Dahi Bhalla

During festivals we want to cook special dishes to serve, as well as enjoy the festival without staying in the kitchen for long time. The recipe which i am sharing today is easy to cook and can be prepared in advance so that you can enjoy the festival and at the same time seduce your taste buds with its sweet and tangy flavour. Dahi bhalla is all time hit in any get together. I mostly keep it in my list and people have always asked me how do you make them so soft. So today i will be sharing this long awaited dish. The best part of dahi bhalla is that it can be taken as starter, or it can be eaten as a chaat or one can include it during lunch or dinner. If we count on the health benefits then i must say that they are loaded with proteins as they are made out of lentils plus yogurt is good for stomach too. There are three key ingredients which together make it complete, they are yogurt, tamarind chutney, bhalla. Each of them play an important role in adding flavour to it plus little spices for dressing it. Bhalla's can be made in advance and you can freeze them in freezer for 2-3 months, and any time some one drops in you can serve them as fresh as they were. Or in case if you want to consume soon just refrigerate in your fridge where it stays for a week or so.
Now lets look at the ingredients to make it.

Dahi Bhalla

1. Urad Dal 1cup
2. Moong Dal 3cups
3. Oil to fry
4. salt to taste
5. Yogurt
6. Tamarind chutney
7. Red chili powder
8. Roasted jeera/cumin seeds

First of all soak the dals in the above mentioned proportions over night or at least for six hours. Then grind the mixture to form a smooth paste. One can add salt in the mixture at this point of time as it gives nice flavour with every bite.

Then take oil in a pan and heat it, once oil is ready start frying the bhalla's by dropping little quantity of the mixture using a spoon. I usually use a serving spoon to drop the batter so that the size is perfect as we get in the market. Not so small and not too big.

After they turn golden in colour remove them from oil and keep on a kitchen towel to drain the excess oil from it.

For making bhalla chaat take water in a large bowl and dip the bhalla's in them till they become soft. If you are using frozen ones from the freezer then you need to put them in hot water so that they become soft soon, otherwise for fresh ones normal temperature water is ok. Then squeeze the water from them by pressing between your hands and arrange them on the plate in which you want to serve.

Then pour the yogurt over them followed by tamarind chutney. Sprinkle some red chili powder, roasted crushed jeera and salt.

Dahi bhalla

Just keep them in the refrigerator for some time before serving, as they taste great when served cold.

NOTE:-  One must beat the yogurt to give it an even tone also add little salt and sugar in it as it enhances the taste.
For recipe of tamarind chutney please view:-
http://coloursofcooking.blogspot.in/2014/03/tamarind-chutney.html