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Dosa making is a mind-numbing procedure that might have mystified you several times by now, not able to make out what went wrong this time!
Here, I share my personal dosa making experience and give you some handy tips to bring out your glossy dosas really crisp, and in one piece!
My dosa recipe is easier than the conventional one as I would ask for lesser time, lesser number of ingredients and definitely give you some tips that’ll ensure lesser effort.
For dosa shell, we’ll require:
4 cups of parboiled rice
1 cup split urad dal (skinless- which is white in colour)
A teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi daana)
You can soak them overnight if you have plenty of time, or put them completely soaked in water in sun for around 2 hours if the day is bright. The sun and the heat will speed up the fermentation process. If the weather isn’t too good, put it in a warm place, probably near your cooking stove, or the place you use for setting the curd.
Next, you need to prepare the stuffing for the Dosa. For this, you’ll need:
½ kg boiled Potatoes, peeled and mashed
Finely chopped Onions
Finely chopped Ginger
Finely chopped green chilies
Coriander leaves
1 tablespoon Curry leaves
1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
Turmeric, salt and red chili powder
Recipe:
Now that your rice, daal and fenugreek are soft and tender, grind them in a food processor to make a smooth paste. Add 2 spoons salt to it.
Prepare a tampering for the stuffing as follows.
Heat 1 spoon mustard oil. When hot, add mustard seeds to it. When they start to crackle, turn off the heat. Add curry leaves (that will turn brownish instantly) and turmeric to it. Now add the boiled potatoes, onions, ginger, green chilies and coriander leaves to it. Mix well to prepare a mixer which is easy to spread with a spoon. If you think it is too hard, you can add a few spoons of water to it. It’ll simplify your dosa rolling procedure.
Now that you have all your stuff ready, start by heating the dosa pan, or any flat tava that you think can be used for making the dosa. Prefer the non-stick ones to avoid chaos.
Once your pan is hot, drizzle some oil on it. You can also grease the pan lightly with a greasing brush or a small piece of kitchen paper. Time for a handy tip:
Rub a cut onion on the pan after greasing it. It’ll prevent the dosa from sticking on the pan.
Before you pour the batter on the pan, make sure the pan is quite hot, least, it’ll stick!
Next, this one is a bit unusual; but do make your dosa batter thin enough to make it easy to spread. It should be only as consistent as eggs that you prepare for omelets. Usually, people will tell you to use a thick, viscous batter that you spread using a laddle or a flat bowl. I recommend the watery batter that you can spread by turning the pan. Because we do not use conventional iron tavas like the street dosa shops, we have the option here. When you allow the batter to spread at its own, the dosa comes out even; there are less chances of breaking it while spreading and sticking of course. But, you need to be very careful and quick at this, as, if you delay, the dosa batter won’t spread at all and you might get rice bread which is as thick as a pancake!
Now, again sprinkle some oil on it once you see the batter drying up. Rotate the pan again to ensure even spreading of oil. Now, wait!
It takes a little longer on a domestic hob for the dosa to cook. So wait until it starts showing some brown colour here and there. Don’t get nervous, it isn’t burning.
Sounds odd, but when it looks like burning, it is hardly cooking from beneath. But it’s time for you to get your hands on a spatula and start detaching the dosa from the pan from the sides. Don’t try too hard, when it is done, it’ll come out clean with a very little effort.
Put 2-3 spoons of dosa stuffing on one dish and fold the dosa. You can now shift it to a serving dish.
Dosa is never complete without its essential accomplishments. I have some easy chutneys that you can prepare at home and amaze your guests!
Coconut chutney:
Grind a coconut into a smooth paste in the food processor.
In a saucepan, heat some oil. When hot, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, dry red chilies (split) and urad daal. Fry till the red chilies turn black in color.
Remove from the fire and add to the coconut paste. Add salt to taste.
Tomato chutney:
Blend together 4 tomatoes, 1 onion, 2-3 green chilies and finely chopped coriander leaves in a food processor. Add salt, red chilies, and mint powder (if preferred). Surprising, but the finger-licking chutney is ready!
And now, the Sambhar:
Any South Indian cuisine probably isn’t complete without sambhar. So, here’s a quick one for you. Make sure you prepare the sambhar and the chutneys before you start the dosa process.
Quickly Grab
Tamarind
1 cup Toor Dal (also known as Arhar)
1/2 teaspoon haldi
2 teaspoons oil
5 dry red chilies
8 Curry Leaves
1 onion
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida
2 tablespoons sambhar masala
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
1 cup of a vegetables of your choice like green beans, chopped carrots, brinjal, lady finger, pumpkin etc etc etc…
How to go about it:
Soak tamarind in 1 cup water for 20 minutes. Squeeze it out, adding water gradually to prepare 1 cup tamarind juice.
Choose a heavy cooking pot. Wash and clean the daal. Heat 2 cups of water and add the daal, haldi and 1 teaspoon oil. As the daal boils, skim off the froth and discard. Boil until the daal is soft and then mash it roughly. If required, add some more water as it is boiling but do not let it get too watery. If you use a pressure cooker it will take about 5 minutes.
In a heated sauce pan, pour in the remaining oil. Once the oil is hot, add dried chilies, mustard seeds and curry leaves and stir fry for 2 minutes. Put in the onion and brown lightly. Add tamarind juice and let it boil lightly until the onions are cooked. Add this mixture to the daal with asafoetida, vegetables and sambhar powder. Remove from the heat, garnish with coriander leaves.
Good to know:
Make sure you stir the batter every time you pour for a dosa, this batter tends to separate.
If you live in a colder region, you can leave your rice, daal and fenugreek seeds for fermentation overnight in an oven. Keep the oven light on! It’ll keep it warm.
If, God forbid, you think my recipe isn’t working, you need to change your rice quality. All rice brands and varieties don’t go along so well with dosa making.
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