Desidope Series: #1 - Indian street food "Dabeli", with homemade bu...

Dabeli or Kutchi dabeli or Double Roti (Devnagari: दाबेली - कच्छी दाबेली) is a very popular snack food of India, originating in the Kutch or Kachchh region of Gujarat. It is a spicy snack made by mixing boiled potatoes with a special dabeli masala, and putting the mixture between the Ladi pav (burger bun) and served with chutneys made from tamarind, date, garlic, red chilies, etc. and garnished with pomegranate and roasted peanuts. On an average, every day 20 lakh dabelis are consumed in whole of kutch.

Homemade Buns

For the bun preparation following are the ingredients :-

2 cups all purpose flour (around 300 gms)
200 ml tepid water (somewhat less than one full cup)
2 tbps honey
1 tbps oil (I used olive, you can use any to your liking)
1 tsp salt
7 gms dry yeast (about 1 1/2 tsp)

Although you can directly mix all the ingredients and knead to form a dough, but i like to activate the yeast first. So in the tepid water add the yeast and honey, mix.

Let the mixture sit for about 10 mins, until you see a layer of foam rise on top.

Mix oil and salt in to the flour, pour in the yeast water and mix to form a dough ball, knead it for 5 min until it doesn't stick to the surface.

Cover with a damp cloth and place it in a warm spot to rise for 2 hours.

After 2 hour the dough should have doubled in size.

Deflate it and knead the dough.

Use some more flour to dust if the dough is too sticky, knead the dough with the base of your palm and fold for 5 mins.

Divide the dough in 8 equal parts.

Form into balls and place them in your baking dish.

Let them rise for 30-45 mins covered with damp cloth.

Preheat the oven for 10 mins.

And bake on the center rack for 15-20 mins on 220 degree Celsius or until you see the top getting golden brown. Although baking is a science, everyone's equipment is different, so always go by your own intuition.

As soon as you take the buns out of the oven brush them with melted butter, this gives them the nice sheen on top, let them cool for 15 mins before using.

For the Dabeli stuffing following are the ingredients :-

4-5 boiled potatoes
1 medium onion diced
1 inch root of ginger grated
2 green chilies finely chopped
1 large tomato diced
2 tbps homemade dabeli masala

Recipe for dabeli masala as follows :-

1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds
1/2 tsp Black Peppers
1 tsp Coriander Seeds
5 Clove
5-7 Dry Red Chilies
1/4 tsp Mace powder (Javitri)
1/4 tsp Nutmeg Powder (Jaiphal)
2 Bay Leaves
1 Black Cardamom
4 Green Cardamom

Take a pan roast all the spices till they are fragrant, let them cool down and grind them to a fine powder in a grinder.

In a pan take some oil add in a pinch of asafoetida and cumin, let them crackle.

Add in the ginger and chili, saute a bit.

Add in the onion and saute a bit.

Add in the tomato and stir.

Add in 1 tsp red chili powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp coriander powder and 2 tbps Dabeli masala. And saute the mixture till the tomatoes lose the water.