‘Dal Paturi’ is a traditional & age old Bengali recipe. My Granny used to cook this for us & it was a family favorite food. She used to fold the batter in banana leaf, & then place on the tawa…& after that it got slow cooked on the heat of charcoal oven (unun). The taste of Granny’s hand cooked food- the love, the care & the aroma of banana leaf & charcoal all are missing these days. Ma knows the recipe of dal paturi, the way granny cooked it. So I just asked her & luckily had everything in my kitchen….but…but…but…Banana leaf…yes the only & most important thing was not available, so what? I was willing & wanted to give it a chance through baking & voila I really got super result, perfect & delicious ‘Dal Paturi’ aka ‘Baked Dal’ just out from my oven. This is a must try recipe, once tried you wouldn’t regret! 🙂
Dal Paturi aka Baked Dal
Ingredients
- Motor dal/ Yellow Split Peas- 1 cup hipped (wash & soak for 2 hrs in water)
- Grated coconut- ½ cup
- Green onion- 2 (wash & finely chop only the green part)
- Green chilies- 2 (finely chopped)
- Mustard oil- ½ cup
- Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
- Onion seeds/ Kalojire- ½ tsp
- Fresh coriander leaves- 2 tbsp (finely chopped)
- Salt to taste
- Sugar- 1 tsp
Method
Drain the water from soaked dal. Add this motor dal & grated coconut in a grinder, blend till a coarse paste forms. Remove the paste from the grinder into a bowl. Mix in mustard oil, onion seeds, salt, sugar, turmeric powder, coriander leaves, chopped chilies & green onion. Grease a round pan with mustard oil, line the bottom with parchment paper/baking paper. Before placing the paper put the pan on the paper sheet, draw the outline with pen. Then cut the paper accordingly. I used a 5.5” round pan. Pour the batter into this, plain the surface by using your fingers.
Preheat oven to 180C. Bake for 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with few moist crumbs. That means it is done. Remove the pan from oven. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan and carefully remove baked dal into a serving plate. Peel off the paper.
Cut into wide squares & serve hot with steamed rice & dal. I like to eat my dal paturi with plain steamed rice (without dal).
Note:
Pan size substitutions can be made if necessary, but you may need to adjust the baking time accordingly.
