Dothiyun (singular – Dothee) or Saatta, the popular Sindhi sweet, similar to Kutchi Saata or Gujarati Devada are highly addictive and a delight to relish.
Basically a dothee (D^othee in Roman Sindhi) is a fried, sugar glazed cookie made from all purpose flour and ghee/vanaspati.
Dothiyun are generally send in to married daughters and sisters on Vadhi Thadri .
These are also a part of the ‘Phula Jalan’ or ‘Phula bhugra’ ritual after a child is born, when the mother is given Puffed rice, roasted chana, Mesu (Mysore Pak) and D^othiyun by the parents (maiden family of the new mother), and thus my parents gave me these as per the traditional ritual, says Prisha Galani!
One can relish these at any time of the year provided, you have a Sindhi sweets’ shop around or if you make these at home 🙂
To make Dothiyun, you need to knead a dough using maida and ghee and some semolina soaked in milk to provide crunchiness. Ghee or vanaspati is used as a moyan (similar to shortening used in cookies) for the flaky texture. A thick sugar glaze flavored with cardamom and rose essence (both optional but preferred) for enhanced flavors and a garnish of almonds, pistachios and dried rose petals , all work together in a harmony, to make dothiyun alluring and a treat for your eyes and tastebuds!
Ideally the sugar syrup needs to be of 2 and half thread consistency or tad bit thicker than that (the syrup should look cloudy) but if you, like me, are not fond of very thick sugar glaze then do not wait for the syrup to turn cloudy and switch off the flame when syrup reaches 2 thread consistency.
Sometimes you may even find the perfectly glazed sugar coating over commercially available Dothiyun or saata and it may not be the one made using sugar syrup but by mixing powered sugar/icing sugar, milk and liquid glucose. This type of glaze looks smoother and the common issues like re crystallisation of sugar or getting large grainy crystals could be avoided using this type of glaze. I have used the traditional method of making sugar glaze i.e by cooking sugar and water till desired consistency is obtained.
AlifBe:
Well the 20th letter (consonant) is ڏ in Arabic Sindhi, ड in Devanagari and D^ in Roman Sindhi.
Sindhi and Devanagari Orthography credits: Deepak Keswani and Barkha Khushalani, respectively!
It is a peculiar Sindhi consonant and is used in very few other languages ( eg:Vietnamese). To understand how it is pronounced, you can check this video!
And as obvious, the dish with the name starting with D^ is D^othiyun!
- 1.25 cups All Purpose flour
- A pinch of Salt
- Two small pinches of Baking soda
- 4-5 tsp Ghee
- 2 tbsp Semolina
- 4-6 tbsp milk or as much needed
- Oil/Ghee/Vanaspati for frying
- 2 cups Sugar
- ¾ cup Water
- 3-4 Green Cardamoms
- 3-4 drops of Rose essence
- 8 Almonds, 5-6 Pistachios and few dried rose petals, chopped finely
- Take 2 tbsp of semolina and add 2-3 tbsp of milk. Mix and keep aside, covered for 10-15 minutes.
- Now take the flour, salt and baking soda and sieve the mixture.
- Rub in Ghee in the sieved mix. The mix must look like bread crumbs.
- To this mix add the soaked semolina and start kneading the dough.
- Keep adding milk, a tbsp at a time till the mix binds well into a dough. You may need around 2-3 tbsp of milk here.
- Cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, knead the dough to smoothen out a little.
- You can make small pingpong size balls and flatten each by pressing between palm or you can roll the dough and use cookie cutter or small katori with sharp edges to cut out small discs.
- Commercially available Sindhi Dothiyun are around 3 to 3 and half inch in diameter and ¾th of an inch in thickness. But since frying thick dothiyun takes longer time, ideally home made dothiyun are preferred to be 2" in diameter and ½ inch or less thick.
- Heat oil/ ghee/ mix of both or vanaspati (makes cookies crisp but health-wise it is not recommended) in a frying pan and once it is hot, lower the flame. Add 3-4 discs at a time and deep fry on low flame, till light golden brown.
- Repeat the process till all 'cookies' are fried.
- Drain on a kitchen towel and allow to cool completely. Keep covered with a mesh. Covering hot cookies with any plate or thick towel will make 'cookies' soggy.
- Start working on the syrup after 'cookies' are cooled for at least 2 hours. I left fried ones overnight.
- Before starting with sugar syrup, grease a steel thali with ghee and keep the chopped nuts and petals handy.
- In a pan mix sugar and water and cook it on low to medium flame.
- Add green cardamom, slightly pounded, if using.
- Keep stirring the syrup till it reaches 2 thread consistency. It may take around 10-12 minutes depending on the flame.
- Ideally the syrup should be cooked beyond 2 and half thread consistency (it should look cloudy) but I cooked the syrup till just around 2 thread consistency stage.
- Add few drops of rose essence, stir and switch off the flame immediately.
- Donot stir the syrup anymore..
- Let the syrup cool down a touch (3-4 minutes).
- You will have to work quickly now. Ask someone to help you, if needed.
- Now stir the syrup vigorously for a minute and dip a fried 'cookie', turn around a few times and place the soaked cookie on the greased thali, pour some syrup over it, top it up with the garnish of nuts and petals.
- Take another cookie and dip in the syrup and repeat the above process. You will have to go on garnishing each as soon as you pour syrup over it as the sugar will start crystallising almost immediately and garnishing it later wont work well.
- If you are not quick enough, chances are that the syrup in the pan will start crystallising before you can dip all the cookies. Don't panic. Just mix few spoons of hot water, mix (warm the syrup again, if needed) and start working again.
- Allow the sugar glaze to settle well. It may look transparent in the beginning but worry not. After a while you can see lovely thick sugar glaze. (Please refer the short video for this!)
- Store Dothiyun in an airtight container. It stays well for a fortnight but then it hardly lasts till then!
Please do watch the following video for the alphabet formation. I have shared a small clipping of making of D^othiyun in the same video. Do check and let me know if it was helpful or not!
