Dosa is a rice pancake made out of fermented batter from South India.
The Dosa comes from South India but its specific origin is much debated. According to the historian P. Thankappan Nair, the Dosa comes from a town called Udupi, which is also identified as present day Karnataka. A recipe can be found in a 12th century Sanskrit document where the Dosa was much thicker in texture. Present day Karnataka brought the thin crispy texture we know today.
Ingredients
1/2 cup idli rice or parboiled rice or 100 grams idli rice
1/2 cup regular rice or 100 grams regular rice
1/4 cup urad dal or 50 grams urad dal (husked whole or split black gram)
1/8 teaspoon methi seeds or 2 pinches methi seeds (fenugreek seeds or methi dana)
2 tablespoon poha (flattened rice)
1.5 cups water for soaking both rice and lentils
3/4 cup water for grinding - do add water as required
1/2 teaspoon rock salt (sendha namak) or non iodized salt or sea salt crystals or Himalayan pink salt
Oil as required
Instructions
Preparation for Making Dosa Batter
In a bowl take the idli rice or parboiled rice along with the regular white rice. Instead of adding regular rice, you can also make the dosa with a total of 1 cup idli rice.
To the same bowl, add urad dal and fenugreek seeds.
Rinse the rice, lentils and methi seeds together a couple of times and keep aside.
In a separate bowl, take the poha.
Rinse it once or twice in water and then add rinsed poha to the bowl containing the rinsed rice+lentils+methi seeds.
Pour 1.5 cups water. Mix. Cover with a lid and soak everything for 5 to 6 hours.
Making Dosa Batter
Drain all the water and add the soaked ingredients in a wet grinder jar.
Add 2/3 to 3/4 cup water and grind till you get a fine grainy consistency of rice in the batter. A smooth consistency of batter is also fine.
If the mixer gets heated up, then stop and wait for some minutes. When the mixer cools down, grind again. Depending on the jar capacity, you can grind everything once or in two batches.
Now take the batter in a large bowl or pan.
Add 1/2 tsp rock salt. Mix very well. Cover and allow to ferment for 8 to 9 hours or more. Time of fermentation will vary depending on the temperature conditions.
A proper fermentation will double or triple up the volume of the batter and you will see tiny air pockets in the batter with a light sour aroma.
Now lightly stir the batter, before you begin to make dosa.
Making Plain Dosa
Heat a cast iron pan. When the pan becomes hot, spread 1/4 to 1/2 tsp oil all over the pan. Do keep the flame on low to low-medium flame, so that you are easily able to spread the batter. If the pan base is very thick, then keep the flame to medium.
Do not spread oil if you are using a non stick pan, as you won't be able to spread the batter.
Now take a ladle full of the batter. Pour the dosa batter and gently spread the batter starting from the center and moving outwards.
Cook the dosa on a low to medium flame. Do regulate the flame as per the pan size and thickness.
When you see the batter on the top cooked, then sprinkle 1/4 to 1/2 tsp oil on the edges and center.
With the spoon spread the oil on the dosa.
Cook till the base is nicely golden and crisp. The base will leave the pan when its gets cooked.
Fold and serve sada dosa hot. Make all dosai this way.
Serve these crisp plain dosa with sambar or potato masala or coconut chutney.
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