Mung Dal (Green Gram) Savoury Chilla Pancakes 2
Moong Dal Chilla 2
Sushma Agarwal
The word Chilla or Cheela means Pancake in Hindi. These savoury pancakes are easy to make and delicious eaten with pickles, natural yoghurt or a chutney of your choice. You can add small amount of grated vegetables to this pancake, as seen in last three pictures, where I have added some grated, raw beetroot.
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 cup split moong/mung dal, washed, without skin
1-2 green chillies*, finely chopped
1 small onion* finely, chopped
1 full tsp. grated ginger* root
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp. tsp. carom seeds
* I often chop onion, chilli and ginger together in a food chopper.
Instructions
Wash and soak moong/mung dal for 2 hours
Grind (do not remove skin) in a blender, with half a cup of water, to a fine grained batter like consistency. You will need to add more water slowly, to make sure it doesn't get too runny. It should be pancake batter like consistency; thin enough to spread easily, but no too watery. Thick batter is difficult to spread quickly, resulting in thick, lumpy chilla pancakes.
Add onion, chilli and ginger mix and stir it in. Adjust thickness of the batter to a good spreading consistency.
Heat a non-stick girdle or tava or a frying pan. Make sure the heat is only medium. This allows the dal in chilla to cook through properly.
How to season your pan
When hot, spread a very thin layer of oil, spread it with a moist kitchen paper towel. This will 'season' the pan nicely and your chillas will not stick. See pictures.
Spreading out the Chilla pancake
Pour a ladle of the batter in the centre of the griddle. Spread batter in circular motions, until you get a thin circle.
Cooking
You can cover it with a lid for 15-20 seconds. This helps steam to gather under the lid and cook the pancake thoroughly.
After a minute or so, turn over gently with a flat, thin spatula. Cook on the other side, uncovered.
Turn over once or twice more, to make sure it is cooked and crisp?ish. You can cook these pancakes with very little oil, after he first couple, when the pan becomes 'seasoned' with oil.
Serve hot with a chutney/pickle of your choice, like Green Mango Chutney or Tamarind Chutney or Chilli Sauce.
Notes
You should make the first dosa or pancake as a test pancake only, with a smaller amount of batter. It usually sticks to the pan a little and curls. After this, the pan is uniformly covered by a film of oil and pancakes cook better.
