Dussehra Recipe - Radhaballavi and Coconut Dal
Ingredients
- For the Dough:
- Whole wheat flour : - 1 cup,
- Maida : - 1 cup,
- Salt : - 1 tsp,
- Ghee : - 1 tbsp,
- Sunflower or peanut oil : - 2 cups,
- Warm water - 1 cup,
- For the Stuffing:
- Fresh Ginger minced : - 1 tbsp,
- Green chilies minced : - 1-3,
- Cumin seed : - 1 tsp,
- Aniseed powder : - 2 tsp,
- Soaked asafoetida water : - 1/4 tsp,
- Overnight soaked Bengali gram dal : - 1 cup,
- Frozen soft green peas, coarsely mashed : - 1 cup,
- Red chili powder : - ½ tsp,
- Salt to taste,
- Lemon juice : - 2 tsp,
- Jaggery or gur : - 2 tsp,
Takes , serves 4.
Instructions
- Mix two flours, salt and ghee, make dough out the flour mix with required warm water as you would do for any bread. Knead well and cover with wet cloth. Set keep aside for 10 minutes.
- Grind dal to a fine paste.
- Make the stuffing by heat ghee in a karahi, add the cumin seeds, ginger, minced green chillis, asafoetida water, grinded gram dal, mashed green peas, aniseed powder, red chilli powder, salt and jaggery. Stir and cook till completely blended and sticky. Put off the fire. Add lemon juice and mix well.
- Set aside to cool and dry, then divide the mixture into 10 equal portions
- Take the prepared dough and divide into 10 equal balls. Stuff the dough with the stuffing, seal and re-roll the balls. Now roll it lightly to flatten.
- Take a karahi, deep fry in sunflower oil till lightly brown or you can take a flat tawa to shallow fry over low heat in ghee or sunflower oil. Flip and cook on low heat until both sides are golden brown.
- Serve hot with Bengali gram dal with Coconut dish.
"The good name of Luchi is Shaskuli. Sometimes it is Soma. But you must remember that the word Maida is Persian. The popularity of Maida in this country is due to the welfare of the Portuguese. Three forms of Luchi — crisp when fried with mayan (Leaven to ghee mixed with flour before it is done into puree), without mayan is Sapta, and equal mix of flour and wheat luchi is puri."
Bengalis do, however, have their own kachoris. The most unique kachori of them is Radhaballavi, which is filled with a wide range of lentils and served with a wide variety of side dishes. Bengal is thought to be the origin of Radhaballabhi. 'Radhavallabhi puri' is a giant puri made of mashed kalai dal, and 'Hinger Kachuri' is a smaller puri. Luchis, which resemble pooris but are made with all-purpose flour or maida, are stuffed with a combination of lentils and spices before being fried to form radhaballabhis. An old vegetarian savoury meal called Radhaballabhi, also known as Beshtonika in Sanskrit, has recently made a comeback as a popular Bengali snack.
Every sweet store in Bengal prepares and sells a variety of salted (nonta) foods like nimki, kachuri, radhaballavi, luchi, dalpuri, alurdom, tarkari, dal, singara, etc. Putiram, one of College Street's greatest restaurants, offers delectable Radhaballabhi along with either chholar dal or a straightforward yet mouthwatering potato curry. Students from local colleges and schools frequent the establishment frequently to grab a fast bite at a reasonable price.
Raw kalai dal Black gram split puri
(1) Mash kalai dal will be soaked in water for 8-10 hours and kneaded. In that batter, cumin, pepper, fennel and chilli, salt, asafoetida water and ginger batter should be mixed.
(2) Cook the dal batter with cumin, fennel, chilli, bay leaf and asafoetida in ghee. However, if it is too much, the filling will become hard. After that, mix fried spice powder and salt. Give little water. Remove cooked pulse filling when the water little dries up. Mix the ginger. Don't over dry this stuff.
Since radhaballabhi is made with kalai dal or Urad dal, it has a slightly sweeter flavour than its rivals, such as hing'er kochuri (asafoetida and pea lentil stuffed bread) and dal puri (gramme lentil stuffed bread). It is simple to distinguish between these three types since each one has a distinctive appearance and a slightly different tactile feel.
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As suggested by its name, Radhaballavi is a combination of the legendary love couple Radha and Krishna. Although Lord Krishna has many titles and forms, one of them is thought to be Radhaballav, which serves as a point of reference for the origin of this dish. There are several legends that trace the origins of these delectable kachoris. The majority of them serve as sacred offerings in various temporal realms, pointing the Radhaballavis towards Sri Krishna.
By drawing on the writings of Naradwip Goswami Vidyaratna, Sudhir Chakrobarty has created a shortlist of Bengal's small religious sects, including Radhashyami, Raidasi, Radhaballavi, Khusi Biswasi, Sadinpanthi etc. The list unequivocally demonstrates that the nomenclature is based either on the name of the primary propagator or on the philosophy of that specific sector or on the name of the caste.
According to folklore, Radhaballabhi was created by Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanya himself and called after Radhaballabha or Krishna to amuse Khardar Shyamsundara. You can see that Khardar Radhaballabhi still has a sufficient number of identities if you look. When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited Khardah in West Bengal while on a journey to the Puri Jagannath Temple in Orissa, he prepared his own meals. Whatever he cooks that he uses to offer to the God too. According to his one of the requirements lists of ingredients suggests some typical ingredients during those days. Refined flour, asafoetida, cumin, ghee, salt, sugar, kalai dal (black lentil), tender coconut water. Probably this is the oldest recipe revealed so far for this unique dish, then those bhog to be offered to Harijans [means all people of Hari or God] until recently.
However Calcutta lovers claim that this delicacy was created in Sobhabazar Rajbati—the house deity Radhavallabh was given this daily treat. And those who are devotees of the famous Putiram of Calcutta, say that Putiram's Pisemshai Jiten Modak went to Vrindavan and from there Radhaballabhi was created. Having mastered the mystery, he returned to Calcutta and glorified Puntiram."
It is claimed that a number of different myths contain the name Radhaballavi as Radhaballav is one of the 108 different names that are used to honour Sri Krishna. Whatever its origins may have been, the sweet and spicy Radhaballabhi has a special place at the Bengali breakfast table as well as during special feasts and social gatherings. Radhaballavi and Alur Dom are always served first, followed by vegetable chops and chutney, Amriti, and Darbesh.