Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Fara ( Lentil stuffed dumpling poached in water)

Cooking a traditional recipe is always a great fun. It bring the nostalgia of your childhood, family, celebration and lot more. Here I am tweaking the authentic version of the dish which is more complicated and time consuming. Fara's were made specially during Bhai-dooj (a festival for brothers and sister) with the black gram curry. Authentically the Bengal gram paste is stuffed in a rice flour sheet and steamed. In this version I am using wheat and millet flour to stuff the Bengal gram and poaching it in water.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour:           1 1/2 Cups
Millet Flour:           1/2 Cup
Bengal Gram:         1 Cup ( Soaked in water over night)
Ginger garlic paste: 1tsp
Chili paste:              1/2 tsp
Cumin Seed:           1/2tsp
Asafetida:               1 small pinch
Salt to taste
Mustard seed:         1/2tsp
Curry leaves:           10-15 leaves
Whole dry red chili: 2 pieces
Mustard oil:             1tsp

Method:
1) Grind the soaked Bengal Gram after draining the water to a medium fine paste. Add ginger, garlic and chili paste. Add Cumin seed, asafetida and salt. Mix well and keep it aside.
2) Make a dough with wheat and millet flour. Please note millet make the flour soft. You can use 100% wheat flour also in case your the not sure about handling a soft dough.
3) Boil water in a big tumbler.
4) Take some part of  the dough and roll it to a medium thick round sheet of 12 cm diameter. Put the Lentil paste in the center and fold it in half. Close the end by pressing and rolling it inside to make a sealed pouch.
5) Slowly slide it into the boiling water. Repeat the process to make another dumpling and drop it into the water again. Once the dumpling are cooked it will become lighter in weight and start floating on the surface of the water.
6) It will take 4-5 minutes for each dumpling to be cooked. Take it out carefully and keep aside to dry.
7) Once dry cut it horizontally. You can see the lentil is hard inside.
8) Heat some oil in the pan. Once the oil is smoking add mustard seed, red chili and curry leaves. After the mustard seed start spluttering add the cut fara's gently and toss. Fara's should be brown from all side.
9) Garnish it with some fresh coriander and serve it hot with any chutney or dip.

BON APPETIT...


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