Divine Dosas From India

A dosa is a cooked  flat thin layered rice recipe, basically from South India, made up with a fermented batter of rice and dal(black gram). Dosas are a typical part of the Southern Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil diets, but the dish is now popular all over the Indian subcontinent and world wide.

dosas are served hot along with sambar and chutney. They can be served with idli podi as well.

Dosa can be stuffed with fillings of vegetables and sauces to make a quick meal. They are typically served with a vegetarian side dish which varies according to regional and personal preferences.

Side items  served with dosasa are:

Sambar

Chutney: examples include coconut chutney (a semi-solid paste made up of coconut, dal (lentils), green chilli and mint or coriander), varieties of chutneys are  served with Dosa.

Idli podi : a powder of chili with spices and sometimes desiccated coconut, mixed with sesame oil

Indian pickles

 Dosa Recipe

ingredients to prepare the dosa batter. Rice, urad dal and fenugreek seeds are the main ingredients. Chana dal is used for getting a golden color for Dosa.

Rinse both types of rice (regular rice and parboiled rice) together in water for 3-4 times and soak them in 2 cups of water for 4-5 hrs.

Add drained urad dal, chana dal and fenugreek seeds mixture in the medium jar of a mixer grinder or blender. Add water as needed and grind until smooth and fluffy batter.

Drain water from rice and add them to the same mixer grinder jar. Depending on the size of the jar, you can ground the rice in multiple batches.

           

Add salt and mix batter well using spoon. The final batter should not be too thick or too watery. Cover it with plate and leave it at room temperature for 8-10 hours or overnight for fermentation. During cold weather, keep the batter in warm place (or inside the oven with oven light on) for fermentation.

During fermentation, the batter volume would increase and the tiny bubbles would appear on the surface when you stir it with a spoon. Stir the batter with a spoon. If it looks too thick, add few tablespoons water and mix well until it has attained pouring consistency (little watery than idli batter).

Heat non-stick tava or iron tava over medium flame. Apply half teaspoon oil on the tava and spread it evenly with a spatula or a clean wet cloth. Take a ladle full of batter, pour it over the surface of tawa, swirl it as thin as possible in a spiral motion by rotating ladle and make it into round shape of approx. 7-8 inch diameter circle.

Apply 1-teaspoon oil around the edges of dosa

Cook until the bottom surface turns light brown and the edges start to come upward. Flip it and cook for a minute. If you are making thin dosa , you do not need to cook the other side. Transfer it to a plate. Wipe tava with clean wet cloth before making next dosa (this is to prevent dosa from sticking to Pan) and repeat the process  for remaining batter. Hot and crispy plaindosa is ready.