Odisha Style Aloor Dom Doi Bora / Dahi Vada with Dum Aloo

It's been a while that I have taken refuge to my isolation and tried to get better with time. Not that there is any hope, and the odds are you will be feeling terrible the whole time, and mine is no different from it. The only work that kept me going all this time was my cooking and blogging and now my health refuses to give the strength to do that also. It might be a good thing because I am getting to read a lot and think about issues that I presses to the back and pretended that they don't exist anymore. By now...you might be puzzled that what is that I am suffering from and I will build up the suspense a little more.

Now...my daily routine constitutes a lot of eating healthy foods and fruits and rest. And to my utter surprise my body is not complaining either. It absorbs all the rest but then again...it refuses to walk or even work for 5 minutes. I start to breathe heavily and sweat like a dog and then slowly crawl back to my bedroom. There are times when even my sick soul craves for foods that my maid can not cook and still I have to lie down and eat the same curry that she had mastered to cook in the past 2 months and smile. As for the food, I have given up eating non-veg and have started to eat only vegetables and paneer occasionally. It's not a hardcore rule that I am following and neither I am turning a vegan as I love eating butter, cream and all the dairy based products and sometimes eggs also, but meat...I just can't find an appetite for that anymore. Although my husband makes me eat some...I try not to. I am mostly eating cabbage, pumpkins, cauliflowers, zucchini, paneer and potatoes for a change. I am back to eating rice again which I had given up for almost over the past 2 years. I am trying to eat a lot less sugar and my aim is to eat organic and normal as much as possible. I am letting go of all the restrictions that I have burdened myself with for all these years, because eating normal and healthy is the best I found out I can do for myself. I am avoiding eating out also...which gives me more opportunities to eat homecooked simple meals.

But this is not what I intended to write today. I wanted to write about the Dahi Vada that I made this Sunday and we both devoured it in our lunch and dinner and in the breakfast the next day. The next day was a holiday and I spent it fighting with my husband.
I started writing this post almost a year ago...hoping to finish up in a day or two, but that never really happened and here I am sharing this post at the dead hours of the night...really sneaky about the tic tac sounds I am making while typing so that Ishan does not wake up and this post gets postponed again!!!

So....almost everyone knows about Dahi Vada but most of us don't have any clue about the Dahi Vada famous in Odisha. I know, because my aunt used to live there and we used to gorge on it almost anytime of the day whenever we visited her. These Dahi Vadas are soaked in a spiced buttermilk and then served with spicy dum aloo and yellow peas curry aka ghugni. As odd as it may sound the taste is just opposite to it. It's a savotu Dahi Vada in contrast to the North Indian sweet and tangy Dahi Vada served with chutneys...and it's a crowd pleaser not just a chaat or appetizer. Dahi Vada with Dum Aloo is like the Pao Bhaji of Odisha. People eat it for breakfasts, lunch and dinner and as well as the chaat also. There are Dahi Vada corners in their streets where many vendors selling the dahi vada stands and in the morning you can see vendors selling dahi vada in their bicycles with a big handi sitting at it's end.So now....I am leaving you with the recipe so that you can actually make these Dahi Vada and enjoy the soft spongy vadas plump with the spiced buttermilk along with the kosha mangsho alike dum aloo and the fiery ghugni. 

Odisha Style Dahi Vada / Dahi Bora / Doi Bora

Serves 6

Ingredients:

For the Vada :

1 cup of split and husked urad dal

1 tsp hing / asafoetida

1 tsp baking powder

Salt

Enough oil to deep fry

For the ghugni / yellow peas curry:

2 cups of yellow peas

1 small onion – chopped

1 tomato – chopped

1 and ½ inch ginger root

2 cloves of garlic
A handful of curry leaves
1 heaping tbsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp freshly ground bhaja mosla (dry roasted and ground equal amounts of cumin seeds, coriander seeds and dry red chillies)

2 dry red chillies
2 bay leaf 

1 tsp cumin seeds

Salt to taste

¼ cup of oil

For the Dum Aloo:

5 large potatoes – peeled and cut into 4 pieces

1 large onion – chopped

1 tomato – chopped

1 inch ginger root – minced

4-6 garlic cloves – minced

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 and ½ tsp bhaja mosla (dry roasted and ground equal amounts of cumin seeds, coriander seeds and dry red chillies)

½ tsp jaljeera powder

½ tsp aamchoor / raw mango powder

1 tsp black salt

1 tsp chaat masala

1 tsp homemade garam masala

Juice of 1 lime

1 medium cinnamon stick

3 green cardamoms

3 cloves

2 dry red chillies

Salt to taste

A handful of fresh coriander leaves

½ cup of oil

For the buttermilk:

1 and ½ cup of yogurt

3-4 cups of chilled water

2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

A handful of curry leaves

½ tsp hing / asafoetida

1 tsp black salt

1 tsp chaat masala

1 tsp aamchur powder / raw mango powder

1 and ½ tsp bhaja mosla (freshly ground dry roasted seeds of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns and dry red chillies taken in equal amounts)

1 dry red chilli

1 tbsp white oil

Salt

A handful of finely chopped coriander leaves

To assemble:

2-3 large onions – finely chopped

4-5 green chilles – finely chopped

A bunch of coriander leaves – finely chopped

5-7 fresh lime – each cut into 4 pieces (de-seeded)

1 (500gm) packet of sev

3 tbsp bhaja mosla (dry roast equal amounts of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns and dry red chillies)

Method:

Make the buttermilk:

Take a large bowl. The bowl must be large enough to hold the water as well as the vadas, as the vadas will be dunked and soaked in that buttermilk until you are ready to serve.

