Soak rice, urad dal and chana dal in water for 6 to 8 hours. If you are using idli rava or coarse rice, soak two dals only for 4 hours or so. If using a premix dry flour, no need to soak or grind.

Rinse the soaked mix 2 to 3 times with water, drain all water. Grind in blender to a semi smooth paste by adding fresh water little by little. If using idli rawa, you can simply add it without blending. Some people rinse odli rawa with water too, it is a bit tricky but can be done. If using premixed dry flour, skip soak/blend. The batter should be pouring consistently but thicker than pancake batter.

Optionally add cooked rice or washes poha/pauva/flattened rice while blending, that will make dhokala soft.
Add curd, salt, oil to the mix. Add Papad kharo / sanchoro/ alkaline salt or sodium benzoate if you’re not using eno fruit salt. Mix well and cover the batter tightly with aluminum foil. Make sure there room in the pot for batter to rise

Let the batter ferment in warm place for 8 hours or so. In winter add lukewarm water to blend and keep it in warm place like oven after you have slightly warmed the oven and switched off the oven. Some instapots have yogurt option, that is a great way to ferment any batter if you have it

After the batter has doubled to 1.5 times original size, add green chili ginger paste, hing, turmeric powder and mix well. If you plan to add eno fruit salt instead of sanchoro/papad kharo then don’t add turmeric. Mix well. Also if you plan to use eno, then it is ok if batter has not risen in size with fermentation, eno will do that.

Fermentation/ rise is batter is very important if not using eno fruit salt. If using eno, add and mix right before steaming.

For steaming: use dhokala cooker or put a steel bowl or stand in instapot with water and add the batter in a small steel thali plate that can rest on the bowl or stand, above the water and then use steamer. The last resort option is take a large pot with water / bowl/stand and tie a cloth on lid and cover that way to steam

Oil a flat steel plate, add batter about half an inch height, leave room for rise. If using eno, add it to a small bowl and mix rigorously right before pouring into flat plate. Steam this for 10 to 12 minutes. Let it be in hot streamer for another 5 to 10 minutes, this step is called hijava devu in gujarati

Get steam dhokala out, let it sit out for a minute, cut it in diamond shapes inside the plate and viola, ready to eat!. Traditionally dhokala is eaten just like this by pouring spoonful of raw peanut oil !!! Alternatively make vaghar/tadaka by heating oil in small pot, add mustard seeds, when it starts to crackle pour it hot over dhokala plate. O

Optionally garnish with cilantro coriander leaves. Be sure to wash rinse coriander leaves throughly with water any time you have to use it. Pluck and throw away any hard stems, rest is all edible. You can also soak it in vinegar and water to get rid of all dirt if needed

Make idada exactly the same way except do not use chana dal. So 1 cup rice and 1/3 cup urad/adad dal. Some people skip green chili paste and add crushed pepper sprinkled on batter right on the steel plate before steaming. Some people also add teaspoon of sugar to the batter.

For visuals, this recipe is closest to mine

https://youtu.be/khgePNW2N74