Dal ka Meetha is a traditional sweet dish made up of chana dal and milk solids. Chana dal is cooked in milk, later made to a paste and then cooked to perfection by adding sugar and fried raisins. This traditional sweet dish is famous in Bangalore Weddings. Keep reading for detailed step-by-step picture instructions. Do try this recipe out and comment below your experiences. Happy Cooking!
INGREDIENTS:
- Chana dal- 250 gms
- Milk- 1 litre + 500 ml
- Ghee- 3 tbsp + 3 tbsp
- Cardamom- 1 no
- Cinammon- 2 1'' sticks
- Sugar- 300 gms
- Mawa/ khoya- 150 gms (dissolved in 1/4 cup milk)
- Almond slivers
- Raisins
PROCEDURE:
- Wash the chana dal and soak for at-least an hour. Drain out in a colander.
- Heat 1 litre milk in a pressure cooker, add chana dal to it and pressure cook for 4-5 whistles.
- Remove it in another vessel and let it cool completely.
- Add dal and milk to a mixer jar and grind to a smooth paste. Repeat the same process with the rest of the dal-milk mixture.
- Heat 3 tbsp ghee in a thick-bottomed vessel, make sure it is a thick-bottomed one as chana dal mixture sticks to the bottom very quickly and this may cause to char the chana dal and give it a burnt flavour, we don't want that. Hence, use a thick-bottomed vessel.
- Once the ghee is hot add the whole spices and fry for a min.
- Now lower the flame and add the chana dal paste to it. Keep stirring continuously while keeping it on a low flame. We need to cook this mixture till the raw smell of dal goes away. This process takes around 35-40 mins.
- You'll notice that the mixture starts to thicken up add the remaining 500 ml milk in batches and keep cooking on a low flame.
- Keeping the flame high will make it char easily, hence low flame is best for cooking this sweet. After 35-40 mins of cooking, taste a little bit of the mixture. It's not sweet as we didn't add any sugar, but you'll see that it has got a pleasant taste. This is the indication that it is done.
- And also, if you notice the raw smell of dal, cook for another 10 mins. By now, it will get cooked.
- Now add sugar to it and mix well. You can add more sugar if you love it sweeter.
- As soon as the sugar dissolves, the mixture gets a glossy look. Check for sweetness and add more sugar if required.
- Cook on low flame for 2 mins. Now add khoya mixture to it. I used room temperature mawa and dissolved it in 1/4 cup milk.
- Mix well and keep it on low flame while stirring continuously.
- Heat 3 tbsp ghee in another vessel. We'll pour this on top of the cooked dal halwa.
- Once the ghee is hot, add raisins, you can add more or less according to your preference.
- Fry on low flame until they puff up.
- Pour the ghee-raisins on the dal halwa and mix well.
- Garnish with almond slivers.
- Bangalore-special Dal ka Meetha is ready, serve hot.
