Jhunka

The gram flour paste is sauteed until it stiffens, which is what separates it from the wet, mild pithla.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 250 g gram flour, besan
• 400 ml water
• 3 onions, sliced
• 4 green chillies, chopped
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
• a 3 cm piece of ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground red chilli
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 20 g coriander leaves

Method

1. THE GRAM FLOUR PASTE IS SAUTEED UNTIL IT STIFFENS, WHICH IS WHAT SEPARATES IT FROM THE WET, MILD PITHLA. Its article gives the method and then, unusually, corrects a confusion for you. The method: gram flour mixed with water to form a SEMI-SOLID PASTE, which is then SAUTEED in oil with chillies, chilli powder, turmeric, salt, fried onions, mustard seeds, ginger, garlic, cumin and coriander. The correction: it is often confused with pithla, HOWEVER the latter IS WET and is MILD to taste. So this one is neither. A source that stops to explain what a dish is not is naming the mistake people make.
2. THE PASTE IS MIXED BEFORE IT MEETS THE PAN. Gram flour whisked into the water until there is no lump at all. Flour tipped dry into hot oil goes to pellets and nothing will smooth them out.
3. SEMI-SOLID MEANS THICK, AND ITS ARTICLE CHOSE THAT WORD. Four hundred millilitres to two hundred and fifty grams -- a paste that drops off a spoon in a lump rather than pouring.
4. THE ONIONS ARE FRIED FIRST, WHICH ITS LIST SPECIFIES. Fried onions, not raw ones added later. Eight minutes to a proper brown, because in a dish this plain they are most of the sweetness.
5. THE MUSTARD SEEDS GO IN BEFORE EVERYTHING AND MUST POP. A tablespoon, in hot oil, lidded. Unpopped mustard seed is bitter and raw.
6. IT IS SAUTEED, NOT SIMMERED, AND THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT. Stirred over a medium heat until it comes away from the pan in a mass and crumbles at the edge of the spoon. Ten or twelve minutes. Add water to loosen it and you have made the other dish.
7. IT IS DONE WHEN IT CRUMBLES RATHER THAN POURS. Spoon some onto a plate: it should sit in a heap and not spread.
8. THERE IS A LOT OF OIL IN IT AND THAT IS NOT A MISTAKE. Five tablespoons. Gram flour cooked dry tastes of raw flour however long you give it.
9. ITS ARTICLE NAMES WHAT IT IS EATEN WITH AND WHAT GOES BESIDE IT. Bhakri, or Chapati, as on its own page, or rice -- and a kharda or thecha, which is a pounded chilli relish, alongside.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes