First, a word on this dish
In a Gujarati home, dhokla turns up at breakfast, in a tiffin box and next to the afternoon tea, and the one most people mean today is the quick kind. A gram flour and yogurt batter is lifted at the last moment with fruit salt such as Eno, which saves you the day-long fermentation of the older style. Both count as dhokla, and families make each depending on the hour, but the instant version has become the default because a springy, light cake is ready in under half an hour.
Three things separate a soft dhokla from a heavy one, and none are hard. First, the batter must have the right thickness. Second, the fruit salt goes in only when the steamer is ready, and you fold it in with a few gentle strokes instead of whisking. Third, the steam needs to be steady rather than fierce. Do those and you get a cake full of tiny even bubbles that dents under a fingertip and bounces back.
The story behind the dish
Written records of dhokla reach back several centuries in Gujarat, which makes it older on paper than most street snacks, and nobody seriously disputes where it comes from. Early references describe steamed cakes of fermented gram or of rice and lentils, made long before anyone bought a packet of leavening. That original style, known as khatta dhokla, ferments a rice and chana dal or gram flour batter overnight, following the same logic as idli and dosa in the south even though the traditions grew apart. The version most people make now rises on Eno or baking soda. It arrived in the twentieth century, once fruit salts were a normal item in Indian pantries, and it has since taken over both home kitchens and snack stalls. Cooks who prefer a tangier, deeper taste keep the slow-fermented kind going at home.
The method, in order
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Prep
Whisk the batter
Put the besan, semolina (if you are using it), yogurt, ginger-green chilli paste, turmeric, sugar, salt and oil in a bowl and whisk, adding water gradually. Stop when the batter falls from the whisk in a thick ribbon, pourable but not runny. Walk away for 10 minutes. Gram flour is slow to absorb liquid, and you will notice the finished cake is softer for that short wait.
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Prep
Set the steamer on the heat
Pour roughly 2 inches of water into the pot and bring it to a rolling boil while the batter sits. Oil your thali or tin thoroughly, corners and walls included. A missed patch is exactly where the dhokla will stick when you try to lift it out.
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Cook
Add the fruit salt, then steam without delay
Only when the water is boiling, sprinkle the fruit salt (or soda and lemon) over the batter and give it a few brisk folds, then stop. If you keep stirring, the foam that gives the lift disappears. Tip the batter into the tin right away and get it into the steamer. Each minute it waits, the batter loses some of its rise.
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Cook
Steam until firm
Close the lid and steam on medium-high for 15 to 18 minutes. To test, push a toothpick into the middle; if it comes out dry and clean, you are done. Resist peeking during the first 10 minutes. Letting cool air in suddenly is the usual reason a dhokla sinks in the middle.
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Cook
Let it settle before cutting
Lift the tin out and leave it alone for about 5 minutes. After that, loosen the edges with a knife and cut squares or diamonds inside the tin. If you cut straight away while the cake is steaming hot, the sponge squashes under the blade, but a short pause lets it firm up and stay warm.
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Finish
Make the tempering and pour it over
Heat the oil in a small pan until a mustard seed sizzles when dropped in, then add the mustard seeds. Once they start jumping, put in the sesame seeds, curry leaves, slit chillies and asafoetida. Pour in the water, sugar and lemon juice and let the mixture boil for a moment. Spoon it all over the dhokla while the cake is still warm, working it across every square, and give it a couple of minutes to be absorbed.
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Serve
Top and serve
Finish with coriander and, if you have it, fresh coconut. Dhokla is good warm or at room temperature, most often with green chutney on the side. Leftovers taste fine straight from the fridge the next day, which is why they pack so easily for lunch.
Ingredient stand-ins
Boxed dhokla flour, sold in most Indian grocery shops, is a fair shortcut if you would rather not mix the batter from plain gram flour, although the crumb tends to be slightly denser. As the ingredient list says, baking soda with lemon juice can take the place of fruit salt, with a slightly smaller rise. Full-fat yogurt gives the best tang and softness, but a well-whisked, thin low-fat yogurt will do.
Making it milder or fiercer
The batter is deliberately mild, and the heat is added later in the tempering. If you want less, cut back the green chillies in both stages, or keep them out of the batter and rely on the slit ones in the tempering, which you can fish out before eating. If you want more, use extra ginger-green chilli paste in the batter and drop a pinch of red chilli powder into the hot tempering oil.
The slip most cooks make
A heavy, flat dhokla nearly always traces back to one of two slips: the batter waited too long once the fruit salt was in, or the lid came off too early and the cake deflated. Thin batter is another culprit, because it sets into a rubbery layer and not a tall sponge. Test it by lifting a spoonful; it should coat the back of the spoon thickly. And if you put the tin into water that was only simmering, the first rise happens slowly and the crumb turns tough.
Storing what is left
Fridge or counter: Refrigerate dhokla in a sealed box for up to 3 days. Since yogurt is part of the batter, it should not sit on the counter for more than a few hours, particularly in warm weather. Frozen without its tempering, it lasts about a month; defrost it in the fridge, then steam briefly and add fresh tempering.
Bringing it back to life: Put cold dhokla back in the steamer for 2 to 3 minutes and it comes back soft, which a microwave cannot match. If you do need the microwave, 20 to 30 seconds is the limit before the edges toughen. Should the squares look dry after storage, a squeeze of lemon and a spoonful of fresh tempering will liven them up.
Handle with care
The batter contains yogurt, so avoid letting it stand at room temperature for long before steaming, particularly in hot weather. Mix it, add the fruit salt and steam without delay. After steaming, dhokla is fully cooked, but as with any cooked dish containing dairy it should be cooled and chilled within roughly two hours if you are not eating it, and it should never stay out overnight.