Dahi Bara Aloo dum Ghungni is a famous street food of Odisha, This is very popular cuttack special chaat and people would there are fond of dahi bara aloo dum more than any other chaat. They can have this chaat anytime a day be it breakfast, lunch , snack, or dinner. The are so many hawkers selling this dahi vada all over odisha and each one has their own taste . After going through so many vlogs about this street food in youtube I came to know that Bidanashi Dahi vada in Cuttack is most popular they don’t have any fancy topping but still, they taste good. But I did add some topping they tasted yummy without any topping. The Interesting part about eating this dahi bara in cuttack is they don’t give a spoon to eat them and you have to eat with your fingers. I also read that some places the ghungi is skipped and just served with a watery aloo dum. I would love to go and experience the dahi bara aloo dum in cuttack some day. Till then I will make them at home frequently. The soft vadas are placed on the leaf bowl and topped with some hot ghugni and aloo dum.
Street food is happiness overloaded as it has something new to experience in any place. The small vendors who sell these amazing delicacy are always the best and even though we might try to recreate sometimes would still go search for the street food which they make, it is the taste that matters when it comes to street food and there something new always makes anyone curious about how it is going to taste. Today am here is a Orissa street food which I made yesterday for my D. It was a busy day , Had to pack lunch box in the morning so forgot to soak the dal for vada . Lil one has spring break and wants me around all the time. She was getting bored so took her to the library I just soaked my dal for vada and went. It was already 2 pm when I came back . I quickly ground the vada batter , made the ghugni which I had soaked overnight and aloo dum side by side. I fried all the vada and soaked them in the buttermilk by 4 and they soaked well for 1 1/2 hour. It was already 5.30 pm, yesterday was a rainy day , though I enjoyed the rain the light was playing hide and seek. Somehow I managed to click the pictures before all the light vanished. These are really different take on the normal dahi vada giving it some spice and tang .. It tasted delicious and I would make them again for sure.. People even drink the chaas as is after having these delicious chaats like we have the pani after having pani poori :D.. Coming to the recipe
Ingredients
For Bara / Vada
- Urad dal / skinned black gram dal – 1 1/2 cup
- Salt to taste
For Ghugni
- Dried Yellow/White peas – 1 cup ( soaked overnight)
- Onion – 1 no Medium ( finely chopped)
- Tomatoes – 1 small ( finely chopped)
- Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
- Green chillies- 2 no ( finely chopped)
- Red chilli pd – 1 tsp
- Coriander pd – 2 tsp
- Turmeric pd – 1/2 tsp
- Cumin pd – 1/2 tsp
- Garam masala – 1/2 tsp
- Coriander leaves – few finely chopped
- Baking soda – a pinch ( optional)
- Bay leaves – 1 no
- Cloves – 2 no
- Cardamom ( whole) – 2 no
- Cinnamon – 1 inch size
- Oil – 2 tbsp
- Salt to taste
For Aloo Dum
- Potatoes – 2 no medium sized
- Onion- 1 no medium ( finely chopped)
- Tomatoes – 1 no medium ( finely chopped)
- Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
- Green chillies – 2 no ( finely chopped)
- Red chilli pd – 1 tsp
- Coriander pd – 2 tsp
- Turmeric pd – 1/2 tsp
- Cumin pd – 1/2 tsp
- Garama masala – 1/2 tsp
- Bay leaves – 1 no
- Cloves – 2 no
- Cardamom ( whole) – 2 no
- Cinnamon – 1-inch size
- Oil – Needed to shallow fry
- Coriander leaves – few finely chopped
- Salt to taste
For Chaas /Buttermilk
- Curd / Plain yogurt – 2 cups
- Water – as needed
- Green chillies – 3 no ( small)
- Ginger paste – 2 tsp
- Mustard seed- 1/2 tsp
- Curry leaves – few
- Cumin pd – 1/2 tsp
- Coriander leaves – Few chopped
- Salt to taste
For Toppings
- Onion – 1 no Medium ( chopped)
- Coriander leaves – Few ( finely chopped)
- Ompodi
- Green chillies – Thinly chopped
- Black salt to sprinkle
- Red chilli pd to sprinkle
- Cumin pd to sprinkle
- Urad dal / skinned black gram dal - 1½ cup
- Salt to taste
- Dried Yellow/White peas - 1 cup ( soaked overnight)
- Onion - 1 no Medium ( finely chopped)
- Tomatoes - 1 small ( finely chopped)
- Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
- Green chillies- 2 no ( finely chopped)
- Red chilli pd - 1 tsp
- Coriander pd - 2 tsp
- Turmeric pd - ½ tsp
- Cumin pd - ½ tsp
- Garam masala - ½ tsp
- Coriander leaves - few finely chopped
- Baking soda - a pinch ( optional)
- Bay leaves - 1 no
- Cloves - 2 no
- Cardamom ( whole) - 2 no
- Cinnamon - 1 inch size
- Oil - 2 tbsp
- Salt to taste
- Potatoes - 2 no medium sized
- Onion- 1 no medium ( finely chopped)
- Tomatoes - 1 no medium ( finely chopped)
- Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
- Green chillies - 2 no ( finely chopped)
- Red chilli pd - 1 tsp
- Coriander pd - 2 tsp
- Turmeric pd - ½ tsp
- Cumin pd - ½ tsp
- Garama masala - ½ tsp
- Bay leaves - 1 no
- Cloves - 2 no
- Cardamom ( whole) - 2 no
- Cinnamon - 1-inch size
- Oil - Needed to shallow fry
- Coriander leaves - few finely chopped
- Salt to taste
- Curd / Plain yogurt - 2 cups
- Water - as needed
- Green chillies - 3 no ( small)
- Ginger paste - 2 tsp
- Mustard seed- ½ tsp
- Curry leaves - few
- Cumin pd - ½ tsp
- Salt to taste
- Onion - 1 no Medium ( chopped)
- Coriander leaves - Few ( finely chopped)
- Ompodi
- Green chillies - Thinly chopped
- Black salt to sprinkle
- Red chilli pd to sprinkle
- Cumin pd to sprinkle
Method
For Bara/ Vada
- Soak urad dhal in water for 5-6 hours. After they get soaked well wash them a couple of times till you see a clear water.
