When I shared Muslim wedding biryani & Kuska recipes in my Biryani series, few readers asked me to share Muslim home style Brinjal gravy ( Kathirikai Kuzhambu) for biryani. I did share an Ennai Kathirikai Gravy for biryani. But later I realized it was not the one my readers asked for. Again I got a mail and a comment in my biryani recipes to share Muslim Veg Dalcha recipe which is served as a side dish for ghee pilaf/Nei choru and they call it as Bahara Khana. Its very special among Nagore,Tamilnadu and Hyderabad Muslims. I started searching for the authentic recipe and found it in Jaleela Kamal mam’s blog. Recently when I was telling about Thalcha kuzhambu to my dad, he told he had tasted it in his friend Mr.Ibrahim uncle’s house & called him immediately.I talked with his wife Sharmila Banu aunty and got the recipe for Dalcha along with ghee rice. She told they make dalcha with mutton & vegetables. But she suggested me to use brinjal and bottle gourd as I asked for a vegetarian version.It was very similar to Jaleela mam’s recipe.It is so easy and quick to make. So I was double happy and satisfied of trying the authentic, original, traditional Muslim style Dalcha gravy recipe.You can prepare Dalcha and ghee rice simultaneously if you have 2 pressure cookers in hand. Sharmila aunty told me to use DUM method for making ghee rice just like Hyderabadi biryani . But I did it in my cooker directly as I started cooking very late. Soon I will try to make a detailed and perfect ghee rice post. Aunty was sooo sweet and patient. She spent nearly half an hour over phone and shared many of their specialty recipes for Iftaar and Ramadan. I must try to post them one by one soon. Thanks a bunch Aunty and Jaleela Mam for sharing this wonderful Dalcha recipe.Now lets see how to make South Indian Veg Dalcha gravy with step by step pictures.
Check out my 40 Veg Biryani Recipes too !
Dalcha recipe&Ghee rice
Veg dalcha rcipe with ghee rice - Muslim style
Cuisine:Indian
Category:Lunch recipes
Serves:Serves 2
Prep time:10 Minutes
Cook time:20 Minutes
Total time:20 Minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 cup – 240ml
To Pressure cook for Dalcha
Toor dal - 1/4 cup
Chana dal - 2 tbsp
Big onion - 1 no or small onion - 5 nos ( sliced)
Tomato - 1 no
Green chilli - 1no
Garlic cloves - 4 no
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Dhania powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1/2 tsp
Tamarind – medium gooseberry size
Brinjal - 2 nos ( cut into 4 or 5 pieces)
Salt & water - as needed
Raw mango – 2 pieces ( optional, I din’t use)
Mint+coriander leaves - a handful
To temper:
Ghee – 2 tsp
Big onion – 1/2 no ( sliced)
Cinnamon – 1 no
Cloves - 1 no
For ghee rice
Basmati rice - 1 cup
Water - 1.5 cups or 1 cup water + 1/2 cup coconut milk
Cooking oil + Ghee – 2 tbsp
Ghee – 1 tbsp ( for garnishing)
Whole garam masala – 1 each ( Cinnamon, cloves, Cardamom, Kalpasi, biryani leaf, marati moggu)
Big onion – 1 no
Ginger garlic paste – 1/2 tsp
Mint + coriander leaves – a fistful
Green chilli – 1-2 no ( slitted)
Tomato – 1/2 no (optional)
Lemon juice – few drops ( optional)
METHOD
In a pressure cooker base, take the toor dal + Chana dal and soak it adding 2 cups of water. Soak tamarind in 1/2 cup of warm water separately in a bowl.
Chop onion, peel garlic and slit green chilli. Chop the brinjal into pieces vertically and immerse in water till use.Add the chopped onion, green chilli, one whole tomato, Mint + coriander leaves, turmeric powder,garlic cloves, few drops of oil, G&G paste to the pressure cooker. Mix well and pressure cook the dal mixture very low flame for one whistle.( You can add chopped tomatoes if your dal cooks well. My dal doesn’t cook mushy if I add chopped tomatoes.So I added as a whole tomato)
Open the cooker after the steam is released. Mash the dal well with a whisk or mathu. To this, add chopped brinjal & bottle gourd ( and Mutton pieces if using), salt, red chilli powder and dhania powder. Again pressure cook in high flame for 1 whistle just for the brinjal to cook. Brinjal should retain its shape. ( ** Refer NOTES for an easy method). Open the cooker after the steam is released and add the tamarind extract + Mango pieces ( If adding). Mix everything and check for taste.Add more salt , chilli powder based on your taste. Let the mixture roll boil well.
