Khaman

Directions

1. Wash and soak both the dals overnight or at least 7 to 8 hours.
2. Drain out the water from the dals and add the yogurt and dals to a mixer grinder , add the 1/4 cup of water also.
3. Now, take out the mixture and add in the chickpea flour, turmeric, salt , one teaspoon of sugar and keep it to ferment for some hours or preferably overnight. Keep it in a warm place like oven or microwave to ferment.
4. Just before making the dumplings , add in the ginger-chili paste, lemon juice, oil and soda bicarbonate. Mix well. Do not over mix it. we want a smooth batter.
5. Now, keep a pressure cooker or a steamer ready filled in with water on stove to start the steaming process. We will need to keep a small pot on which we are going to place our dish with the batter. We do not want the steaming water to get in the batter. Grease a dish with good high edges with some oil.
6. Pour in the mixture into the greased dish half up, as the dumplings would rise. we need to allow it to rise so that we are using a high edged dish. Cover it with pressure cooker top or the steaming vessel cover. And, cook it for about 20 minutes on high flame.
7. Side by side , for the seasoning. Take a pan, add the oil let it heat up , add up the mustard seeds, asafoetida and let them crackle. Once the seeds crackle , add the green chilies slits and sesame seeds, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 4 tablespoons of water .
8. Once the dumplings are done after 20 minutes, keep them for about 10 minutes to cool off properly before cutting them into pieces. Once cooled off , cut the dumplings into 1 inch squares. Arrange them in a dish side by side.
9. Sprinkle the seasoning on top of each dumpling to coat them with the seasoning. Sprinkle the grated coconut and the chopped cilantro. Serve it with green mint-cilantro chutney. For parties, arrange each dumpling on chutney with toothpicks.
10. For variation , I add spinach to the batter and it gives it a nice green color and taste of spinach. You can also, add pea puree to the batter .