Quinoa Dhokla with Sour dough bread and Cream of Wheat

I love my blog, something I want to leave for my kids and grand kids as a legacy with all my compiled recipes. Hope they treasure it, and I hope Google Blogger is still around for many generations to come. (may be in different format)
Also I learn so much about universal commonality of food that sometimes it is amazing.  As I made this dish and I have used Quinoa for other dishes in past, but whenever I make something new I always google the ingredients and its culinary history. I am always amazed how much I learn.  
In North India there is a green called Bathua which was very commonly used especially in winter time, same as here the spinach and other greens are used.  We made Bathua Bhaji, Raita, Stuffed Paratha with bathua and  my favorite Bathua Kadi. 

I have been looking for Bathua leaves here in US and never able to find them in local grocery store or even in Indian or any other athenic store.  You must be wondering where am I going with this, but as I was reading up more on Quinoa, I was truely amazed to find out that Quinoa seeds come from same species of plant and  it is commonly known here as goosefoot.  This little knowledge excited me so much that I thought before sharing the recipe with you I must share this little acquired knowledge with you all.

Quinoa (kēn’wä)  is a species of the  goose foot genus (Chenopodium quinoa), a grain crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal similar in some respects to buckwheat rather than a true cereal, as it is not a member of the rue grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beetroots, spinach and tumbleweeds.

As a member of the Amaranthaceae  family, it is related to and resembles amaranth,  which is also a pseudocereal. After harvest, the seeds must be processed to remove the coating containing the bitter-tasting saponins. The seeds are in general cooked the same way as rice and can be used in a wide range of dishes.

Now ready my readers.... here we go... The leaves are eaten as a leaf vegetable much like  amaranth, (And that is BATHUA)  but commercial availability of quinoa greens is limited. That is why I can't find the leaves anywhere. Hmmm...Ponder that !!

The leaves and young shoots may be eaten as a leaf vegetable, either steamed in its entirety, or cooked like spinach   but should be eaten in moderation due to high levels of oxalic acid.  Each plant produces tens of thousands of black seeds. These are high in protein, vitamin A, Calcium, Phosphorus and Potassium. Quinoa a closely related species, is grown specifically for its seeds. The Zuni people cook the young plants' greens.

Now lets get back to Quinoa.  The genus Chenopodium contains several plants of minor to moderate importance as food  crops as leaf vegetable used like the closely related spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and similar plants called quelite in Mexicao– and pseuocereals . These include white goosefoot (C. album), kaniwa (C. pallidicaule) and quinoa (C. quinoa).

On the Greek island of Crete, tender shoots and leaves of a species called krouvida or psarovlito are eaten by the locals, boiled or steamed. As studied, goosefoots have a history of culinary use dating back to 4000 BC or earlier, when pitseed goosefoot (C. berlandieri) was a staple crop in the Native American, and white goosefoot was apparently used by the Ertebolle culture of  Europe.

There is increased interest in particular in goosefoot seeds today, which are suitable as part of a gluten free diet. Quinoa oil,  extracted from the seeds of C. quinoa, has similar properties, but is superior in quality, to corn oil.  So now that is enough about Quinoa. !!

Dhokla  is a vegetarian  food item that originates from the Indian state of Gujarat. It is made with a fermented batter derived from rice and split chickpeas. Dhokla can be eaten for breakfast, as a main course, as a side dish, or as a snack. Dhokla is very similar to Khaman, and the terms are frequently used interchangeably.

There are different kinds of dhokla prepared with different ingredients and ratios of chickpeas. Some of the popular kinds of dhoklas that many culinary experts try is: Khatta Dhokla, Rasia dhokla, Khandhavi dhokla,Cheese dhokla,Toordal dhokla,Sandwich dhokla, Rawa dhokla,Mixed dal dhokla and green peas dhokla. 

I most recently tried Sourdough bread Dhokla which recipe I am going to post very soon, but then I heard my sister talk about trying Quinoa Dhokla at one of her friends.  Without having the recipe, I thought that is a good idea and will experiment my own recipe that I derived from my recent trial of sourdough Dhokla.  So here it is.