In that bowl take the yogrurt and water and blend with a wired whisk until everything is nicely incorporated with a smooth texture. The buttermilk should be thin as water, so add in water until you reach that consistency.

Add in the salt, black salt, chaat masala, aamchur powder and the bhaja mosla.

Take a tempering pan and heat the oil.

Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, dry red chilli and hing / asafoetida.

Sauté for half a minute and then add the curry leaves.

As the curry leaves start to splutter and you get the aroma, pour this tempering on the prepared buttermilk.

Add the coriander leaves and stir well.

Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Keep it aside.

Make the Vada:

Wash and soak the urad dal in water overnight.

The next day drain the water and wash it again.

Throw in all the lentils inside a blender and blend well until smooth with just the little amount of water you need to keep the blending going on. It should be a thick batter, thick enough to hold the shape.

Scrap all the batter to a bowl.

Whip the batter with your hand or wired whisk until the batter turns fluffy and airy. If a dollop of that batter floats on water, your batter is ready.

Now add in the salt, hing / asafoetida, baking powder and salt.

Fry the vada:

Heat the oil in a kadai on medium flame.

Prepare a big bowl of water and place it in front of your working place. You will need it while frying.

Check the oil by dropping a little of that batter into the oil. If the batter floats on top of the oil immediately the oil is ready to fry.

Wet your palm with water and take a little batter in that wet palm. Give the batter a round shape. Dig a hole in the middle with your thumb and drop it in the oil.

Fry the vada by flipping sides, until they are brownish golden.

Then take them out of the kadai and drop them into the buttermilk immediately.

Follow this process until all the batter is finished.

Leave the vadas in the buttermilk for about 4-6 hours.

Make the dam aloo:

Cut the potatoes into medium size cubes.

Heat oil in a kadai and fry the potatoes until golden. Then take them out of the kadai and keep aside.

Heat the mustard oil and add in thepanch foron or the Bengali five spices, whole garam masala i.e. green cardamoms, cinnamon stick and cloves, dry red chillies, bay leaf and hing.

Stir until you have a fine aroma and then add the chopped onions to them. Sprinkle some salt and a cube or 1 tsp of sugar and fry until the onions become golden brown.

Add the ginger-garlic paste and cook for 2 minutes to get rid of the raw garlic smell.

Add in the tomatoes and sprinkle a little salt.

Cook until the tomatoes are nice and pulpy and the oil has started to separate at the edges.

Add this stage add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander powder.

Stir to mix and then add a dash of water.

Cook the spices so that you don’t have the raw smell of spices anymore.

Add ¼ cup of water to the prepared curry and let it come to a bubble.

Now that your curry is prepared add the fried potatoes tothem.

Stir to coat all the potatoes evenly with the curry paste and then add enough water to submerge all the potatoes in it.

Switch the flame to low to medium and cover the pot with a lid.

Slow cook the dum aloo for about 30-45 minutes or until the curry is rich and thick and oil is floating on top of it and the potatoes are nice and soft from the inside.

Finally when the dum aloo is ready, add a generous amount of the garam masala powder and a generous squeeze of lime juice, followed by the specified amounts of aamchur powder / raw mango powder, chaat masala, jalzeera powder, bhaja mosla, black salt and a handful of chopped coriander leaves.

Give it a good stir and cover.

Switch off the flame and let it sit until you are ready to serve.

Make the Ghugni:
Soak the yellow peas overnight.
Next day pressure cook the yellow peas in a pressure cooker on medium flame until it blows 4-6 whistles or you can squish the peas with your thumb and index finger.
In a kadai heat the oil and add the cumin seeds, dry red chilli and bay leaf.
As the seeds start to splutter add in the onions.
Add some salt and cook for 2-3 minutes or until they become translucent.
Add in the tomatoes, ginger and garlic paste.
Cook until the raw smell is gone.
Now add the turmeric powder and cook until the oil starts to float on top.
Add the boiled peas.
Add the curry leaves, ground black pepper and salt (as per taste).
Add enough water to give it a thin to thick consistency.
Cook on low for about 15 minutes with lid closed.
Finally add the chopped coriander leaves, bhaja mosla and switch off the flame.

Assemble the Dahi Vada:

In a bowl take the dahi vada along with some buttermilk.

On top of it pour the ghugni, some dum aloo with a generous serving of it’s gravy.

On top it give a nice squeeze of lime, and chopped onion, green chillies, coriander leaves, bhaja mosla and sev.

Finally.....enjoy!!!!!