Dhokar dalna/Bengali lentils cakes curry

Soak the channa dal, split green peas or split yellow peas (not the toor dal neither fried gram dal) for 4 hours. Now grind the soaked dal as coarse paste with green chillies.

Add the onions seeds, ginger paste, turmeric powder, salt, grated coconut and baking soda to the ground batter. Mix well and keep aside.

In a kadai, heat the oil, fry the asafoetida, add the batter and stir continuously on simmer until the batter turns thick and bubbles from the bottom. Transfer the cooked batter to a greased plate, flatten and keep aside.

With a knife, cut the cooled batter of any shape as you desire. Deep fry until they turn light brown in colour and keep aside.

For the Gravy: Soak the raisins and cashew in hot water for half an hour, grind to get a fine paste and keep aside.

Heat 2 tbsp oil, add half of the turmeric powder, salt, cubed potatoes, fry it in the hot oil until they turns crispy, remove from the oil and keep aside.

Heat the remaining oil in a kadai, add the asafoetida, cumin seeds, bay leaves and fry until they turn brown. Add the slit green chillies, ginger paste and fry for a few minutes.

Finally add the already prepared cashew raisin paste, fried potatoes, cook again everything on simmer until the gravy turns a bit thick. Add water if needed to adjust the consistency.

Add the fried lentil cakes, sprinkle the garam masala powder on the top, cover and turn off the stove. Serve dhokar dalna with rice topped with a few drops of ghee.