Before You Start
In Gujarat, dhokla is an everyday food, eaten for breakfast, packed in tiffin boxes or served with tea, and the one most people have in mind now is the quick kind: a gram flour and yogurt batter lifted by a fruit salt such as Eno just before it goes into the steamer. The older fermented dhokla, which needs a full day to rise by itself, has not disappeared, and Gujarati households make both depending on the time they have, but the instant method has become standard because it yields a light sponge in under half an hour.
The difference between a good dhokla and a dense one is not complicated, only exact. The batter needs the right thickness, the fruit salt must go in immediately before steaming and be folded gently rather than whisked, and the heat under the steamer should be steady and not fierce. With those three in place the crumb is full of fine, even holes and soft enough that a fingertip dents it and it rises back.
Where It Comes From
Dhokla is plainly Gujarati, and its record goes back further than that of most street snacks, because Gujarati writing from centuries ago mentions steamed, fermented cakes of gram or of rice and lentils, at a time when no packaged leavening existed. The classic form, sometimes called khatta dhokla, depends on a batter of rice and split chickpeas or gram flour that is left to ferment overnight. That is the same natural logic behind idli and dosa batters in the south, although the two traditions grew up independently. Using Eno or baking soda as a chemical leavener is a twentieth-century shortcut that spread once fruit salts reached Indian kitchens, and it now dominates both home cooking and the dhokla at Gujarati snack stalls, while the slower fermented version survives mostly in home kitchens and among cooks who like its tangier, more complex taste.
How to Make It
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Prep
Whisk the batter
Beat together the gram flour, semolina if using, yogurt, ginger and chilli paste, turmeric, sugar, salt and oil, pouring in water bit by bit until the batter is smooth, thick and still pourable, much like pancake batter. Leave it for 10 minutes. The gram flour needs that time to soak fully, and the pause improves the texture noticeably even in an instant recipe.
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Prep
Bring the steamer to a boil
As the batter rests, put roughly two inches of water into the steamer and bring it to a steady boil. Oil the thali or tin well, sides too, so the sponge releases without sticking.
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Cook
Stir in the fruit salt and steam right away
Over the batter, sprinkle the fruit salt (or soda and lemon), then fold it through with a few brisk, light strokes; overmixing knocks out the very bubbles that make the cake rise. Pour the batter into the greased tin straight away and place the tin in the steamer at once, because every minute the activated batter spends waiting reduces its lift.
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Cook
Steam until firm
Put the lid on and steam over a medium-high flame for fifteen to eighteen minutes. A toothpick pushed to the middle should come out without any wet batter on it. Resist peeking during the first ten minutes; cold air rushing in can make the centre sink.
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Cook
Rest before cutting
Lift the tin out and let it stand for five minutes. Then run a knife along the edge and cut the dhokla into squares or diamonds right in the tin. Slicing at full heat squashes the crumb, while a brief rest sets it without letting it cool.
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Finish
Make the tempering and let it soak in
Warm the oil in a small pan and drop in the mustard seeds. When they begin popping, stir in sesame seeds, curry leaves, slit chillies and hing, then the water, sugar and lemon juice. Let this simmer for a moment, and ladle the hot liquid across the cut dhokla while it is still warm. A minute or two is enough for the squares to drink it up.
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Serve
Garnish and serve
Finish with coriander, plus grated coconut if you have it. Dhokla is eaten warm or at room temperature, usually with green chutney, and it is surprisingly good chilled the following day, which partly explains why it suits lunchboxes.
Swaps That Work
If you would rather not mix the batter from plain besan, ready-made dhokla flour, sold at most Indian grocers, will do, but expect a somewhat denser sponge. Baking soda plus lemon juice stands in for fruit salt almost exactly, as the ingredient list suggests, only with a slightly smaller rise. Whole-milk yogurt gives the best flavour and structure, and a thin, thoroughly whisked low-fat one is a workable alternative.
Turning the Heat Up or Down
A dhokla should begin mild, with heat arriving through the tempering instead of the batter. To tone it down, cut the green chilli in both places, or drop it from the batter and keep only the slit chillies in the tempering, which you can remove before eating. To heat it up, add more ginger and chilli paste to the batter and a pinch of red chilli powder to the tempering oil.
Where Cooks Go Wrong
A dense, flat dhokla is the commonest failure, and it nearly always comes from leaving the batter to stand after the fruit salt went in, or from lifting the steamer lid too soon and losing the rise. A batter that is too thin is another cause, because it steams into a flat, rubbery sheet in place of a tall sponge; it should coat the back of a spoon thickly. The third error is putting the tin in before the water is properly boiling, which slows the first rise and gives a tougher result. Using a tin that is too large for the amount of batter has a similar effect, since a thin layer cannot rise into a tall cake.
Keeping and Warming Up Leftovers
To keep: Refrigerate dhokla in a closed box for as long as three days. As the batter includes yogurt, the cake should spend no more than a few hours at room temperature, and less in hot weather. It can also be frozen for up to a month before the tempering goes on; defrost it in the fridge, steam it briefly, and add fresh tempering at the end.
To warm up: A few minutes in the steamer, two to three, restore dhokla's softness much better than a microwave, though twenty to thirty seconds in the microwave will do when pressed for time, at some risk of tougher edges. If it has dried out while stored, finish with a squeeze of lemon and some more tempering.
Safe Handling
The yogurt in the batter means mixed batter should not wait long at room temperature before steaming, least of all in hot weather, so mix, add the fruit salt and steam without delay. Once steamed, dhokla is fully cooked, but as with any dairy-containing dish it needs refrigeration within roughly two hours if it is not eaten, and it should never be left out overnight.