Have You Tried Dehori – The Sweet Pancake From Bhilai?
Image Credit: Dehori is a Chhattisgarhi speciality | Instagram - @shrda.r

India has a different variety of every single dish that you can think of. Region wise, even our most popular dishes have variations. If you are having upma somewhere in the country, there is 100% chance that you will have the same upma with completely different flavours in a different part of the country. And it does not only apply to dishes that are inherently Indian. we have variations of pizza and pasta and burgers and everything else that we got from outside the country. Similarly, there are different variations of a simple dish like pancake.

India has had its own variation of pancakes since forever. Many of our dishes like cheela or malpua are very similar in taste and texture to the original pancake. We have sweet versions of it and we have savory versions of it as well that we like to eat in breakfast. Today, we will talk about Dehori, a kind of sweet pancake that is eaten in Chhattisgarh, especially Bhilai. It is very easy to make and it can be the perfect dessert for your party where you need to cook for many people. Here is a simple recipe for the dish.

Ingredients 

  • 2 cups rice
  • 5 cups sugar
  • 1 cup curd
  • 3 tsp lime juice
  • 1 tsp elaichi powder
  • Chopped cashews
  • Chopped pistachios
  • Chopped almonds
  • Ghee for frying

Method

Picture credits - Instagram - @akash_gupta96

 

  • Soak the two cups of rice in four cups of water for a couple of hours and then rinse the rise again.
  • Remove the water completely from the rice and then put it in a mixer to make a paste.
  • Add curd to the rice paste and mix it well. Let it stay overnight to ferment.
  • To prepare the sugar syrup, add water and sugar in a pan and heat it until you get a single thread syrup like consistency.
  • Add cardamom powder and lemon juice into it and keep the sugar syrup away to use later.
  • In a frying pan, heat up Gee and put it on medium flame. 
  • Use the rice curd batter to make small cakes and fry them in the ghee one by one. 
  • Flip both sides and cook till they become golden brown. 
  • Transfer the pancakes into the sugar syrup and let them soak. 
  • Take them out once they have soaked the sugar syrup and garnish them with the chopped dry fruits. 

Your sweet pancakes, aka, the traditional Chhattisgarhi dehoris, are ready to eat!