Instant Khaman Dhokla - Gram flour cake - Microwave version

Khaman Dhokla (Gram flour cake) is a popular Gujarati snack & one of my mouth-watering, 'go to' dishes when I want to prepare something in a jiffy. I don't have the patience to wait for 20 mins (which is the time taken by steaming process) so I go for the microwave version which gives me my Khaman in 2 mins -yaaayyy!! 

Recently I learnt that Khaman & Dhokla are actually two different food items. Khaman i.e. the recipe I am showing you today is prepared from chana dal/Gram flour & is usually yellow (due to addition of turmeric). Whereas Dhokla is prepared from rice flour (as main ingredient) & is generally white or pale yellow in color. But the name 'Khaman Dhokla' is so popular that I decided to label it that way.

Ingredients:

For Khaman :
1 cup gram flour (besan)
1 & ½ tablespoon of semolina (rava)
1 teaspoon of green chili & ginger paste
½ teaspoon of citric acid (nimbu ke phool) or 1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
Pinch of hing (asafoetida)
1 tablespoon oil
1 & ½ teaspoon ENO or fruit salt
1 cup of water
salt to taste

For Tempering:
½ teaspoon mustard seeds (rai)
½ teaspoon sesame seeds
1-2 green chilies finely chopped
1 tablespoon of oil
few curry leaves
1 cup of water
2 teaspoon sugar

Method: 
For Khaman:

• Sift all the dry ingredients (except ENO & ginger chili paste) to get rid of any lump.
• Now add the ginger paste, green chili paste, water & make a lump free batter.

• Add ENO & on top of it add 1 tablespoon of water. As as soon as you add water ENO will start to bubble.
• Once the bubbling stops, go ahead & mix the batter well. The Batter will instantly rise & become fluffy. Many think that the Khaman will rise while cooking, that's not the case, this is the only step when Khaman will rise.

 

• Grease a microwave safe dish & pour the batter in it. Spread evenly.
• Cook in microwave for 2 mins on High. Allow to stand for 1 min.Poke a tooth pick at the center to check if its done. If the toothpick comes out clean with no batter stuck to it that means our Khaman is ready. Depending on the size of your dish and the make of your microwabe you may need more time. If it still feels uncooked, cook in increments of 1 min.
• Keep it aside.

For Tempering: 

• Heat oil in a small vessel & once hot add the mustard seeds. Once they crackle, add the remaining ingredients like sesame seeds, green chilies, curry leaves & stir for a min. Switch off the gas & water and sugar to the tempering. (Be careful as it may splatter).
• Pour the tempering over the Khaman spreading it evenly.

• Cut the dhokla evenly & garnish with coriander.
• The khaman prepared this way turns out equally nice & porous like you would get with the steaming process. Try it!!
• That's it wait no longer serve this Instant Khaman with Green Chutney!!

Happy Cooking!!
Shweta