Like the surface of the moon
Dhirdi are kind of like pancakes. The batter is poured on a hot oiled griddle. It runs and wants to spread. But the heat gets to the water in it make it dance and steam away creating small holes. Then it settles and starts cooking, as the water leaves, leaving the holes, thinngs dry out near these holes and start caramelizing. It cooks, it gets crisp. You flip it! Then you see the beauty of a well done dhirde, marked with glorious and numerous spots all along, just like the surface of the moon.
Two things are key, the batter needs to have moisture, water that can steam away. It needs to be enough, but not so much that all water steams away and not much is left to form that web and construct a dhirde from what remains.
And the pan needs to be hot! When the batter hits the pan, it should spread, yes. But then the evaporation should start immediately. It should not be so hot that the water evaporates and the remaining things start burning right away!
Beauty of Oats for dhirde
Dhirde are made from all kinds of flour. Chickpeas flour, rice flour dhirde are quite popular. Our Mom Ujwala has been making these every now and then as she visits us for breakfast. Last weekend i got some beautiful oats from the dane county farmers market.
Next day when i woke up, she was in the kitchen and something smelled really nice. She told me she just toasted some of the oats slowly in a pan and was wondering if she could steal them and grind them and use in the dhirde! The idea sounded fantastic! We upped the game and she roasted also some quinoa. And we ground that to a flour. The toasted flour has delicious nutty flavor and aroma.
That night she mixed some yogurt with the two flours and millet (nachani) flour. Overnight this ferments a bit getting richer in flavor.
In the morning she added some sea salt, toasted cumin powder and adjusted the consistency.
As mentioned before the water evaporating away is what makes the dirdhi light and airy. The batter needs to be flowing consistency.
If you pour it in a plate it should spread.
If you pour it back from the plate it should trickle down slowly leaving some batter on the plate in the end.
Mom would add some low heat chilies once the batter was on the floor. Chopped garlic also tastes good. You can mix these in the batter or sprinkle from top. I eat some flax seeds with my oats so i even tried these with a sprinkling of crushed flax seeds and loved them.
With the non stick pan with little bit of oil hot enough so that water that hits it will dance on it and evaporate, pour some batter. We have a glass cook top and we let the pan heat at around 6/10 mark. It will spread and water will start evaporating as the moisture dances and you can hear it sizzle and then steams away leaving small holes behind where the batter touches the pan.
Add some mildly hot chopped chilies. Let this cook till the top surface starts to be cooked and then gently loosen it and flip. The beauty of this dhirde are how nice and crisp they get on the edges of the holes where the water left.
Serve them one at a time for a crispy hot luxurious treat or make a few and eat them together. Surprisingly they taste good even after they cool down a bit.
Ujwala’s Oats Quinoa & Millet Dhirde
- Total Time: 57 minute
- Yield: Serves 4
Description
A dhirde recipe with yogurt and flours of millet, oats and quinoa.
Ingredients
0.5 cup rolled oats toasted gently in a pan and ground to flour
0.25 cup quinoa toasted gently in a pan and ground to flour
1 cup nachani (millets) flour or substitute with a flour of your choice like a mix of wheat, rice, other grains
0.25 cup greek yogurt
1 Tbsp Semolina (optional)
salt for seasoning
1 tsp toasted and ground cumin powder
4 tsp chopped mild chilies
Some oil for the pan
Instructions
Mix all flours and yogurt with some water together to make a thick batter the night before
Cover and let rest overnight
Next day fold some water and mix batter to a pourable consistency
Add toasted cumin powder, salt for seasoning
Heat a pan on medium till sprinkle of water drops make them dance and steam away
lightly brush with some oil
Ladle some batter, and spread. Pan should be hot enough and batter should have enough water that the water drops in batter dance and steam away laving holes in the pancake and starts to cook
Add a few chopped mild chilies as is preferred
Lower heat if needed and cover with a dish for a few minutes
Gently release it from the pan and flip and cook for a few more minutes
Serve one at a time while hot or collect a few and serve
- Prep Time: 12 hrs
- Cook Time: 30 mins
Keywords: dhirde recipe oats quinoa nachani millet flour
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