The word ‘Dhoka’, which means cheating in Hindi and Bengali, surprisingly has a strong association with food. I have no clue why, but there are two famous food dishes in Bengali cuisine, which have the word ‘Dhoka’ in them. One is ‘Dhokar Dalna’, where the word in concern ‘Dhoka’, is made with chana dal or split chickpeas and the other being ‘Dimer Dhokar Dalna’, where obviously as the name suggests, the ‘Dhokas’ are made with eggs.
Now, one must be wondering, or atleast I am wondering since I first encountered the pieces of steamed egg cakes, kept ready to be fried in my Mum’s kitchen. As I asked my mother excitedly, “Maa eta ki?” (Maa, what is it?), and her answer to this question “Eta Dimer Dhoka” (this is Dimer Dhoka), left my tender brain for a forever search, which is still unaccomplished. And with time, as I became familiar with more dishes, and as my genius brain was (and is still) opening up with knowledges, accumulated through different sources, I came up with below logics 🤓 for the basis of nomenclature of both the dishes, after going through serious analogies and permutations & combinations 🧐
Please Note: Serious pun intended.😝
- As the lentil cubes from ‘Dhokar Dalna’ and the egg cake cubes from ‘Dimer Dhokar Dalna’ resemble the famous Gujarati dish ‘Dhokla’, probably the idea of the dish as well as the name had been taken from Dhokla. But we Bengalis somewhere lost the letter ‘L’ while travelling from far west to east 😛
- The second one is more interesting and is also a little sinister. Probably, we Bengalis wanted to tell the world, that we also have something like Dhokla, but when you taste the same, it wont be Dhokla, which is technically cheating and hence the name ‘Dhoka’ 😁
Anyway, whatever be the logic, one thing is for sure, that the dish Dimer Dhokar Dalna is a very special dish and was not even regular at my home. However, thanks to the unforgettable taste which I still remember, and it became the guide for me to prepare the dish successfully.
As I work on more logics behind the name, why don’t you try out the dish without wasting more time.
Recipe: Dimer Dhokar Dalna Or Steamed Egg Cake Curry
Preparation Time: 45 minutes (approx) Pressure Cooking Time: 20 minutes Steaming Egg: 53 Minutes Cooking & Frying Time: 1 hr 15 minutes Equipment Used: A tiffin box, a pressure cooker, a knife, a peeler, cutting board, 2 pans, a turner and bowls Yield: 4-5 bowls
Ingredients:
- 5 medium to big sized potatoes
- 5 cups water and water to steam the eggs
- 1 teaspoon refined oil or any oil
- 1 small sized onion and 2 medium sized onions
- 6 eggs
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 garlic or around 20 cloves of garlic
- 1 tomato
- 9 tablespoons mustard oil
- 1 red chilli broken into half
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 cinnamon sticks (each piece 0.5 cm length)
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon roasted jeera or cumin powder (refer post, Essential Spice Mixes)
- ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder (refer post, Essential Spice Mixes)
- 1 cm X 3 cm ginger
- 2 green chillies
- 1 teaspoon ghee (optional)
Method:
- Clean three potatoes under running water. Peel and cut each of them to 4 to 6 pieces
- Boil the potatoes in a pressure cooker till 1 whistle, after adding 2 cups water into the pressure cooker
- While the potatoes are getting pressure cooked, take a flat tiffin box and rub the interior of the tiffin box with refined oil or any other oil
- Chop the small onion and add the chopped onion pieces into the tiffin box
- One by one break 6 eggs into the tiffin box
- Slightly beat the eggs and add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper
- Now beat the eggs again and let all the ingredients mix properly
- Check the boiled potatoes with a fork. If you can insert the fork easily till the bottom, then the potatoes are completely boiled
- One by one add the boiled potato pieces to the beaten eggs and mix them till no lumps remain
- Cover the tiffin box and place the tiffin box inside a wide opened vessel
- Add water in the vessel around the side of the tiffin box till you can see the water covering atleast 1/4th of the tiffin box from bottom
- Switch on the fire and let the egg and potato mix get cooked through steam
