Dal Bati Churma

Three dishes on one plate, and ghee runs through all of them. The batis are dunked in it, the churma is bound with it, and the dal gets a final tempering of it. This is a weekend project rather than a weeknight dinner, and it is worth clearing an afternoon for.

Ingredients

• Bati: 3 cups coarse whole wheat atta
• ½ cup Gobind Ghee, plus 1 cup melted for dunking
• ½ cup semolina (sooji)
• 1 tsp ajwain (carom seeds)
• 1 tsp salt, ¼ tsp baking soda
• About ¾ cup warm milk or water
• Dal: ¼ cup each chana dal, toor dal, moong dal, urad dal and masoor dal
• 2 tbsp Gobind Ghee, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 bay leaf, 2 dried red chillies
• 1 onion, 2 tomatoes, 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1 tsp each turmeric, red chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala
• Churma: 4 leftover batis, ½ cup gur or powdered sugar, ¼ cup Gobind Ghee, cardamom, chopped almonds

Method

1. Bati dough. Rub the ½ cup ghee into the atta and semolina with your fingers until it clumps when squeezed. Add ajwain, salt and soda. Add warm milk a little at a time and bring it together into a stiff dough — much firmer than roti dough. If it is soft, the batis will not hold their shape.
2. Rest 20 minutes, then divide into 12 balls. Roll each smooth and press a thumb indent or a shallow X into the centre so the heat reaches the middle.
3. Bake at 200 °C for 35 to 40 minutes, turning once, until deep golden and cracked. Alternatively cook in a covered pan on low for 40 minutes, turning often.
4. Dal. Rinse the mixed lentils and pressure-cook with turmeric, salt and 4 cups water for 4 whistles, or simmer 40 minutes until soft.
5. Heat 2 tbsp ghee. Add cumin, bay leaf and dried chillies. When they crackle, add the onion and brown it, then the ginger-garlic paste, then the tomatoes and remaining spices. Cook until the ghee separates.
6. Pour this into the cooked dal, add water to loosen, and simmer 10 minutes.
7. Churma. Crush 4 batis coarsely — a mortar or a rolling pin, not a blender. Mix in the ¼ cup ghee, then the gur, cardamom and almonds. Press into small rounds or leave loose.
8. To serve, crack the hot batis open, dunk them in the cup of melted ghee, and plate with dal and churma.

The ghee note

This dish uses roughly two cups of ghee across the three parts and it is not the place to economise. The dough ghee makes the bati crumbly rather than hard; the dunking ghee is the whole ritual; the churma will not bind without it.

Tips

• Test the rubbed-in ghee by squeezing a fistful of the flour. If it holds its shape, you have enough.
• The thumb indent is not decorative — solid batis stay raw in the middle.
• Make extra batis deliberately. Churma is made from them.

Substitutions

Any five lentils work; even toor dal alone makes a respectable panchmel. Powdered sugar replaces gur in the churma with a cleaner, less caramel flavour.

Storage

Batis keep 3 days in a tin and reheat well. Dal keeps 4 days refrigerated. Churma keeps a week at room temperature.

Serving

All three together on one thali, with sliced onion, green chilli and a spoon of ghee on the dal.

Nutrition

Approximately 720 kcal per full plate, based on six servings. This is a feast dish. Estimated values.