradhana is cleveland is a week long musical concert series showcasing works of the composer Thyagaraja.

On Saturday morning, the aradhana started with Pancharathna krithis, sung by professional and amateur musicians; these are the most famous work of Thyagaraja, I was so happy to recognize the first one :)

The highlight of Saturday was the carnatic music rendition by Padma Shri Sudha Ragunathan, she has a voice which is simply out of this world, the whole concert which lasted for about three and a half hours was just mesmerizing. We were also very lucky because we got the best seats in the house, 20 feet away from her on stage. I have never heard her sing before, but she had me hooked onto her voice from the very first song, how I wish she sang some ghazals :)





On Sunday morning we attended a recital by the sisters Gayatri and Ranjani, they ended the recital to a standing ovation on the rendition of a Marathi abhang by Sant Gyaneshwar.

I have no clue when it comes to the Ragam, Tanam and Pallavi's of Carnatic music, but the trip to Cleveland was worth it.