Moong Ke Cheelay, Haldiram Style

Life has been a bit hectic for the past few days and will probably remain that way for all of this month as I am leaving for India later this week.
For now, let me share one of my favourite breakfast treat: Moong dal cheela err..no cheelay. Cheelay is the plural form of the lone cheela, and since I can never stop at one, it is always cheelay for me and not cheela

Now most Delhi halwais worth their halwa make cheelay, but the best according to me are what good old Haldiram dishes out. Light and flaky, with a scrumptious paneer and peas stuffing, they are an absolute delight. Since I was making them for a pre gym meal, I left out the paneer and used only the peas. To make it richer, add grated paneer or cheese to the stuffing, and serve with green chutney as Haldiram does. I wanted to add a calcium component to my meal and therefore served it with spiced dahi (yoghurt), making it an almost zone friendly meal
For 2 to 3 cheelay, we need
1/2 cup skinless moong dal
a tiny knob of ginger
one green chilli (optional)
a pinch of turmeric
a pinch of asafoetida
salt to taste
Soak the dal for a minimum of 4 hours or even overnight. Drain and grind with ginger and chillies, using little water. We need roughly dosa batter consistency. Add turmeric, salt and asafoetida and beat it well for a couple of minutes, this makes them soft and light when cooked.
Tip:
If your batter becomes too watery, add a little besan to bring it to the right consistency.
If you are not inclined to beat the batter, add a pinch of baking soda to make it light and fluffy.
Peas stuffing:
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/ tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
a pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp oil

Crush the defrosted peas roughly. Heat oil and spluter cumin seeds, add hing followed by the peas. Add salt and chili powder. Mix well and cook for a minute or so till it turns a little dry. Keep aside.
Making the cheelay
Heat a non stick tawa and spread a ladleful dal batter in a circular motion, starting from the centre. At haliram they use a small katori ( steel bowl) to do this, but I don't want burnt knuckles, thank you, so a ladle it is for me.

Now dribble a few drops of oil all around the cheela and cook it for around two minutes on medium flame. When the underside turns golden, flip the cheela and cook the other side as well. If the cheelas are thin, overcooking them can make them tough, so adjust cooking time according to how thick or thin you spread them. Now put a little (or lots, as I do) stuffing on one side of the cheela.

Now fold the cheela and take it off the tawa. Make all the cheelas similarly. Depending on the size and thickness, 1/2 cup of dal yields about 2 to 3 cheelay.

Make spiced yoghurt to serve alongside, by adding salt, roasted cumin powder and red chili powder, or groundnut chutney powder ( recipe coming up in a later post).

These cheelay go off to Aparna who is hosting WBB Grains in my Breakfast started by Nandita of Saffron Trail.

And I absolutely must share my first experience of an 'OnaSadya', the fabulous traditional Onam spread . The restaurant, was dimly lit, and I only had my phone camera, but this meal has to be recorded in this blog , so here it is:

If any of my mallu friends are reading this, please correct me and don't laugh.

Starting from the top, there are pickles, and pachadis, one of them, a fruity one. Moving clockwise, we have banana chips, papad, kerala rice, parippu,avial, thoran, rasam and sambhar with Erissery and Olan in the middle. The two bowls on the right are pradhaman, one lentil and the other rice based.With so much food, its hard to imagine a second helping but I could not imagine waiting another year for that superlatively delicious olan and rosematta rice, and so I actually had another round of rice and olan . Whew!

HAPPY ONAM TO ALL!