Dal Baati Choorma Recipe | Rajasthani Cuisine | Marwari Food

He came home early that evening.  He felt that day the elevator was ascending the slowest.  He was excited, he was hungrier than ever before.

Because I told him I made Dal Baati Choorma for dinner. 

You know Dal Baati Choorma is a popular combination in Rajasthani cuisine.  Every family has their own style of making these three dishes.  The Dal for Dal Baati comprises of five lentils and several spices.  Some families use different lentils to make the dal, some may or may not add chickpea flour or semolina flour in their baati recipe, and some people might fry or bake the dough to prepare the choorma.  I like to keep it simple and use the same baati recipe to make choorma and bake them together.

Here’s how I make Dal Baati and Choorma - all recipes in this one post.

Panchkuti / Panchmel Dal Recipe

Serves 3

2 Tbsp toor/arhar dal (split pigeon peas)

2 Tbsp chana dal (split Bengal gram)

2 Tbsp sabut moong dal (whole green mung bean)

1 Tbsp masoor dal (split orange lentils)

1 Tbsp matki/moth (Turkish gram)

lentils: top left: sabut moong, top right: toor, bottom left: chana, bottom right: moth, center: masoor

Those proportions would basically make ½ cup of lentils and yes – it will be able to serve 3 people.  Rinse the lentils together well and discard the cloudy water.  Add 1.5 cups water and soak the lentils for 30 minutes at least (at most – 5 to 6 days!).  Discard water, put lentils in pressure cooker along with 1.5 cups fresh water and pressure cook on medium for 20-25 minutes.  Once you switch off the heat to let the pressure cool down, you can start working on the second part of the Panchmel / Panchkuti Dal –

2 tsp ghee (clarified butter)

½ tsp rai (mustard seeds)

½ tsp jeera (cumin seeds)

1 pinch hing (asafetida)

1 tejpatta (bay leaf)

2 sookhi lal mirch (dry red chilies), broken in two

2 green chilies, slit

½ tsp ginger, grated

½ cup onion, chopped <optional>

½ cup tomato, chopped <optional>

½ tsp haldi (turmeric powder)

½ tsp lal mirch (red chili powder) or to taste

½ tsp dhaniya-jeera (coriander-cumin seed powder)

1 tsp salt or to taste

¼ cup cilantro, finely chopped

½ Tbsp lemon juice

Heat ghee in a medium pan on medium heat.  When hot, add mustard seeds, let pop, cover pan with lid.  Then add cumin seeds, let sizzle.  Add asafetida + bay leaf + dry red chilies + green chilies + ginger + onion, mix well and let onion cook until translucent.  Then add tomato + turmeric powder + red chili powder + coriander-cumin powder + salt, mix well and let tomato cook until tender.  Gently mash half of the dal (with a muddler or back of the spoon) in the pressure cooker itself, add this dal to the pan.

Mix well, then add 2 cups of water.  Taste and adjust salt and spice.  Let the dal cook for 10-15 minutes on a medium-low heat until desired consistency.  Switch off heat, add cilantro (reserve a little for garnish) and lemon juice, mix well.  Garnish panchkuti dal with cilantro and serve hot with baati, churma, and other Rajasthani delicacies or just as good with plain rice.

You can absolutely skip the onion and tomato or add more than the quantity given, the dal will still taste great.  And yes, this panchkuti dal will be a little thin and it makes sense why – when you break the dry baati to mix with the dal, you need the thin dal to moisten the baati as it continues to soak up the dal instead of a thick dal that makes the entire meal dry and thick to eat.

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Baati and Choorma Recipe

Serves 3, considering 4 baati each and plenty choorma

3 cups gehun ka aata (whole wheat flour)

½ cup sooji (semolina flour)

½ tsp salt

½ cup ghee (clarified butter)

approx. 1.5 cups water for kneading

In a medium bowl, mix whole wheat flour + semolina flour + salt.  Rub in the ghee well till you can clump the mixture in your fist and the shape remains.  Start kneading into a dough by adding 1 cup water first, then add more as required until you make a firm dough.  Do not make the dough as soft as roti or paratha, it has to be firmer than that.  Do not over-knead.  Cover and keep aside for 20 minutes.  After that, divide dough into 12 lemon size balls and 1 bigger ball.  Start preheating your oven at 400F.

Roll the balls between your palms – you don’t have to aim for a perfect round ball or as smooth as a laddoo – then make the emblematic thumbprint sign by pressing in the center on one side of the ball.  Do the same to the rest, then roll out the remaining 1 bigger ball to a flat roti about 5 mm thick.

Place the baatis and the flat roti on cookie sheet.  None of them will expand in size, so you do not need to space them far apart, but just enough for the heat circulation to cook them well from all sides.  Brush some ghee or butter and place in oven, bake for 15 mins at 400F then remove sheet out of the oven, flip all the baatis and roti, brush some ghee again, and bake another 15 mins.  You may have to bake +5 minutes on both sides, judging based on the color of baati outside.

The roti will get done before the baati will, so keep an eye and using a pair of tongs remove the roti when it is light brown.  Let the roti cool down completely while the baati bakes.

Choorma Recipe:  Upon cooling, the roti should be very crunchy, not soft at all.  Break into pieces and put in blender to grind to a coarse powder.  Transfer the powdered roti into a bowl, add about 2 Tbsp melted ghee + ½ cup powdered sugar + ¼ tsp cardamom powder + sliced pistachios and almonds as you wish and mix until well combined.  Taste to adjust the sweetness as per your taste and add more as required.  Your choorma is ready.  I absolutely prefer this method of baking the same baati dough for choorma instead of too many recipes and too much hassle.  No matter what shape, size, or proportion of the baati dough you bake to make choorma – remember to just taste and adjust the ghee, sugar, and other ingredients after grinding to coarse powder.  I mostly guesstimate too.  Note - this is not the traditional way of making choorma (frying the dough then grinding), but a healthier version that yields similar results.

When the baati is done, remove it out of oven and either dip in ghee or leave it aside.  I usually prepare the baati beforehand and put it in toaster oven to heat up just before having dinner so we can have it hot, and gently dip in ghee and serve.  The baati will seem to have a dry exterior, but the texture should be soft inside.  Hence, you should easily be able to break the baati in pieces with one hand.  The baati made in a tandoor will have a much superior taste to the one in oven, but if you don't have a tandoor you can definitely easily make this baati in your oven (and by oven I don't mean microwave oven) and it still turns out wonderful.

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Daal, baati, and choorma can all be prepared well in advance a day ahead, then the dal can be heated up and the baati can be given a final bake to heat up just before serving, while the choorma is kept at room temperature.  These are the classic plain baatis, but you can easily make stuffed baatis too - will share the recipe for stuffed baati and gatte ki sabji at another time.

How to serve and eat Dal Baati Choorma: serve hot dal in a bowl, serve hot baati balls on the plate drizzled with or dipped in melted ghee, place some choorma on the side.  To make it a rich and special meal, leave a bowl of melted ghee on the side if anyone prefers to drizzle a little more ghee on their dal-baati (my husband sure does!).  And for those with a sweet tooth like me: serve some powdered sugar alongside.  To eat, break the baati into pieces, pour dal over it and mix, add more dal if baati soaks up all of it, mix some more ghee if it makes you happy, enjoy dal-baati as is or mix with some choorma and relish it.  I like to mix a little more powdered sugar.  The real satisfaction of eating dal baati choorma comes only when you eat with your hands.

Enjoy.

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