- As egg and potato mix get cooked, in the meantime, peel and chop the garlic cloves, slice the remaining 2 onions, slice the tomato and cut the remaining 2 potatoes into slightly big wedges
- Heat a pan and heat 5 tablespoons mustard oil into the pan, once the pan is hot
- Temper the oil with 1 red chilli, 1 bay leaf, 5 cinnamon sticks and chopped garlic pieces
- Once the garlic pieces are sauteed, add the sliced onion pieces and fry them
- When the onion pieces are properly fried, add the sliced tomato, potato pieces, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, roasted jeera powder and garam masala powder
- Mix them well, cover the pan and let the potatoes cook on sim
- On the other hand, switch off the flame when the water almost dries up in the vessel containing the tiffin box
- Open the lid of the tiffin box after 10 minutes
- Insert a toothpick in the steamed egg and potato cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done
- Carefully scrap the side of the cake and cut the steamed egg and potato cake into small squares or any desired shapes
- Heat another pan and heat 4 tablespoons mustard oil in the pan, once the pan is hot
- Slightly fry the egg pieces and at the same time check the other pan, if the potato pieces are tender
- Add 2 cups water into the pan once the potato pieces are tender
- Add the fried egg pieces into the pan once bubble starts appearing
- Peel the ginger piece and grate it into the curry
- Slit two green chillies into the curry
- Adjust salt and sugar. I have added ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon sugar
- Switch off the flame and spread ghee on top of the curry
Cut 3 potatoes to 4 to 6 pieces.
Pressure Cook the potatoes till 1 whistle, after adding 2 cups water into the pressure cooker.
Take a flat tiffin box and rub the interior of the tiffin box with refined oil or any other oil.
Chop onion and add the chopped onion pieces into the tiffin box.
One by one break 6 eggs into the tiffin box.
Slightly beat the eggs and add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
Beat the eggs again and let all the ingredients mix properly.
Add the boiled potato pieces to the beaten eggs and mix them till no lumps remain.
Cover the tiffin box and place the tiffin box inside a wide opened vessel.
Add water in the vessel around the side of the tiffin box.
Switch on the fire and let the egg and potato mix get cooked through steam. As egg and potato mix get cooked, in the meantime, peel and chop the garlic cloves, slice onions & tomato and cut the remaining 2 potatoes into slightly big wedges.
Heat 5 tablespoons mustard oil in another pan,
Temper the oil with red chilli, bay leaf, cinnamon sticks and chopped garlic pieces.
Fry the sliced onion.
When the onion pieces are fried, add the sliced tomato, potato pieces, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, roasted jeera powder and garam masala powder.
Mix them well, cover the pan and let the potatoes cook on sim.
Switch off the flame when the water almost dries up in the vessel containing the tiffin box.
Open the tiffin box after 10 minutes.
Scrap the side of the cake and cut the steamed egg and potato cake into small squares.
Slightly fry the egg pieces.
Add 2 cups water into the pan once the potato pieces are tender.
Add the fried egg pieces into the pan once bubble starts appearing.
Grate ginger into the curry.
Slit green chillies.
Adjust salt and sugar.
Switch off the flame and spread ghee.
Tips:
- You can make the steamed egg without adding boiled potatoes. But boiled potatoes provide volume to the cake
- You may not cut the potatoes before boiling them. But cutting the potatoes into small pieces will ensure fast boiling and tendered potatoes, which are easy to mash
- To rub the tiffin box, you can use any oil of your choice
- Initially use hand to mix the boiled potato and egg, and then use a whisker to ensure proper mixing
- While steaming cake, heat the vessel on full flame. But reduce the flame when bubble starts forming in the water
- Don’t open the tiifin box immediately after switching off the flame
- Behind every perfect dish, there are moments of imperfection. Just like me, if you also find good amount of cake stuck into the tiffin box, then don’t throw them away. Scrape and fry them and add to the curry. You can also eat them as it is