Heat ghee in a small pan and saute cinnamon, clove, sliced big onion. Saute till onion turns golden brown.Remove and add it to the boiling dal mixture. Switch off the flame and remove it. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with Ghee rice or biryani. Enjoy !
For ghee rice : Wash and soak basmati rice in 2 cups of hot water for 20 minutes. In the mean time, chop the onion, tomato, slit green chilli. Heat a pressure cooker with Oil +ghee and splutter the whole garam masala items. Add the chopped onion, green chilli, g&g paste and tomato pieces ( skip tomato if u want white pulao). Saute until tomato turns mushy.Now add 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup of coconut milk and soaked basmati rice ( U can use water or coconut milk completely) . Add the required salt and add chopped mint+coriander leaves, few drops of lemon jucie.Mix well and pressure cook in low flame for 1 whistle.
Remove after the steam is released. Fluff the rice with a fork and serve it. Keep dalcha as the side dish ! This combo tasted simply great : )) Enjoy !!
NOTE
**While making dalcha, you can keep the brinjal pieces in a small bowl inside the cooker and cook all the other ingredients together.After opening the cooker, mash the dal well, add the cooker brinjal pieces and then you can add tamarind extract, give a boil & temper it. By doing this way, you can avoid pressure cooking for 2 times. I just followed what Aunty told me. So I have cooked twice here. Next time, I am planning to try this method.
If you want to follow DUM method for making ghee rice, Just add the rice, water, coconut milk and mix well till all the liquid is absorbed by the rice and becomes thick. Now switch off the cooker. Heat a dosa pan well ( Use a very old, unused dosa pan) and Place the cooker over it. Cover the cooker with a cotton cloth and then place a plate or lid. No need to use the cooker lid. Above this, place a bowl full of hot water. Let the flame be high and dosa pan be very hot. This heat will spread to the cooker and rice cooks soft n fluffy. Remove the cooker after 10 minutes and check the rice. This was the method suggested by aunty. Soon I will try to make a detailed post for this. By doing this way, color of rice can be maintained white.
Try and enjoy this most popular Muslim style Ghee rice + dalcha combo at home. I am sure you will love it. I made this and some curd rice for our Sunday lunch. It was comforting !
Last week we had a trip to Valparai near Pollachi,Tamil nadu for summer vacation in our car. We packed few rice varieties for lunch and had it during our road trip in Attakatti. Usually we make Tamarind rice/Puli sadam and Curd rice for travel. But this time, Sendhil told us to prepare some other rice varieties for a change. So my MIL made this yummy, easy, comforting and a healthy South Indian meal for our travel.I thought of sharing this easy travel food recipes idea with you all. It would be helpful for you to plan and prepare food for your short trip/Picnic during this Summer holidays. My MIL made Milagu jeeraga sadam/ Pepper cumin rice, Ellu sadam/ Sesame seeds rice, Lemon rice and Curd rice along with vadam/Vathal. We also carried some store bought sweets and snacks to munch during our travel. Lets see how we prepared this simple and yummy travel lunch menu.
Here is a collage of Valparai-Athirapally Pictures. Check THIS LINK for more pictures.
On the previous day night of travel, prepare the lemon rice paste.Make sesame seeds powder by dry roasting the sesame seeds, red chilli and then powder it adding salt.Make pepper cumin seeds powder. Refrigerate the lemon rice paste alone. Keep the powders in an air tight box and store it.
The next day morning as soon as u get up, wash and soak the rice in required water for 20 minutes. Use two cookers. One for curd rice and other one for rice varieties. Soak the rice separately in 2 cookers. Rice will be well soaked by the time u take bath.
Pressure cook the rice for one whistle in low flame and switch off the flame. Remove the lid after the steam is released.
NEVER USE YOUR HANDS FOR MIXING THE RICE. USE LADLE FOR HANDLING THE RICE.
Spread the rice in a plate and add some gingely oil. Take the rice in curd rice cooker and mash it well adding salt and milk. Do not curd when the rice is hot. Add curd after the rice becomes lukewarm. Add the seasoning ingredients for curd rice. Mix well. Add curd and mix well.Check for taste. Do not make the curd rice too thick or too watery. Make it like a creamy consistency so that it won’t become too hard in the afternoon.Check for taste and add more salt if needed. By the time, u mix the curd rice, the rice spread in the plate would have become warm.
