Making chundo, felt laborious when I was helping my mom as a tween, in Mumbai, India. But home made chundo from the best ingredients and with the sweat of love tasted the best.
Summer vacations were spent helping mom grate raw, green mangoes. listening to mom’s stories about her childhood, filling up many tapelas [vessels], measuring and mixing in the white sugar, adding turmeric powder and red chilli powder,and covering it with a cheesecloth and attached by a twine to the tapela. Carrying it to the roof of our 5 story building every morning after stirring the contents and picking it up in the evening, carrying it down many steps and bringing it back home. Just to keep repeating it day after day till mom said it was ready to be filled in jars big and small.
We ate this chundo for the rest of the year. We ate it with khichadi, dhokla, thepla, rice and dal, and anything we wanted to add a little flavor to.
Mom made dhoklas for snack in the evening. She made them many different ways. I love eating dhoklas: white, yellow and green. Soft and spongy like bread, a gujarati version of South Indian idlis, only that it is made in thalis, and is diamond shaped. Sometimes I bought them pre- made from the Regal store down the street from our home.
I have enjoyed them with chundo, cilantro pesto/chutney, and tamarind chutney.
Some made with white or yellow lentils and some with sooji/ cream of wheat.
Read the tale of six blind men and the elephant and enjoy some hot dhoklas and chundo with it and have little ones help you to as they create your own summer memories of making chundo and eating it with dhoklas. Children can help with
- Washing the produce.
- Grating fruits or veg.
- Measuring out various ingredients.
- Grinding the powders.
- Stirring the food.
- Tasting the food.
CHUNDO
Check this traditional recipe by here. Growing up in Mumbai, this is the way my mom prepared chundo and I helped with carry the tapelas [ vessels] up and down, to and from the terrace. In addition, I helped to grate the mangoes, measure and stir in the sugar.
Check this recipe if looking for a stove top recipe: from here.
Steamed rice and lentil cake aka Khatta dhokla
Check this steamed lentil rice cakes/ khatta dhokla recipe from here.
I have frequently used GITS instant dhokla packet when I forget to soak the khatta dhokla aata in yogurt the previous day. Soaking in yogurt the previous day ferments the aata and there is less need to use baking soda or Eno to make soft dhoklas.
As for leftover dhoklas, you can fry them in tempering of oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, sesame seeds and curry leaves and garnished with desiccated coconut Make sure they are a little golden brown and crisp before you take them off the stove. Squeeze some lemon on them and voila you have another way to eat them with hot chai.
Another option of leftover dhokla is to make upma with dhokla crumbs or soak in yogurt/ dahi and eat as dahi vada.
For the Khaman dhokla, leftover dhokla can be used to make amiri khaman.
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