As children, we’d wait for our mother to make this mouth-watering Rajasthani dish. Traditionally baked over charcoal, we would bake it in an oven, and I still remember the excitement every time she would open the oven door.

My mom stuffed it with different fillings – potato, cheese, and that would only add to the excitement. The fact that this is served with two curries, one of which happens to be a favourite – gatte ki subzi, only made things better. Most of the times the meal would end with churma, which we would somehow manage to stuff into our very full stomachs simply because it was so tasty.

If you ever have an opportunity to eat this dish in a village or a Marwari household, skip breakfast and lunch and go for it. It is sometimes served with the baatis dunked in a bucket of ghee, but it is an experience you won’t regret!

So, here goes mom’s recipe for one of my favourite childhood memories.

Ingredients:

Baati

400 gm whole wheat flour (atta) [can add 2 tbsp sooji. we don’t)
⅓ tsp baking soda
2 tbsp ghee
Salt to taste
Water

Dal

Green gram, split, with skin – 1 cup
Green gram, split, without skin – 2 tsps
Udad dal ( black gram without skin) – 2 tsps
Bengal gram (chana dal) – 3 tsps
Salt to taste
Asafoetida – a pinch
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Water – 2 ½ cups

To season:
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Garlic – 5 flakes cut into small pieces
Ginger – ¾ tsp cut into strips
Red chilli powder – ½ tsp in 1 tbsp water

Gatte ki Subzi:

Besan ( Bengal gram flour) – 1 cup
Baking soda – a pinch
Salt to taste
Oil – 2 tsps
Water
Cut coriander leaves and garlic – 1 tsp each (optional)

For gravy:
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Tomatoes -2 big, grate them
Curds – ½ cup
Turmeric powder – 1/3 tsp
Red chilli powder – ½ tsp
Coriander piwder – ¾ tsp
Garam masala powder – 1/3 tsp
Coriander leaves to garnish

Churma:

Baked baatis (in flattened shape) -2
Sugar -75 gms
Melted ghee – 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder – 1/2 tsp

Instructions:

• Sieve the wheat flour with baking soda and add salt and ghee.
• Pour water little by little and knead into stiff dough.
• Divide into eight portions.
• Roll each portion between the palms with some pressure and make into a ball.
• Make a depression on one side with your finger tip.

Two of the portions can be flattened, to make churma later.

• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
• Put all the prepared balls on an oil smeared aluminum foil, with the depression on the top, and the two flattened ones and bake for 30 minutes.
• Now turn them over and bake for another 15 minutes.

• You can make stuffed baatis too. Make the potato filling that you prepare for aloo paratha, and fill the battis. I like cheese stuffed baatis very much!
• Traditionally, Rajasthanis keep the baatis dipped in ghee for some time, then take out, break them between the palms, put on the serving plate and pour more ghee over it. Since it used to be a regular dish for us and we didn’t want to consume too much ghee, I never did that.

Dal:

• Clean and wash all the dals, put inside the pressure cooker. Add salt, asafetida, water and all the masala powders.
• Pressure cook for 8 minutes, cool and open.
• Heat the ghee in a seasoning vessel. Add the cut garlic and ginger.
• When they brown, close the flame, add the chilli powder in water, mix and pour over the cooked dal.
• Serve with lemon; it has to be squeezed into the dal before eating.

Gatta sabzi

• Put two cups of water, with a drop of ghee in it to boil.
• Mix the first five (or six) ingredients into a smooth dough, divide into four portions.
• Roll each portion between the palms into long rope. Meanwhile the water is boiling.
• Reduce the flame and drop each rope into the boiling water and keep medium flame for about ten minutes. You will see the crust forming on the surface, which means they are cooked. Remove from heat, take out the ropes and keep on a plate. Don’t discard the water, we will use it for the gravy.
• Cut the ropes into roughly ¾ cm rounds.
• Mash about 6 pieces until smooth.

• Heat ghee in a thick bottomed pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the grated tomatoes and let it cook for some time.
• Add all the masala powders, stir, add the beaten curd. Mix well.
• Add the gatta pieces, mashed gattas, stir and add the water in which gattas were cooked, add salt.
• Let it simmer for ten minutes on low flame.
• Garnish with coriander leaves before serving.

Churma

• Break the baatis into pieces and let them cool.

• Add the cooled baati pieces to the powdered sugar in the grinder, along with cardamom powder
• Take it out on a plate, add the melted ghee and mix well
• You can add mava (khoya) also and mix, if you want to make it more rich.

Dal baati gatta sabzi, churma

Looks like too many things to make? It just needs a little bit of planning, and you can have the entire meal ready within an hour and a half.

Let’s go through the steps. Knead the flour for baati with all the ingredients, place them in the oven and set a timer for 30 minutes. This is important because we are going to be busy with other things and it is easy to forget to turn the battis upside down for further fifteen minutes of baking.

Put  all the ingredients for the dal in the pressure cooker and pressure cook it for eight minutes

Keep the water for boiling gattas on the stove and mix the besan with other ingredients and by this time, the water is boiling. Reduce the flame and slide the besan ropes into the boiling water.

Meanwhile the dal is cooked for eight minutes in the pressure cooker. Remove from the flame and let it cool. Chop the ginger, garlic and put the red chilli powder in water.

Grate the tomatoes. Beat the curds for gatta sabzi.

The besan ropes have developed the crust by now (takes about eight minutes). Drain them from water and cut them into slices.

The timer will go off now. Open the oven and turn all the baatis upside down and keep the timer for fifteen minutes now.

Go ahead and finish making the gatta sabzi.

Open the pressure cooker and season the dal.

The baatis are ready now, so are the dal and gatta sabzi. Set the table with all the things, and before you sit down to eat, break the two flat baatis into pieces and keep on a plate to cool down. After you finish your dal baati gatta sabzi, go ahead and make the churma and enjoy the sweet dish now!