Dhuska is haat food. Rice and chana dal are soaked overnight, ground to a thick batter, and dropped by the ladleful into deep oil, where they swell and go crisp and burnished outside while staying soft and almost custardy in the middle. It is sold at Jharkhand’s weekly markets and at festival grounds, handed over hot with a ladle of ghugni or a thin potato curry, and its whole character is public — this is a thing eaten standing up, in a crowd, on the day the market comes. The batter is the same two ingredients that make chilka roti, which is the household morning version cooked thin on a griddle, and the difference between the two is not the recipe but the occasion. One is what a family eats before work. The other is what the village eats together.
INGREDIENTS
- 300 g short-grain white rice (soaked overnight)
- 100 g chana dal (soaked overnight)
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 cm ginger
- 3 green chillies
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
- a handful of coriander leaves (chopped)
- oil (for deep frying)
METHOD
- Drain the soaked rice and chana dal thoroughly.
- Grind them together with the garlic, ginger and green chillies, using as little water as the blender will take, to a thick batter with a slight grain to it.
- Stir in the cumin, turmeric, salt and coriander. The batter should hold a soft peak; if it runs, leave it to stand 20 minutes to firm up.
- Heat oil in a deep pan to a medium-high heat, hot enough that a drop of batter rises immediately without browning at once.
- Lower a ladleful of batter gently into the oil so it settles into a thick round.
- Fry two or three at a time, spooning hot oil over the tops, until the undersides are deep golden.
- Turn once and fry the other side. Each dhuska takes about 4 minutes in total.
- Lift out and drain. The outside should be crisp and burnished, the centre soft when you tear it.
- Serve immediately with ghugni or a thin potato curry.
