This regional recipe of Litti Cokha from India brings back the memory of my carefree childhood days. After living in a secured colony of central government quarters for many years, mom wanted to live in her own house and she bought a ground near a picturesque place in Udaipur. The place was very near to where we were currently staying and me and my brother used to visit the site every evening after school hours to monitor the activities in the construction area.
Each day as soon as the clock struck 5 PM, all the workers would stop working, gather at a common place and begin their evening activities of fun and cooking food together. After freshening up with the water stored in a small tank, men folks cut wood to light the fire for cooking and the women share the work of kneading the dough for Litti and prepping for the Brinjal Chokha.
We would make sure that mom was not around, and anxiously wait for the workers to finish cooking and offer us those hot ash smeared Littis straight from the firewood. Hygiene, hand wash, and the likes were certainly not in my agenda then…what mattered the most was to get those scrumptious creations each day from some of the most wonderful chefs in my life 
Brinjal Chokha
Brinjal Chokha
Ingredients;
1 large brinjal 250 gms
2 tomatoes
2 tbsp. Olive oil/vegetable oil
2 green chillies
2 tbsp. chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tsp. lemon juice
Salt as desired
Method; Poke the Brinjal and tomatoes with skewers or a fork separately and roast them directly on the flame till the outer skin turns black.
Let it cool slightly and then peel off the charred skin of brinjal & tomatoes. Mash the smoked veggies roughly with a fork or by hand.
Peel and slice onion thinly, chop green chillies, 2-3 garlic pearls and grate a small ginger piece.
Mix all the ingredients listed above in a bowl and garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.
Serve the Brinjal Chokha with hot Buns/Baatis or Spinach Littis.
Potato Chokha
Potato Chokha
Ingredients;
1 large potato
2 medium red tomatoes
1 onion
1 green chilly
1 tbsp. Olive oil
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tsp. grated ginger
Fresh coriander leaves for garnish
Salt as desired
Method; Half boil the potato and poke the tomatoes and the half boiled potato with skewers or a fork and roast them directly on the flame till the outer skin turns black.
Let them cool slightly and then peel off the charred skin from them. Mash the smoked tomatoes and potato roughly with a fork or by hand.
Peel and slice onion thinly, chop 2-3 garlic pearls and grate a small ginger piece.
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.
Serve the Potato Chokha with hot Buns/Baatis or Spinach Littis.
Mixed Lentil or Indian Daal
Mixed Lentil or Indian Daal
Ingredients;
1 cup mixed lentil*
1 onion
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 tsp. + 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
1 liter of plain Water
1 tsp. lemon juice
Spices
2 tsp. coriander powder
1 tsp. red chilly powder
1/2 tsp. cumin powder
Salt as desired
Method;
*Mixed lentils; A mix of black gram (whole urad dal), green gram (moong dal), red lentil (masoor dal), Bengal gram (channa dal) and pegion pea (toovar dal).
Traditionally the proportion of whole black gram is more than all the other grams as it is suppose to be more energetic, filling and healthier than the rest. You could choose any proportion that you like. More whole lentils will make the recipe much healthier.
Wash and soak all the pulses together for an hour. Boil all the soaked pulses in a liter of water with a tsp. of oil and ½ tsp of turmeric powder for 20-30 minutes. Pressure cooking the grams take less time and is much healthier option than cooking in an open vessel. Mash the cooked grams slightly with the back of a ladle.
Peel and chop the onion into thin slices. Wash and grate the ginger.
Heat 1 tbsp. of oil in a wok and add chopped onion, grated ginger, all the spices and sauté for a few minutes.
Pour this tempering over the cooked lentils and boil it for 3-4 minutes.
Litti Chokha
Add lemon juice and garnish the mixed Lentil curry with fresh chopped coriander leaves. Serve it with hot whole wheat buns/baatis or Spinach Littis or Paanya.
Litti Chokha and Daal Baati
Brinjal Chokha is almost similar to Baba Ganoush a vegetarian dip cooked with roasted brinjal in middle east countries except the Tahini used in the Baba Ganoush recipe.
Serve these curries with another specialty from Rajasthan – A baked savory bun in leaves called Paanya.
Notes;
Normally potatoes are also roasted directly in the firewood for about 20-30 minutes, you could grill or bake them to get a better result. Firewood baked potatoes have crumbly texture and wonderful earthy aroma.
Boiling the potatoes first and then directly roasting them in flame saves time, but you might miss out on the smoky flavor of the firewood in the recipe.
Traditionally the proportion of whole black gram is more than all the other grams and lentils as it is suppose to be more energetic and healthier than the rest. You could choose any proportion that you like. More whole lentils will make the recipe filling and healthy.
Try making the Daal with just the whole black gram which is the authentic recipe to savor Daal Bati with in rural parts of Rajasthan.
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