Dosa - All About

Serve Dosas With:

• Potato Curry

• Coconut Chutney For Idlis & Dosas

• Allam Pachhadi (Ginger Chutney)

• Pappula Podi (Chutney Powder)

• Karapodi

Recipes of all these accompaniments are available in my website www.gayatrivantillu.com

(Online Conversion utility to convert Gms to Cups & Temperatures etc)

Making Batter:

Take black gram in a bowl and add water. Wash black gram well and discard water. Add fresh water to the washed black gram and soak for 6 hours.

Take parboiled rice in a bowl and add rice and fenugreek seeds. Add water to the rice mixture and wash well. add fresh water to the rice mixture and soak for 6 hours.

After 6 hours, observe that black gram and rice mixtures are soaked well and can be ground to make batter. Drain water from rice mixture. Drain water from soaked black gram and collect into a jug as we need this water to grind the black gram and rice mixture.

Use mixer grinder or wet grinder to make batter. Here I am using wet grinder to make the batter.

To the wet grinder bowl add some water and switch ON the machine. When the stones are rotating, add spoonfuls of soaked black gram in intervals. Add only black gram but not the rice as we need to grind them separately. After adding the entire black gram, add rock salt. Scrape the sides of the wet grinder bowl by holding a spatula against the inner side wall of the ball to clear the splattered batter. If required add sufficient water and grind the black gram to a smooth consistency batter. Check the batter by rubbing between fingers for smoothness and when done, switch OFF the machine. Observe that the ground black gram batter is not only smooth but also fluffy. Add a tiny portion of the batter in a bowl of water and observe that the batter floats. When the batter is fluffy it floats in water---that should be the right consistency. Transfer the batter into a bowl. Again fix the wet grinder bowl to the machine. Add some water into the bowl and switch ON the machine. When the stones are rotating add spoonfuls of rice mixture. Always switch ON the machine by adding some water in the wet grinder bowl. Then, when the stones are rotating add the ingredients to grind---this way they do not get clogged and the machine runs efficiently grinding the ingredients properly. In between add sufficient water and add the entire rice mixture in small intervals and grind till smooth. We need more water when grinding parboiled rice---but do not all the water at once as it would be difficult to reverse when more water is added. So be attentive and add water in small intervals. Also remember to scrape the sides of the wet grinder bowl to clear the splattered batter. Check the texture of the batter and when done, switch off the machine. When compared with the batter of black gram, rice mixture batter would be slightly grainy due to the rice---that is the reason we need to grind both the things separately. Transfer the ground rice mixture batter into the black gram batter and mix well with hand. Take a deep bowl and transfer the mixed batter into it. After fermentation the batter raises ---so it is advisable to place batter in a deep bowl. Cover the batter bowl with a plate and allow batter to ferment overnight. We required 150ml water to grind the soaked black gram and 450ml water to grind the soaked rice mixture. Next day observe the fermented batter---batter raises to the top of the bowl. We get perfect dosas when batter is fermented properly. Mix the batter with a ladle and observe that the batter is thick to make dosas. But do not add water in the entire batter. Take a portion of batter and add water and mix to get spreadable consistency batter to make dosas.

Take 1Cup (250gms) thick batter in a bowl and add 1Tbsp water and mix and see. It appears that the batter is still slightly thick. So add 1/2Tbsp water again and mix well. Now the batter is in right consistency to make dosas. So for 1Cup (250gms) thick batter add 1 1/2Tbsps water and mix well to get spreadable consistency batter to make dosas.

Making Dosas:

Here I have used cast iron griddle to make dosas. Place the griddle on stove and heat it on low flame for 15 minutes. Heating the griddle on low flame helps in evenly heating. Pour some water in the centre of the griddle and allow it to sizzle. As the burner is right under the centre of the griddle, it gets heated a bit more at this place. When batter is spread on such hot griddle it sticks to the griddle as a lump---so we need to cool the griddle to the right level---so add water and cool the griddle. Add few drops of oil on the griddle. Take an onion and cut it into half. Pierce a fork into the half onion so that it is easy to hold. Spread the oil on the griddle using the cut onion. Now add a ladleful of batter in the centre of the griddle and quickly spread the batter with the back of the ladle spreading in circular motion. Wait for few seconds till the batter dries up and then add few spoons of oil on the dosa. Increase the flame to medium and fry the dosa. Here I am using the larget burner in the gas stove and medium heat is sufficient to fry dosa whereas if using a small burner increase flame to high to fry dosa. Spread the oil on the dosa using a flat ladle. Holding the griddle properly with a cloth or a mitten turn the griddle ---turning the griddle once or twice helps in evenly browning the dosa. When brown spots appear on the dosa it indicates that the dosa is fried well underside. Carefully separate the dosa from the griddle using flat ladle. Fold the dosa and transfer it to a serving plate. Serve plain or sada dosa with coconut chutney or chutney powder.

Before making another dosa we need to cool the griddle---so add some water in the centre of the griddle and cool it. Repeat the above process and make few more dosas.

Masala Dosa:

Spread batter on griddle and make dosa. When dosa is done, lower the flame and place some potato curry in the centre of the dosa. Separate the dosa from the griddle and fold once over the curry and again fold it to form a roll. Place the rolled dosa in a serving plate. Serve the masala dosa with a chutney and chutney powder of choice.

Even though we cool the griddle by adding water in the centre of the griddle before making each dosa, the griddle gets heated up more than required. In such cases splash some water on the entire griddle to cool it.

