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Cereals and bread from Gujarat, India

Dhoklaઢોકળા

Split Bengal gram (chana dal) and rice are soaked, ground separately and mixed into a batter that ferments with no added starter. The risen batter is steamed open in a greased pan into a spongy, mildly sour cake, then tempered with mustard seed and cut.

Fully documentedCereals and bread36 h – 38 h

Recipe

Dhokla, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Samirluhar99, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceProportions from a study that optimised dhokla to lower its antinutrients; the sources used here give no household recipe.
Bengal gram (chana dal) batter3 parts by volumeDal soaked in 5 times its weight of water, then ground[sharma2018]
Rice batter1 part by volumeRice soaked in 5 times its weight of water, then ground[sharma2018]
Salt (NaCl)8 g per kg of batter[sharma2018]
No starterFermented spontaneously; FAO says the bacteria in idli batter come with the ingredients[sharma2018][fao1999]
Mustard or cumin seeds, green chillies and curry leavesSauteed and used to season the cut pieces[wp-dhokla]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 36 h – 38 h

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain16–23 °C

What changes: Water soaks into the dal and rice and softens them

Step 1 of 5
Soak the dal and the rice separately
Time
18–20 h
Reported
Temperature
16–23 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. mesenteroides
Streptococcus faecalis

Output: soft, swollen grains.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Split Bengal gram (chana dal) and rice are soaked, ground separately and mixed into a batter that ferments with no added starter. The risen batter is steamed open in a greased pan into a spongy, mildly sour cake, then tempered with mustard seed and cut. Made in 5 steps over 36 h – 38 h. The longest step, soak the dal and the rice separately, takes 18–20 h (Sharma A 2018) and runs at 16–23 °C (Sharma A 2018). Salt is 0.8 % (Sharma A 2018). Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Enterococcus faecalis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step18–20 hReported[sharma2018]Soak the dal and the rice separately
Temperature16–23 °CReported[sharma2018]Soak the dal and the rice separately
Salt0.8 %Reported[sharma2018]Salt and ferment

What makes this one different

Dhokla is made like idli, but with Bengal gram (chana dal) in place of black gram, and the batter is steamed open in a greased pan instead of in a covered idli steamer.

Related ferments

Variants

  • KhamanChickpea flour (besan) only, no rice; lighter and softer.
  • Khatta, rasia, rava, moong dal, toor dal, green pea and sandwich dhoklaListed by Wikipedia as popular variants, with no description. Some variants replace the Bengal gram with pigeon peas or urad beans.

Safety

In the optimisation study, fermenting raised the biogenic amine content of the batter, and steaming for 20 min lowered it again, so the batter is always steamed before eating.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Wikipedia says dukkia, a pulse-based precursor of dhokla, is mentioned in a Jain text dated to 1066 CE, and that the earliest surviving work to mention the word dhokla is the Gujarati Varanaka Samuchaya (1520 CE).

  1. [sharma2018] Sharma A., Kumari S., Nout M.J.R., Sarkar P.K. 2018, Preparation of antinutrients-reduced dhokla using response surface process optimisation, J Food Sci Technol 55:2048–2058, doi:10.1007/s13197-018-3119-9paper
  2. [moktan2011] Moktan B., Roy A., Sarkar P.K. 2011, Antioxidant activities of cereal-legume mixed batters as influenced by process parameters during preparation of dhokla and idli, Int J Food Sci Nutr 62:360–369, doi:10.3109/09637486.2010.532116paper
  3. [fao1999] FAO 1999, Fermented cereals, a global perspective (FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 138), chapter 3, Asia-Pacificgov
  4. [tamang2016] Tamang, Watanabe, Holzapfel, "Review: Diversity of Microorganisms in Global Fermented Foods and Beverages", Front. Microbiol. 7:377, 2016paper
  5. [wp-dhokla] Wikipedia, Dhokla (outline, variants and history only)wiki