Crispy Dosa

For the last marathon, there was an overwhelming response and Valli divided the participants into two groups. Yesterday was the last day of the marathon for group1 and today is the last day for group 2. Valli decided to give company to the second group and posted a recipe today. Divya and I decided to join them as well. I am sticking to my theme, entries for ongoing events. Today’s post is my entry to B for Breakfast and Dosa Month.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and the most neglected in my house. Whenever I make breakfast, it is usually upma, murmura upma, bread and omelet, roti or poori. Once in a while it is dosa or vada. Dosa and idli requires planning a day before and when I make the batter U doesn’t it and my batter always goes waste. So, I gave up on breakfasts that require fermented batters.

Last year, I was discussing breakfast ideas with my cousin and she mentioned that one of her Chennai friend uses idli rice for dosa batter and batter made with idli rice can also be used for idli. My cousin’s daughter likes idlies a lot and her friend suggested idli rice. Now she uses the same batter to make idli, dosa and uttapam. I also started using idli rice for my dosa and the outcome is crispy delicious dosa. I am yet to try idlies with this batter.  I have got many compliments from guests too.  The picture below doesn't do the justice to the dosa and will try to replace it very soon.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Urad Dal
• 2 ¾ cups Idli Rice
• 1 tsp. Fenugreek Seeds / Methi Seeds
• ½ - 1 tbsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
• Oil for making the dosa

Preparation:

• Wash urad dal and methi in a bowl and soak it for 4 – 6 hours.
• In a separate bowl, take the rice, wash it and soak for at least 6 hours.
• Grind rice to a paste. It does not have to be a super fine paste.
• Grind the urad dal and methi to fine paste with some salt. Mix together both the batters, rice and urad dal. I usually grind rice, to the rice batter I add urad dal and methi seeds, and grind it to paste. When grinding the rice and dal, add some water. I used about 1 – 1 ½ cups of water. Use your discretion here. I don’t have an Indian mixie or a wet grinder. I do it in my Cuisinart blender and it grinds well. It does take some time, but the job is done.
• Transfer the batter into a large bowl and keep in a warm place to ferment.

  

• I put it in my oven and it takes 12 – 24 hours to ferment, depending on the season. Leaving the oven light will also speed up the fermenting process. I need to get my oven light replaced as it is not working. This time it took almost 24 hours to ferment and the batter to almost double in quantity.

  

• Take some batter into a bowl and add water if the batter is very thick. It should not be runny either.
• Take a pan, add a few drops of oil to it and using a piece of paper towel, spread the oil over the pan. Heat the pan.
• Reduce the heat to medium – medium high.
• With a ladle, pour some batter on to the pan and spread it as thin as you can, using the back of the ladle. Pour ½ - 1 tsp. of oil over the dosa and let it cook.

  

• Once the dosa turns golden brown, fold it over and serve hot.

  

  

• To make a cone, using the spatula, from the center of the dosa, make a cut out wards. The cut should look like radius of the circle.

  

• Fold the cut part of the dosa as show below.

  

• Continue to roll it over to make a cone.
• Serve the dosa hot with your favorite chutney, podi, pappu charu or sambar. I usually serve it with peanut chutney, cabbage pachadi, tomato pachadi or red pepper chutney. It can also be served with bottle gourd chutney. Today I ate it with tomato pickle.

This month that year:The recipes I posted this month in 2009 and in 2010

As I mentioned earlier, today is the last day of the marathon for group 2. Check out the group
30 Minutes Meals: Priya Mahadavan, Pavani
Seven Days Of Salad: lla, , Divya Vikram
For ongoing Events: Priya Suresh, Harini, Suma Gandlur
Kids Friendly: Vatsala, JAY, Kamalika
Seven Days of Rice: Priya Vaasu, Padma Rekha

And also Srivalli and Divya from my group 1.