Surati Khaman

Surati Khaman – Steamed soft fluffy Gujarati snack made with chana dal (Split Bengal Gram), rice, urad dal (Split Black Lentils) and basic spices.

There are many ways of making khaman. Two major ways are either instant khaman using chickpea flour or soaking rice and lentils, making fermeted batter to make khanam. Surati khaman is vati dal na khaman. Vati dal means ground lentils. Dal and rice are soaked for few hours, then ground into a batter. The batter is fermented over night or for 8-10 hours. Then steamed to soft fluffy khaman. These khaman are on savory spicy side where as the other type of khaman could be a bit watery and sweet.

Khaman is one of the very popular street food of Surat. Sunday mornings are all about eating khaman or locho as your Sunday breakfast with some masala chai. You’ll see so many people standing at these khaman stalls for their Sunday morning bing! This is a huge part of my childhood. My parents would send me to khaman store every Sunday to get some fresh ones. Then my mom would add tempering to them at home and serve them with thin sev and fresh cilantro. Now being away from my home town, I am kinda forced to make it at home. It is not hard to make, it’s just a long process. Very well worth long process!

Serve this goodie with thin sev, spicy salty fried chilis, cilantro and some hot masala chai on Sunday morning to your fam and kick start your week with some yumminess! If you end up making it and liking it, please tag me on Instagram @myvegetarianroots. I would love to see your recreation of this dish!
Happy and Healthy Eating!

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Surati Khaman

Steamed soft fluffy Gujarati snack made with chana dal (Split Bengal Gram), rice and urad dal (Split Black Lentils) and basic spices.

Prep Time 1 day day

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 4 cup Chana Dal/Split Bengal Gram
• 1 cup Idli Rice any short grain thick rice
• ½ cup Urad Dal/Split Black Lentils
• ¼ cup Poha do not soak them, simply grind it with soaked rice
• 1 cup Whole Milk Plain Desi Yogurt
• 1½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1 tbsp Salt
• ¼ tsp Asafetida
• 3 tbsp Chopped Thai Green Chilis
• 2 tbsp Grated Ginger
• ⅓ cup Oil

Tampering

• ¼ cup Peanut Oil 1-2 tbsp of oil per steamed khaman thali
• 1 tbsp Mustard Seeds ½ tsp of mustard seeds per steamed khaman thali
• ¼ tsp Asafetida pinch of asafetida per steamed khaman thali

Garnishing/Serving

• ½ cup Chopped Cilantro
• 1 cup Thin Sev
• Fried Green Chilis fry spicy green chili in hot oil till the skin of the chili starts to turn while and starts to separate from the chili. Once fried, sprinkle some salt and serve it with khaman

Instructions

Prepare Fermented Batter

• Wash and soak 4 cups of chana dal, separate from rice and urad dal, in warm water for at least 6-8 hours.
• Wash and soak 1 cups of rice, separate from chana and urad dal, in warm water for at least 6-8 hours.
• Wash and soak ½ cups of urad dal, separate from rice and chana dal, in warm water for at least 6-8 hours.
• After soaking of at least 6-8 hours, coarsely grind chana dal with least amount of water, and take it out in a deep container or Instant Pot.
• After soaking of at least 6-8 hours, grind rice along with dry poha in smooth paste with least amount of water, and take it out in the same container as ground chana dal.
• After soaking of at least 6-8 hours, grind urad dal in smooth paste with least amount of water, and take it out in the same container as ground chana dal.
• Add 1 cup of plain whole milk desi yogurt to the rice and lentil mix. Use your hand to mix the batter very well. Heat of your hand will help with fermentation process.
  
• If using Instant pot for fermenting the batter, place the pot full of batter in the IP and set IP on yogurt setting for 10-12 hours. Use glass lid to cover the IP instead of IP lid. So if it overflows due to fermentation, it won't lock the lid.
• If not using IP, cover the pot full of batter with a plate/lid and place it inside the oven (DO NOT TURN THE OVEN ON) for 10-12 hours while keeping the oven light on.

Steam the Khaman

• Once the batter is fermented, add chopped green chilis, grated ginger, salt, turmeric powder, oil and asafetida in the batter. Mix well. Add warm water if the batter is too thick. The batter consistency should be like thick pancake batter.
  
• Prepare your steamer by start boiling water for the steamer and place a greased thai/plate inside the steamer to get the thali hot.
• Once your steamer is ready to steam khaman, take one thali worth batter out in a bowl. Add 1 tsp of fruit eno to the batter inside the bowl and mix it vigorously so that the batter becomes very light and fluffy.
  
• Pour the fluffy batter immediately into the prepared hot thali inside the steamer. Close the steamer tight and steam khaman for 25 minutes on high heat. Make sure you have enough water in the steamer to last for up to 30 minutes.
• Once the khaman is done steaming, take the thali out of the steamer and let it cool down for atleast 10-15 minutes before cutting the khaman and taking it out of the thali. Cut khaman in square shape while still keeping it in the steamer thali and prepare for tempering.
• Heat 1-2 tbsp of oil in small pan, once hot add 1 tsp of mustard seeds. Once they are done popping, add pinch of asafetida and pour the tempering over the cut khaman.
  
• Take the tempered khaman out of the thali and repeat the same process of making all the khaman.
  
• Garnish tempered khaman with freshly chopped cilantro. Serve it with thin sev, fried spicy green chilis and masala chai.