A lot of people believe that if you add “Bhallas” to “Dahi” it becomes Dahi Bhalla, this is as crude as saying that if you add ice to cream and it becomes “Ice Cream.” God Bless! Dahi Bhalla is a complete dish, not a sum total of two food items. Like any other traditional Indian food, there are multiple ways of going about it, each way takes you to a different taste, almost always great, though.
Chandni Chowk is famous for its Chaat preparations and Dahi Bhalla is of course an integral part of Dilli Ki Chaat. The photograph above depicts an over 200 year old approach to Dahi Bhallas. In this approach, Bhallas are not excessively soaked in water, rather there are soaked only to get excess oil drained out. Once that is done, the Bhallas are coated with thick curd and stacked like they’re shown above, curd flows down slowly mixing with excess water in the bhallas, some curd of course makes a rough layer on bhallas which add to the taste. Curd mixes with “imli ki saunth” at the bottom of this extra large pan and bhallas are dunked in for good measure before being transferred to plates for final preparations.
A good dahi bhalla plate needs to be garnished very well and it must include – Pudina/ Mint chutney, Imli/ Tamarind chutney, Green Chilli, fresh Ginger strips, fresh coriander leaves, banana slices dunked in a tangy sauce preferably pomegranate preserve, Kala Namak/ Rock Salt and Black Pepper powder.
About this photograph: This photograph is part of Mapsofindia.com’s commissioned project, Cuisines of Chandni Chowk.
Enjoy!
To know more about Indian Food, you may refer to the following:
