Dhapate and Zunka

EVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY

THEME: MAHARASHTRA CUISINE

If you’ve ever been to Mumbai then you’ve definitely been to the State of Maharashtra and sampled a bit of the local cuisine, from seafood to street food. Vada Pav, Pav Bhaji, Tawa Pulao, Misal Pav, Ragda Pattis are the more famous street food options but Maharashtra has much more to offer. Many vegetarian dishes are similar to Gujarati dishes but they all have their distinctive differences. Wheat, millet, sorghum, lentils, vegetables, fruits, peanuts, cashew nuts are some of the basic staples in any Maharashtrian dish. A basic diet is usually consists of bhakri made from jowar, millet or wheat flour, a dal and bhaji. Here the reference to bhaji is vegetables.

I personally love thalipeeth, sabudana khichdi, puran poli, kothmir vadi, to name a few besides the delicious street food.

Bhawana who blogs at Code2Cook.com was my partner for this month. It was really nice getting to know her as we chatted for a long time. She wanted to prepare some street food and I wanted to try out something traditional. I gave her tomato and tamarind and she gave me besan(chickpea flour) and bajra (millet). She suggested that I could prepare jhunka or zunka with bhakri.

At that time I agreed as, to me bhakri means wheat flour paratha. However, on checking out some recipes on the internet I realized that in Maharashtra bhakri refers to bajra or jowar rotla. I could have made the zunka but how do I use bajra as I already have bajra rotla on my blog? The other option was dhapate which I had bookmarked from Vaishali’s blog Ribbons to Pasta. However, I still wanted to make zunka as I found the recipe very interesting. What a clever way to prepare a sabji when vegetables are not available or you need to prepare something in a jiffy.

Now most of my Maharashtrian blogger friends may question my combo of dhapate and zunka.. but I still went ahead and made both. My family really enjoyed both. Next time will make zunka with bhakri. While zunka is not my main dish for this challenge, the seed that Bhawana planted in my head kept on growing and my fingers were itching to try out the recipe. My main dish for the challenge is dhapate where I added also millet (bajra flour). The dhapate taste and flavor reminded me of the Gujarati dhebra.

DHAPATE

Recipe Idea: Ribbons to Pasta

Makes about 12-14 pieces

½ cup jowar flour (sorghum flour)

½ cup bajra flour (millet flour)

½ cup wheat flour (atta)

¼ cup rice flour

½ cup chickpea flour (besan)

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

½ tsp carom seeds (ajwain)

1 tsp salt

½ cup plain yogurt

½ tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

1 tsp garlic paste

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp green chili paste

¼ cup finely chopped fresh coriander

½ cup water

some oil for deep frying

1. Mix the flours, salt, cumin and carom seeds, turmeric powder in a big bowl.
2. Add oil and rub into the flour mixture.
3. Add coriander, ginger, garlic and chili paste. Mix well.
4. Add the yogurt and mix it into the flour mixture.
5. Add water little by little till you can form a soft pliable dough.
6. Heat oil in a wok, frying pan or karai over medium heat.
7. Divide the dough into 12- 14 parts and roll each part into a ball.
8. Take a square piece of plastic sheet or cling film.
9. Rub little oil over the sheet.
10. Place a ball of the dough on the sheet and with oiled fingers pat it into a circle about 3-4 inches in diameter.
11. Make a hole in the middle of the circle using your finger.
12. Gently flip the patted dough onto your palm and transfer to the hot oil.
13. Fry it till it becomes golden brown and appears crispy.
14. Remove from the oil and place it in a colander to let the excess oil drain off.
15. Repeat steps 9-14 with the remaining dough.
16. Serve dhapate with some pickle and yogurt.

 

Tips:

• Dhapate can be roasted instead of fried. Put it on a hot tawa, rub oil on both sides and roast till done.
• Can add some sesame seeds on top before frying or roasting.

ZHUNKA

Recipe source: Archana’s Rasoi

Serves 4

1 cup besan (chickpea flour)

1 large onion, finely chopped

3-4 tbsp oil

2-3 tbsp water

½ tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp salt

½ tsp garam masala

½ tsp mustard seeds (rai)

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp green chili paste or 1-2 chilis finely chopped

2-3 tbsp chopped coriander

¼ tsp asafetida (hing)

1. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat.
2. Add mustard seeds, asafetida and chopped onion.
3. Stir fry the onion till it becomes soft.
4. Add ginger, garlic and chili paste.
5. Stir fry for a few seconds.
6. Add the chickpea flour, salt, turmeric powder, garam masala and red chili powder.
7. Stir fry the chickpea flour over low heat for 2-3 minutes.
8. Sprinkle water over the mixture.
9. Cover the pan with a lid. Put water over it.
10. Let the zunka cook for 2-3 minutes and check in between that its not burning at the bottom.
11. The mixture should be a bit dry. Add coriander and mix.
12. Serve zunka with bhakri.

 

Tips:

• Do not add to much water otherwise it will become a pitla.
• Putting little water on the lid prevents the zunka from burning at the bottom.
• This dish requires a generous amount of oil to cook well.
• Adjust spices according to your taste.

 

Pin for later:

A little request:

If you do try this recipe then please either

• add a comment below,
• send a picture to my email mayuri.ajay.patel62@gmail.com
•  tag me as #mayuri_jikoni on Instagram
• or tag me on Twitter as #Mayuri1962

 

You may want to check out the following:

 

 

 

 

Sharing this recipe with the following event:

Shhh Cooking Secretly a group started by Priya of Priya’s Versatile Recipes,  is where every month food bloggers are paired up and give each other 2 secret ingredients to cook with according to the theme chosen. If you’re interested in joining this exciting group then please leave a message in the comment section. Thank you.