Dhuska And Ghugni – Deep Fried Pancake With Chickpeas Curry

Jharkhand is a state in the Eastern part of India that was carved out of Bihar in the year 2000. Jharkhand that means ‘ The land of Forests’ shares its border with Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal. Ranchi is the capital of the state and the state accounts for about 40 % of the mineral resources of India. Hindi, Bangla, urdu and English are the major languages spoken in the state along with Maithili and Santali. It is a tribal dominated state and hence has a rich folk culture.

The cuisine of Jharkhand is quite special because they use very minimal amount of spices in their cooking. Rice is the staple and several dishes are prepared using rice as the main ingredient. Jharkhand cuisine also uses several edible flowers in their cooking. Many vegetables and leaves are dried and stores when in season to use later. They also use lot of mushrooms in the cooking. The mushrooms are abundant in the monsoon time which is then collected, dried and stored to use for the rest of the year.

The recipe, Dhuska and Ghugni, I made today is a very famous recipe in the Jharkhand and Bihar regions. I had bookmarked this recipe from Vaishali’s space long back. Dhuska is ground rice and lentil batter that is deep fried and is usually consumed for breakfast. Vaishali had shallow fried the dhuskas instead of deep frying them and they resembled the South Indian dosai’s. I wanted to try out both the deep fried and the shallow fried version and hence did both. Any guesses on which tasted the best? Of course it has to be the deep fried ones. The shallow fried tasted great and there was nothing wrong with it except when you ate it side by side with the deep fried ones. That was when you would notice that the deep fried are very addicting.

Ghugni is a simple curry made with black chickpeas. In the South, we hardly use the black chickpeas except to make Sundal. This was a good opportunity for me to use up my stock of black chickpeas. The curry had minimal spice and it paired great with the dhuskas.

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Dhuska and Ghugni

Preparation time – 15 minutes plus overnight to soak
Cooking time – about half an hour
Difficulty level – easy

Recipe source - Ribbon's to Pasta

Ingredients to make Dhuska – (makes about 18 small ones)

Rice – 2 cups
Urad dal / split black gram – ½ cup
Channa dal / Bengal gram – ¼ cup
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
Oil – to shallow fry or deep fry

Procedure to make Dhuska –

Soak the rice and lentils for about 6-8 hrs or leave it overnight.
Grind them to form a smooth batter adding little water. The consistency should be like a thick dosa batter.
Add the salt and the cumin seeds to the batter and mix it well.

To deep fry the dhuskas –

Heat oil in a wide kadai and once the oil heats up, add a ladleful of batter right in the middle of the pan. Pour the batter in one motion. You will notice that the batter starts to puff up. At this stage, turn it over and cook on the other side. Remove from oil when both the sides are golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and keep warm until ready to serve.

Repeat the same with the rest of the batter.

To shallow fry the dhuskas –

Heat a non stick pan and drizzle some oil in it. Once the pan heats up add a ladleful of batter. Let it cook until golden brown on the one side and then flip it to the other side. Drizzle more oil and cook the other side. Remove and drain and keep warm until ready to serve.

Repeat the same with the rest of the batter.

Ghugni

Preparation time – 15 minutes plus overnight to soak
Cooking time – 30 minutes
Difficulty level – easy
Recipe source - Ribbon's to Pasta

Ingredients to make Ghugni – Serves 4

Black chickpeas/ kala channa – 1 cup
Tomatoes – 2 (chopped)
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Ginger – 1 inch piece (finely grated)
Green chilies – 2 (chopped)
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Dhania powder/Coriander powder – ½ tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Amchur powder – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste
Cilantro – to garnish
Oil – 2 tbsp

Procedure to make Ghugni –

Soak the channa overnight. Drain the next day and keep aside.

In a pressure cooker heat the oil. Once the oil heats up add the cumin seeds and then add the green chilies and ginger. Fry for a minute.
Add the tomatoes along with the turmeric powder, dhania powder, red chili powder and salt and let it cook until the tomatoes are mushy.
Now add the drained channa to the cooker, close the lid and let it cook for about 4-5 whistles. Once the pressure releases, check to see of the channa is cooked. If not cook until they are soft.

Then add the garam masala and the amchur powder. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes and then garnish with cilantro.
Serve the Dhuska and Ghugni hot.