Dosa / Dosai

Dosa is Indian pancake which a very common breakfast dish in South India made of a batter made of rice and lentils.
The process includes fermentation so it takes long time.
If I intend to make dosa for breakfast, then I soak the rice and dal the previous day in the afternoon.

Ingredients:

• Rice - 3 cups
• Split Urad Dal ( Split Black Gram ) - 1 cup
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Cooking oil

Directions:

For batter :

• Wash rice and dal well. Soak rice, dal and fenugreek seed in enough water for atleast 6 -8 hours.
• Drain the water and grind it with very little water to a smooth and fluffy paste.
• Transfer into a big mixing bowl and add required amount of water to make batter. ( the consistency of the batter should be such that if you dip a spoon in it, the batter should coat the spoon thickly. )
• Add salt to taste and cover it loosely. The lid should not be air tight. Keep it in a warm place overnight for fermentation.
• It will be fermented by the next day morning and the batter is ready for breakfast.
• It may take longer, say around 15-18 hours if you live in cold climate. You will know it only with trial and error method. So if you do not get the right dosa the very first time, don't give up.
• You have to make sure you keep the batter for fermentation in a warm place. For example, the washer dryer room is little warm compared to the other rooms in the house or you can keep it in the oven and keep the light on. Do not turn on the oven, just the warmth from the light should be good enough.
• After fermentation the volume of the batter will almost be doubled, hence it is good to keep it in a large bowl so it has some space to rise.
• If you think the fermented batter is too thick , add little water till you reach the pouring consistency. But don't add too much otherwise it will be runny.

For making dosa: 

• Heat a non stick tawa or skillet on high heat.
• Sprinkle few drops of oil on the hot tawa and take an onion cut into half and with the help of the surface of the cut onion, spread the oil drop all over the tawa.
• Now sprinkle a few drops of water on the tawa and the water droplets should sizzle and evaporate right away. You can repeat this step before making each dosa.
• Now pour a ladle of batter ( 1/4 cup ) on the hot tawa and gently spread it into a circle. ( spread it by the back of the ladle, moving into circular motion )
• When it is spread, spray or drizzle a few drops of cooking oil or ghee all over the dosa.
• Cook on medium till the bottom part of the dosa turns brownish.
• Now, you can either turn into half or roll it up and remove from the tawa.
• If you like crispy dosas, you can flip over the dosa and cook the other side as well for just half a minute.
• You can also make it like a cone. Kids are amused by this shape. You need to make your dosa crisp to hold a cone shape.
• To make a cone shape, make a slit from the center to the edge ( radius ) and roll it up like a cone.
• Serve hot with sambar or coconut chutney or any other chutney you like.

This is a very basic recipe of dosa, also called plain dosa. You can make different variations from this one like masala dosa , set dosa and so on.... which I shall blog some time soon.