- In a mixie fill 1/4 of the jar with dal and grind them with very little water. Don’t get tempted to pour more water just 1 tbsp at a time.
- Grind the dal well to fine paste-like consistency and it should look like a fluffy white batter. Don’t let the Mixie heat up otherwise your vada will turn hard.
- Grind the rest of the dal and transfer the batter to a bowl. .
- Now add salt and whip the batter well with your hands to incorporate air. The more you mix the more your vada will turn soft and fluffy from inside.
- To check if your batter is perfect in a bowl of water drop a little batter , if it floats then the matter is perfect if it sinks then you need to whip it more.
- In a bowl fill some warm water and keep it ready.
- Heat oil in a kadai and let it reach the frying temperature.
- Keep a bowl of water to dip your hands nearby. Wet your hands well before shaping the vada
- Take a small portion of the batter and make ball with your wet hand, then make a cavity or a hole using your thumb.
- Drop this to the hot oil. Just turn your hands and the shaped vada will fall in the oil. If you feel this is not working then wet a plastic or ziplock drop a ball of batter and try to shape them and drop the shaped vada to the oil.
- Do the same with rest of the batter . You can fry up to 5 vada in one go depending upon your pans/ kadai size
- Fry them in a medium heat so that it cooks well from inside.
- I kept them light in color as dahi vada are not usually browned up and made crispy.
- Once they are light golden brown , drain the oil and transfer the vadas to the water.
- Fry the rest of the vadas and do the same.
To Make Buttermilk/ Chaas
- In a bowl churn yogurt and water like we do for making buttermilk .Add cumin pd,salt,green chilli paste, ginger paste and mix well.
- Prepare a tadka wih oil mustard seeds and curry leaves and drop it in the buttermilk.
Press the vadas and remove the excess water if any, drop them in the chaas/Buttermilk and let it rest for 1 – 2 hours.
To make Ghugni
- Pressure cook the soaked peas with some salt and baking pd for 1-2 whistles depending on your pressure cooker but not more that 2.
- In a pan heat oil add cloves,bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon. Add onion and saute them well until translucent.
- Add Ginger garlic paste, Green chilli paste and saute till the raw smell goes off.
- Add the tomatoes and cook they till they are mushy.
- Add allspice pd’s and saute them well till you can smell the nice aroma of the sauteed spice.
- Add the pressure cooked peas , also add salt and Mix them well.
- Add some water to dilute the gravy and let it boil for 10 -15 minutes.
To Make Aloo Dum
- In the pressure cooker boil the potatoes for 3 whistles. After the pressure subsides remove the potatoes and peel them.
- Heat some oil to shallow fry , Cut potatoes to medium sized pieces and fry them till slight browning here and there.
- Transfer the shallow fried potatoes to a kitchen towel to drain the excess oil.
- In a saucepan heat oil, add bay leaves , cloves, cardamom, cinnamon.
- Add the chopped onions and saute until translucent,
- Add the ginger garlic and green chilli paste and saute.
- Add the tomatoes and cook until mushy.
- Add allspice pd’s and saute them well till you can smell the nice aroma of the sauteed spice.
- Add the shallow fried potatoes and , add salt and Mix them well.
- Add some water to dilute the gravy and let it boil for 10 -15 minutes.
To Assemble
- By this time the vadas must have soaked well and would have turned soft.
- Press the vada lightly and place is a serving bowl or plate .
- Add Ghugni some ghugni and some aloo dum on top of the vada.
- And add the topping to them. Some chopped onions, ompodi, coriander leaves , Black salt,cumin pd, red chilli pd.
- Serve them immediately. People drink the buttermilk as is too.
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