Ingredients to steam Dhokla:

• 1 cup of Quinoa soaked overnight
• 1 cup of Cream of wheat
• 2 large sour dough bread or 4 small slices of sour dough bread to make 1 cup of crumbs
• 1 cup of tart/sour plane yogurt (Dahi)
• 1 and one  half cup of water

• Juice from 2 fresh limes
• 2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/8 cup of vegetable oil
• Cooking oil spray

You will also need Dhokla steamer with flat metal plates (stainless steel thali) a typical Gujrati household always have these in their kitchen) 

For tempering and garnishing Dhokla:

• 3-4 tables spoon of oil
• 1 tables spoon of black mustard seeds 
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• Asafoetida
• A Sprig or two of curry leaves
• 2-3 dry red chili pods or to taste (optional)

• 4-5 fresh Serrano or  jalapeno peppers or to taste (optional) chopped in to desired size. (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1 small bunch of Cilantro
• Juice for 3-4 fresh lime (to taste and depends on size of lime)
• 1-2 tablespoon of sugar (to taste)

 

 

 

Method to make Dhokla:

• Take the edges off of sourdough bread slices.
• Place the bread slices in dry food processor and process it until crumbs with no lump.
• Empty the crumbs in a bowl.
• Wash and soak Quioa over night or for 6-8 hours.
• Drain all the water out except   leaving some in there to enough to grind to paste.

• Grind it to paste in food processor (it will be slightly coarse but it is ok).
• Mix the quinoa paste with bread crumbs, cream of wheat, yogurt, water, salt, oil and lime juice.
• The paste should be like thick batter but not very runny.

 

 

• Mix well until everything is well incorporated.
• Add baking soda and mix well until bubbly.
• Set it aside for 10 min while you get the steamer and flat thalies ready.
• In the steamer add water and place it on stove on medium high heat.
• Grease the thali with teaspoon of oil or cooking oil spray.

• Pour the 2-4 ladle full of batter in thali to raise it up to an inch height. (this depends on the size of thali).
• Place the thali on steamer and steam the Dhokla for 15 min covered.
• Dhokla will rise.
• In the mean time have the other thali ready to be steamed.
• After 15 min take the steamed dhokla out and let it cool.

 

• Add some more water to steamer and then place another thali of dhokla and steam it for 15 min.
• When the first Dhokla thali is cool, slice them in to small rectangle or square or diamond pieces to you desire bite size.  
• Empty them in a bowl.
• Continue to repeat the process until all the batter is gone.
• Once you have all the dhokla cut in pieces, you can now temper and garnish them as follows.

Method for tempering and garnishing:

• Mix lime juice and sugar until sugar it dissolved, you may add some water if you like.
• Drizzle the sugar and lime water  over the prepared  cut cubes of dhokla, tossing them in between gently.
• Heat 3-4 tablespoon of cooking oil in a wok like pan

• When oil is hot add mustard and cumin seeds, when these crackle add asefoetida.
• Add dry chili pods, curry leaves, chopped jalapenos or Serrano peppers and turmeric powder.
• Quickly add the cubed dhokla that were drizzled with lime juice and sugar.

 

• Gently toss them in wok with spatula so all the oil with turmeric and all the tempering ingredient is coated over all the cubes of dhokla,
• Turn the heat off.

 

 

 

• Wash, clean  and chop the cilantro leaves.
• Garnish the Dhokla with chopped cilantro

 

Hints: 
* Some people like to garnish Dhoklas with grated or shredded coconut, or with sweetened coconut flakes that you get here for baking,  but I am not too fond of coconut so I do not use it for this.
* Instead of using sourdough bread you may use regular bread.
* Instead of using sour dough bread and cream of wheat you may use chick peas dal  or moong dal and soak them separately for 6-8 hours and  grind them to paste. However I feel that the dal taste will overpower the taste of quinoa.

Serve hot with green cilantro/mint chutney (pesto) (recipe on this blog)
This recipes yields 6 servings
Enjoy this Healthy and delicious recipe !!

 

Source of above information on  Quinoa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenopodium_album

https://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Source of above information on Dhokla source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhokla
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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