Bajre ka Khichda and Matar ki Subzi - 1

This is a traditional rajasthani dish.. meant for cold weather. It's your typical comfort food that makes you feel nice and warm all over. You can the salty version with peas or the sweet version with Bura (powdered sugar). The ingredient that gives it the taste is ghee (Clarified butter).

I'll split this post in 2 parts. One deals with the Khichda (that's a kind of porridge) made from Bajra (Pearl Millet) and the other with a peas preparation that you eat the khichda with.

So part 1. For the Khichda:
You need:
Pounded Bajra - 2 cups
Water - 6 cups
Milk - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
Ghee - 1 cup

How to:
In a large cooker add the pounded bajra, water and salt. Close the cooker and give 5 whistles on high flame. Let the cooker cool. Open and put it back on medium flame. Add milk. Keep cooking for another 15 minutes stirring occasionally to avoid the khichda sticking on the bottom of the cooker. Add more water if needed. The consistency should be semi-liquid. Cook till the millet is soft to eat. Add the ghee and beat it into the khichda. Serve hot with matar ki subzi, green, chutney, and pickle.

Shortly coming up - post 2 with the matar ki subzi.

Gatte ki Sabzi (gram flour dumplings in a spicy sauce)

This is a traditional rajasthani dish prepared in a variety of ways. You can alter it to make multiple versions and i've added optional ingredients for your convenience.
For the gatte (dumplings) you need:

• Besan (gram flour) - 1 1/2 cup


• Oil - 3 tbsp


• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp


• Heeng (asafoetida) - 1 pinch


• Red chilly powder - 1 tsp (alter as per taste)


• Salt to taste


• 2 peppercorns, 2 cloves - thickly crushed

For the gravy you need:

• Curd - 1/2 cup


• 2 onions - finely chopped (optional)


• 4 cloves of garlic - crushed (optional)


• Ginger - 1" piece julienned


• 2 green chillies - finely chopped


• Red chilly powder - 1 tsp


• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp


• Coriander powder - 2 tbsp


• salt to taste


• Oil/ghee - 3 tbsp

How to: Dumplings

Put all ingredients for the dumplings in a bowl and knead into a dough that shapes well. Add little water to knead it as required.
Once the dough is ready shape it like sausages. This will make around 4-5 sausages.
Heat 4 cups of water in a pan. Once it boils add the dumplings to it and boil for 10 minutes or till cooked.
Drain out the water (save it for the gravy) and let the dumplings cool
Cut into 1/2 inch long pieces once cool

How to: gravy
Heat the oil/ghee in a pan and saute onions till translucent. Add the ginger, garlic and green chilly and cook for 2 minutes.

Add red chilly powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and salt in the curd and mix well. Add this paste to the cooking onions and stir well till the oil leaves sides.

Add the dumplings and 3 cups of the saved water to this gravy and cook till it attains a thick consistency.

Ready to eat with hot rotis :)

Alu Matar Dry

Boiled potatoes - 4
Peas - 1 cup
Oil - 2 tbsp
Asafoetida (heeng) – 1 pinch optional
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Red chilly pd - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
Chopped green chilly - 2
Dry Mango Powder (amchur) – optional - 1 tsp

Temper asafoetida and cumin seeds in hot oil. Add peas and cook till soft. Cube the boiled potatoes and mix all the masala with the potatoes except amchur. Add these masala potatoes to the peas and cook till oil slightly leaves sides. Add amchur and mix well.

Bedvi Pudi

This is again a traditional rajasthani dish and superbly tasty. Its good as a snack, breakfast or a main meal. Best served with a potato curry though pickle and chutneys work equally well. I love to munch a couple with my cup of tea.

You need:
Urad dal (yellow lentils) - 1 cup
Wheat flour - approximately 2 cups
red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 1/2 or 2 tsp
Mota masala (optional) - this is a traditional rajasthani masala made with roughly ground fennel seeds, dry ginger, cloves, peppercorns and coriander seeds)
Oil - 2 tbsp for the dough and more to fry

How to:
Soak the urad dal 2 hours in advance. Drain excess water from the dal after 2 hours and grind to a very rough paste (2 turns in the mixer should be enough). Add all the spices and 2 tbsp oil to this lentil paste and mix well. Slowly add the wheat flour and knead the dough till it is slightly tight and has stopped sticking to your hand.

Heat the oil in a deep pan. Roll out the dough in small puris (1 cm thick rounds of dough) with a rolling pin. Fry in hot oil till nicely brown and crisp.

Serve hot.

Dal Dhokli

This is again a very popular traditional Rajasthani recipe that is easy to make and one of my favorites. It's a complete meal in itself and a delight to one's palate :)

You need:
For the dal
Split green moong dal (green lentils) - 2 cups
Onion - 2 medium - finely chopped
Ginger - 1 inch piece - grated
turmeric powder - 1 tsp
salt to taste
For the dhokli
Wheat flour - 1/4th cup
Gram flour - 1/2 cup
cumin seeds - 2 tsp
red chilly pd - 1/4 tsp
salt- 1/4 tsp
oil - 1 tbsp
water to knead
For tempering
ghee - 2 tbsp (can substitute with oil)
cumin seeds - 1 tsp
green chilly -1 -2 - finely chopped
red chilly powder - 1 tsp

How to:
Mix everything for the dal and put it in a pressure cooker with 2 cups of water. Put on high flame for 2 whistles and remove from flame.
Meanwhile, mix everything for the dhokli together and knead into a soft dough. Roll the dough in a slightly thick round using a rolling pin. Cut out 1 inch squares from this rolled dough. Keep repeating till all the dough is used up.
Open the cooker and add these dough pieces in the hot dal add more water (not more than 2 cups). Close the cooker and simmer on low flame for 15-20 minutes.
Open the cooker once cool. In a pan, heat the ghee, add cumin seeds and green chilly, add the red chilly powder and immediately pour over the contents of the cooker. Mix well.

While serving, add lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with green coriander chutney.

Rajasthani Kadhi

This is a staple Rajasthani dish. I remember as children we had a fixed meal of kadhi chawal everyday. Rajasthani kadhi is different from it's other Indian counter parts like Punjabi and Sindhi kadhi. This sour concoction is quite simple and doesn't use too many spices. A hot bowl of Kadhi on a cold day is bliss indeed.

You need:
2 cups sour curd or 4 cups sour buttermilk
2 cups of water if you are using curd
4 tbsp gram flour (besan)
cumin seeds - 1 tsp
mustard seeds (rai) - 1 tsp
methi dana (optional) - 1/2 tsp
red chilli pd - 1 tsp
ghee - 1 tbsp (actually marwari's believe more the ghee the better so feel free to pile it on)
salt to taste

How to:
Mix watered curd or buttermilk with gramflour and mix well. Make sure that no lumps remain. Add salt and methi dana and put on the flame. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously. Reduce the flame and simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally to avoid the mix sticking to the pan. The more you cook it the better it tastes. Rajasthani Kadhi is very watery in consistency and if the mixture gets too thick add some more water.

Heat ghee in a separate pan. Temper the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Remove from flame and immediately add red chilli powder. Pour on top of the simmering curd mixture. Mix well and bring to a boil. Ready to eat :)