Dosa - South Indian Pancake

Dosa is a South Indian breakfast dish made with fermented batter, comprising of lentils and rice.

Basic ingredients for dosa batter are raw rice and Urad dal (lentils),  which is easily available in any Indian Store. Dosa batter is also available in stores. Or else, another option is to go for rice flour and Urad flour so you can skip the grinding part.

As always, I do it the old fashioned way, the way grandma used to make. Here is how.



Ingredients:

Rice – 3 cups

Urad Dal – 1 cup

Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp

Salt – as required

Preparation:

Wash rice and urad dal.

Put  the fenugreek seeds with the rice.

Soak rice and urad dal separately, in different bowls for 8 hours.

Now drain the water and grind rice along with fenugreek seeds into a fine paste. Keep adding water as and when required. Transfer to a bowl.

In the same mixer, grind urad dal into a fine paste and transfer to the same bowl containing rice batter.

Mix thoroughly. Cover and keep it in a warm place to ferment. (when the batter is fermented, it rises. So make sure that the bowl is big enough to hold the batter to avoid over flow).  

Check the consistency.  It should be similar to that of pancake batter. Not too thick but not runny either. 

When the batter is fermented and  ready, add required salt and mix with a ladle.

Warm the dosa pan. Pour 1-2 drops of ghee/vegetable oil and spread with a tissue all over the pan.

Pour a ladleful of batter onto the pan and spread in a circular motion.

 

Little holes appear on the top and  when the edges starts to brown and top is set, flip over and cook the other side.

Dosa is ready. Pair it with either Sambar, Potato Masala  Green Peas curry or coconut chutney.

Different types of dosas can be made with the same batter. There is a restaurant in south India that serves 185 varieties of dosas. Wow!!! 

Let me give you some ideas. 

After the steps 8 & 9 above,

Pour little ghee (clarified butter) over the dosa to make Nai Roast

Top dosa with grated vegies like, carrot, beetroot, onion and peas. When the vegies are cooked mash it with a spatula and spread it all over the dosa.

Pour ghee all over dosa and then  sprinkle chutney powder.

Top it with potato masala on one half and fold it and you get masala dosa.

Beat an egg and pour it right on top of the dosa and spread it with a spatula and sprinkle black pepper powder and also you can top it with finely chopped onion and tomatoes.

If you have a sweet tooth, top it with grated jaggery/sugar/brown sugar and grated coconut and roll it. This is my favorite.

Enjoy yourself and have pleasant weekend! :)