Dahi bhallay / lentil balls in yogurt

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup dhuli urad (split, skinned black lentil)
• 1/2 cup dhuli moong (split, skinned green moong)
• 1/2 tsp methi seeds ( fenugreek seeds)
• salt,to taste
• 2 tbsp ginger juice (optional but recommended)
• canola oil for frying
• To serve
• seasoned yogurt
• green chutney
• date and tamarind chutney/sauce (must)
• various spices and cilantro to garnish
• Ingredients to prepare seasoned yogurt
• 1 cup unflavored (preferably homemade) yogurt
• 1/4 cup milk or water or buttermilk
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp kala namak (Himalayan rock salt)
• 1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder

Preparation

• Method to make bhallas:
  
  1. Wash and soak both lentils and methi seeds in separate bowls for 6-8 hours or overnight.
  
  2. Drain all the water, grind lentils and methi seeds in a blender by adding just about 1 tbsp of water as and when required. The amount of water that you will need will vary on how long your daal actually soaked. Start with 2 tbsp and then work your way up. You want to whip the daal in a blender and not food processor, so it aerates and become smooth and fluffy (read second paragraph in the post).
  
  3. Remove ground lentil mixture in a bowl. Add salt, ginger juice, and black pepper. (To make ginger juice, grate 2″ ginger add 1 tbsp water, squeeze through a strainer).
  Whip up the lentil mixture for 5 minutes. To check whether your mixture is perfect or not, drop a pea size mixture in a cup of water, if it floats the mixture is perfect and ready to make vadas.
  
  5. Heat oil in a frying pan. Reduce the heat to medium for even cooking. Dip your spoon in water and drop spoonfuls of lentil mixture in medium hot oil. Keep rolling the skimmer in oil to make the bhallas roll over and turn golden. Delicately lift lentil balls with a wok skimmer, draining as much oil as possible, and transfer them onto paper towel. Fry all bhallas until you use up the lentil mixture. At this point, depending on when you want to serve dahi bhallay, you can either freeze or refrigerate them for later or go to the next step for soaking in yogurt.
  
  6. Soak 8 bhallas in lukewarm water for 5-7 minutes. Gently squeeze excess water from bhallas by pressing it between your palms and lay them in a flat serving bowl.
• To make seasoned yogurt:
  
  In a bowl, whisk yogurt with water or milk or butter milk until smooth (the yogurt has to be the consistency of cream). Season with salt, black salt and ground black pepper. Some people also add some sugar but I don’t. Pour yogurt on the squeezed bhallas. Refrigerate for couple of hours or overnight. Before serving, spoon some sweet tamarind and green chutney. To finish, sprinkle red chili powder, cumin powder, chaat masala, black pepper, kala namak, sev (optional) and cilantro leaves.

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