Khaman

No rice and no fermenting: the lift comes from lemon juice and curd.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

• 250 g gram flour, besan
• 3 tablespoons semolina
• 100 g yoghurt
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• a 3 cm piece of ginger, grated
• 2 green chillies, crushed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 200 ml water
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
• 3 dried red chillies
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 40 g sev, to finish

Method

1. NO RICE AND NO FERMENTING: THE LIFT COMES FROM LEMON JUICE AND CURD. Its article gives the composition -- ground chickpeas or CHANA GRAM FLOUR, usually with LEMON JUICE, SEMOLINA AND CURD -- and then does something unusually helpful: it tells you what this is not. KHAMAN OUTWARDLY RESEMBLES DHOKLA, BUT DHOKLA IS PREPARED FROM A FERMENTED BATTER THAT ALSO CONTAINS RICE. So Dhokla, as on its own page, needs soaking overnight and four hours of ferment; this one is mixed and steamed within the half hour, and the acid in the lemon and the curd is doing the job the culture does there.
2. THE ACID AND THE SODA MEET AT THE LAST MOMENT. Lemon juice and bicarbonate stirred in, then straight into the steamer. They start reacting on contact and a batter left standing five minutes has already spent its rise.
3. THE BATTER IS BEATEN HARD FIRST, BEFORE EITHER GOES IN. Five minutes with a whisk. The air beaten in is half the texture; the soda only enlarges what is there.
4. THE SEMOLINA IS ITS ARTICLE'S OWN AND IT IS NOT FILLER. Three tablespoons. It gives a slight grain that keeps the sponge from being pasty.
5. IT IS STEAMED ABOUT TWENTY MINUTES IN A SHALLOW TRAY. Deeper than three centimetres and the middle stays wet while the edges dry.
6. THE LID IS NOT LIFTED IN THE FIRST TEN MINUTES. The draught collapses it.
7. THE TADKA IS A FINAL STEP AND ITS ARTICLE SAYS SO. A FINAL TADKA CAN BE ADDED, using ingredients such as asafoetida and chillies. Poured over the cut pieces.
8. IT IS YELLOWER AND SOFTER THAN THE OTHER ONE. All gram flour and no rice, so it is a deeper yellow and noticeably more fragile. Cut with a wet knife.
9. ITS ARTICLE NAMES TWO VARIANTS THAT ARE REALLY TOPPINGS. Sev khamani, under crisp sev, and dahi khamani with yoghurt.

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