Hard, round wheat breads baked in the coals and soaked in ghee, eaten with a spiced mixed dal and churma — the same dough crushed with ghee and sugar.
What makes it dal baati churma
Baati: dense wholewheat balls, baked hard, soaked in ghee.
A mixed dal — often moong, chana, toor and urad — with a ghee tempering.
Churma, sweet and crumbly, on the same plate.
Where it comes from
Rajasthan's best-loved meal, and a feast in three parts. Baati are stiff balls of wholewheat dough, rich with ghee, baked slowly until the crust is hard; they're cracked open and dunked in more ghee. A dal of several lentils, tempered with cumin, chilli and asafoetida, is poured over, and churma — baati crushed with ghee and jaggery or sugar — comes alongside.
The story told most often is that baati began as a soldiers' food in Mewar, dough left buried in hot sand to bake itself. Churma, the story goes on, came when baati fell into sugar-cane juice. Neither can be proved, but both are told with pride.
How it varies
Bafla
The Malwa way, over the border in Madhya Pradesh: boiled before baking, so softer inside.