Cone Dosa:

Spread batter on griddle and make dosa. When dosa is done, lower the flame. Using the flat ladle cut the dosa from the centre till the end and slit. Separate the dosa from the griddle using flat ladle. Now lift the dosa from the slit side and start rolling and observe that it forms into a cone shape. As the dosa is hot take care while rolling. Place some potato curry in a serving plate and stand the cone dosa above the curry and serve with any chutney or powder of choice. Cone dosa an interesting twist to the dosa which is children’s favorite.

Parcel Dosa:

Heat an iron griddle and add few drops of oil. Smear oil all over the griddle using a crumpled paper napkin. Spread batter on griddle and make dosa. When dosa is done, lower the flame and place some potato curry in the centre of the dosa. Fold one-third of the dosa on to the curry from one side and another one-third of the dosa from the other side and the remaining one-third from the third side and make it into a parcel shape. Carefully transfer the parcel dosa into a serving plate and serve hot with any chutney or powder.

Hot & Sour Dosa:

Left over batter is generally refrigerated and used later. Even though the batter is refrigerated, it turns sour as it gets further fermented. With sour batter make tasty dosas as mentioned here.

Make a paste of 5 green chilies, small piece of ginger and 1/4tsp of cumin seeds in a mixer grinder. Take 1cup (250gms) thick batter and add 1 1/2Tbsps water and the above ground paste and mix well. Heat a non stick pan and smear few drops of oil using a crumpled paper napkin. Spread batter on griddle and make dosa. When dosa is done, fold it into half and again fold it into half to get a triangle shape. Transfer the dosa into a serving plate. Make few more dosas and serve hot. The green chili-ginger-cumin mixture balances the sour taste of the batter. As chilies are ground and then added to batter they get soaked fast in the sour batter. The hot chilies soaked in the sour batter of the spread dosa when get fried gives a special taste to the dosa. No curry or chutney or powder is required to serve these tasty dosas.

Points To Observe:

Rice gives the crispiness to dosa and parboiled rice gives gummy texture to the batter so that it is easily spreadable into a thin circle.

Batter when made using raw rice and black gram works well on the day the batter is made. By next day we observe that more of rice portion is left in the batter and the dosas do not spread evenly. Whereas when parboiled rice is added due to the gummy texture we do not face the above problem.

Fenugreek seeds also add the gummy texture to the batter.

Here I have used rock salt and that too non iodized salt. I have read so much on the internet about problems of adding iodized salt in the batter and it stopping the fermentation process. I have tried for myself adding iodized salt to the batter while grinding and observed that the fluffy batter immediately got deflated. The batter did not ferment well as it did when I have added non iodized rock salt. It seems the anti caking agent added in the iodized salt is stopping the fermentation process. So some add salt after the batter is fermented. I am skeptical of leaving the batter without adding salt as it may turn bitter because of the black gram. So I have started using non iodized rock salt so that I can directly add while grinding and it did ferment well.

Soaking the black gram and rice mixture for six hours gave me good results though some say that soaking for three hours is sufficient. So I soak the black gram and rice mixture at around 10 in the morning and start at 4 in the evening and leave the batter overnight for fermenting.

Grind black gram and rice mixture separately. Black gram needs to be ground to a smooth and fluffy texture. The black gram batter should be light and fluffy such that when a tiny portion of batter added to a bowl of water, it should float. When we mix and grind the black gram does not get smooth texture--so grind them separately and mix both the batters. Observe that black gram batter is smoother than the rice mixture batter.

Parboiled rice takes more water while grinding than ordinary rice. So be there and add water in small intervals so that the stones do not get clogged. If more water is added while grinding, and if batter becomes thin one cannot repair it---so add required water and in small intervals.

Batter splatters and sticks to the walls of the bowl while grinding so using a spatula clean the bowl in between.

I have given measurements as to how much water was needed to grind the batters and how much water is added to get the right consistency batter for spreading dosa on a griddle. For convenience sake I have given measurements---but if required adjust accordingly.

Whether it is a cast iron griddle or iron griddle or non stick griddle heat them on low flame for 15 minutes for evenly getting heated up. Dosas made on evenly heated griddle gets even browning from all sides.

Follow the steps mentioned above while frying dosa on a griddle to get perfect dosas.

Rotating the griddle at least twice while frying dosa, helps in evenly browning it from all sides.

Though batter is same, dosa appears different when folded into different shapes. When we go to restaurants they serve dosas in different shapes (shapes as mentioned above) but at home we generally do not fold the dosa into different shapes. In restaurants we eat only one dosa whereas at home we eat two or three or more---this is the reason why we do not make differently shaped dosas. So we form an opinion that our dosa is not perfect and the restaurant dosa is perfect---it is in the mindset. Folding the dosa in different shapes makes it attractive and anything is attractive to eyes is tastier to mouth also as we eat with eyes first and then with mouth. So while making dosas at home we just see the hunger part but not the presentation part. To overcome the opinion that restaurant dosas are tastier than homemade dosas, make dosas and make them look attractive by folding in different shapes---this is to satisfy YOU & ONLY YOU. When dosas once made into these shapes, that opinion vanishes from your mind. When the dosas are served in different shapes to your family members especially to children the spark in their eyes is worth watching. I am sure then no one of your family members crave for a restaurant dosa over homemade dosas.

Eat food made with fresh ingredients and cooked hygienically for a healthy life.

Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those familiar with my website and are used with my earlier video uploads on Sada Dosa and Masala Dosa may click at the following links to see these recipes.

Sada Dosa

Masala Dosa

I have since revisited these recipes and hosted this new video

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