Divide the rice into 2 portions. Take one portion of the rice and make lemon rice adding the lemon rice paste.Add gingely oil generously. Check for taste and add more salt & paste if needed. Take the other portion of rice and divide into 2. Use one portion for making ellu sadam and the other one for milagu jeeraga sadam. Add gingely oil for ellu sadam and ghee for milagu jeeraga sadam generously.Do not forget. NEVER USE YOUR HANDS FOR MIXING THE RICE. USE LADLE.
Prepare all the rice varieties and stack in the boxes. Make Neer mor/Spiced buttermilk (Thalicha more) and store in a bottle. Deep fry Koozh Vadam/Vathal or papad and mormilagai.Store the vadam in a polythene bag or ziplock covers after it cools down. Pack some pickle in a small container. Arrange everything for travel in a bag. Take the sweets, snacks and fruits if any for travel.
Enjoy !
Note
I have shared some general point to remember while preparing food for travel.
Never put your hands to mix the rice varieties, use a spoon or ladle instead. If you mix the rice with your hands, it won’t stay good for more than 2 hours in summer.
Add gingely oil generously while mixing the rice. It helps to prevent the rice from drying.
Make sure you don’t use raw coconut in the dishes. If you use coconut, roast it well or saute the coconut based dish in oil till all the moisture content is completely gone.
If you are making curd rice, add less curd and more milk while mixing. It helps the curd rice to set well while eating.Never add curd in hot rice. Carry a bottle of spiced buttermilk or diluted curd to add in the rice while eating. Suppose if the curd rice becomes too thick, you can add buttermilk and bring it to proper consistency.In the buttermilk bottle, put some slitted green chillies, ginger and few curry leaves with mustard seeds seasoning ( make thaalicha neer mor). It helps to keep the buttermilk fresh and tastes less tangy.
We packed the rice in our steel travelling set. If you don’t have a travelling set, you can pack them in use & throw silver foil packs or plastic boxes. It is better to use banana leaf for packing the food. It gives a nice flavor and a healthy choice as well.
Is it not a happy and comforting meal for your travel ?? Prepare & Enjoy it !!
I have been sharing varieties of Vegetable Biryani recipes for the past few months in my Sunday Lunch recipes series. Usually people make different types of biryani on weekends especially Sundays or for special occasions like marriage, festivals, family and friends get together/ party, anniversary & birthdays. Not just for Sunday lunch, many people make veg biryani for daily lunch box too as most of them are easy to make one pot meals. So I made a series of different types of veg biryani recipes on Sundays to explore biryani varieties for Vegetarians. I was happy that I could try & share 40+ veg biryani recipes and pulao recipes.
I have made a list of veg biryani recipe in my website and stacked all of them in one page for your quick reference. Please click on the specific image to view the respective recipe. In this collection, you can find the links for Biryani spices list,How to cook basmati rice & Jeeraga samba rice with a side dish for biryani, Indian Veg biryani recipes, Easy vegetable biryani for bachelors, Hyderabadi Veg biryani, Kerala veg biryani, Veg Kofta biryani,Veg Dum biryani, Pakistan biryani, Sindhi biryani, Tamilnadu muslim style biryani, Kuska/plain biryani, Mushroom biryani, Cauliflower biryani, Baby corn biryani, Brinjal biryani, Sweet corn biryani, Soya chunks biryani, Tomato biryani and some of the most popular Biryani recipes in Tamil nadu like Ambur biryani, Dindigul Thalapakatti biryani, Coimbatore angannan biryani and Anjappar biryani recipes replacing mutton & chicken with vegetables.
I have also shared a Celebrity biryani recipe”Thala Ajith biryani”-You must try this once. You can also find some Healthy biryani recipes like Mixed pulses biryani, Spinach/Palak biryani, Bittergourd biryani, Qabooli chana biryani,Rajma biryani,Pakistani style mushroom biryani, Millet biryani,brown rice biryani and Kathal biryani. Apart from these recipes, I have shared few pulao recipes like spicy veg pulao,Mushroom pulao and tomato pulao. Friends,do try these recipes during weekends and share your feedback here.Thanks for visiting this page. Hope you find it useful.
Veg Biryani, Pulao Varieties
Veg Biryani, Pulao varieties for Sunday lunch,Special occasions and for lunch box !
Veg dalcha rcipe with ghee rice - Muslim style 
. Lets see how we prepared this simple and yummy travel lunch menu. 
Prepare & Enjoy it !!
