Dosas

Well, Dosas need no introduction. The most popular breakfast, snack and sometimes even dinner, it is synonymous with South Indian cuisine.

We learnt making dosas from Rathna mummy, our maternal grandma and it’s a fact that the world would accept: Her dosas were the best food in the world. Even Vidyarthi bhavan dosas at Gandhi nagar in Bengaluru or the drive in Woodlands dosas at Chennai are nothing in comparison.

We still reminisce those childhood days when we alighted at cantonment station to see a gleaming Babu, our grandpa, who would take us home where mummy was already ready and waiting with piping hot dosas , rubbed with home made butter and gulped with chutney podi. That was our regular summer vacation and the dosas actually implied a beginning for our summer vacation.



Ingredients:

Raw rice (preferably the South Indian varities: sona masoori/ponni) 2 cups
Black gram (uddi pappu/minapappu/urad dal) 1 cup
Beaten rice (Poha/atukulu/avlakki) 1 cup
Fenugreek seeds (methi/menthulu) 1 tsp
Refined cooking oil
Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and soak 2 cups of raw rice, 1 cup of black gram, 1 cup of beaten rice separately for 3-4 hrs. Add a tsp of fenugreek seeds to the raw rice while soaking.

Now grind into a fine paste all the above to make dosa batter. The batter shoud not be very loose or very hard. It should be of milk shake consistency, easy to spread on the pan to bake the dosas. Add a pinch of salt and mix the batter well. Cover and store in a moisture free place for 10-12 hrs for the batter to ferment. After 10-12 hours, it is advisable to keep the batter in the refrigerator so that it doesn’t get spoilt.

Heat the pan/dosai tava for a min or two and take a ladle or two of the batter and spread in circular motion. The more the batter is spread, the thinner and crispier the dosas. Depending of the fluffiness required, spread accordingly. (The fluffier, spread lesser and vice versa).

After spreading the batter, add oil all around and allow the dosa to bake. Turn the dosa after a min. Now the outer crust in brown and the inner is done. Remove the dosa and serve. Continue the process for as many dosas as required. (Please cook on simmer for better results)

The batter when kept in the refrigerator shall stay for 3-4 days.

Dosas are best with Coconut chutney, tomato chutney, mango chutney, onion chutney and even sambar. But we shall always cherish the buttered dosa and chutney podi that Rathna mummy used to feed us.