Khaman

A bite of fluffy, yummy, sweet and sour khaman never fails to take me back to Gujarat in my mind. I happen to love it, and make it quite often at home. The fact that it is quite simple to make and can be prepared within a matter of minutes does not hurt. 🙂

Here is the recipe that I use…

Ingredients (for 2 people – yields about 15 pieces of khaman)

1 to 1-1/2 cups of besan

Salt to taste (about 2 teaspoons)

Juice of 1 lemon

Sugar to taste (about 4-5 teaspoons)

2 tablespoons sour curd

2 teaspoons of Eno Fruit Salt (regular flavour)

2 teaspoons oil + 1 teaspoon oil for greasing the khaman plate

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 green chillies (finely chopped)

2 tablespoons of freshly chopped coriander leaves

Method:

1. In a large bowl, mix the besan, salt and sugar to taste, lemon juice and curd. Add water as required to bring the mixture to a slightly watery consistency. The batter should be neither too thick nor too runny. It should be slightly high on sour and sweet tastes – at this stage, you can taste the batter and add sugar, curd, salt or lemon juice as required. Keep the batter aside for about 15 minutes.

2. Use the 1 teaspoon of oil to grease a deep plate with rims that is just the right size to go into your pressure cooker. Add water inside the pressure cooker, place the plate inside and heat it for about 10 minutes, keeping the lid open.

3. When the plate is nice and hot, add the Eno Fruit Salt to the batter and mix well. The batter will start foaming. Mix it well, so that the Eno gets properly incorporated into the batter. Pour the foaming batter into the heated plate, close the pressure cooker, and steam it without a weight for about 15 minutes.

4. After a while, take the plate out of the cooker and keep it aside.

5. Heat the 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When all the seeds have spluttered, pour the heated oil over the plate of khaman. Sprinkle the finely chopped coriander and green chillies over the khaman and let it cool for about 20 minutes.

6. When the khaman has cooled down a bit, cut it into pieces in the size that you desire. Serve with sweet tamarind chutney.

Note: You can add different kinds of toppings to the khaman as you desire – like sev (omapudi) and pomegranate seeds, or freshly grated coconut, green chillies and coriander.

Do try this recipe out and let me know how it turned out! 🙂