Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Plain dosa with sambar and pickle

I love dosa so much that I can eat "xx" dosas (I would be embarrassed if I revealed the number hehehe ) . Making dosa in US is a tedious process if you are staying in colder regions. I had recently read a post at Jugalbandi where the difficulty met with fermenting idli and dosa batter is written. A well written post :) . It was like reading my own experience :) . I too don't have light in my oven to help the batter rise (except the time when we were in Miami). I too don't have a Indian Mixie or a Wet Grinder .

Just a bit anxious to buy it online because of the "No-return" policy of the websites which sells these appliances.

I just have one rant to make here, just couldn't keep it anymore in my mind - why do only our Indian sites never offer a return policy? Another thing is me and V had several bad experiences with some of the Indian stores we visited in and around Framingham. There was an occasion where cash had to be credited back to our credit card and the owner refused point blank without even an apology and asked us to purchase something else from his store with the cash he had to credit to our card. What a nasty fellow ! We felt so annoyed and told him to keep the money and walked out swearing to ourselves never to enter that store again ! For a country like US where "Customer is the king", some of our Indian people in US don't know what Customer Service is all about. They don't even smile at you at some places. Doesn't matter whether you purchase anything or not from their store ! But its like a saying in Malayalam, "To get your work done, eventually you will need to even fall to a donkey's feet". So we are in that situation now, the numerous US blenders and food processors we purchased, unfortunately didn't serve our purpose when it comes to making perfect dosas, idlis, or coconut chutney...sigghhh...its been more than 6 months from my last India-trip where I had the last coconut chutney :( ... I just keep drooling at my blog Friends picture's when they post such recipes. These days the Dosa Mela at Srivalli's blog just pushed me to start forcing V to buy me a Indian Mixie or Grinder :-) He is agreed to buy me one too ,hurray !!

I guess I better start the recipe now. I made this dosa with a US blender purchased from Target. Its plain dosa. Here is the recipe: This is my entry for Srivalli's Dosa Mela

Ingredients:

Urad dal: 1 cup
Idli rice (don't know what variety this is as it just mentioned "Idli rice" on the packet): 2 cups
Methi seeds powder (I powdered the methi seeds in my coffee grinder. You may add whole methi seeds to the dal during the soaking process and then grind it along with the dal later) : 1/2 teaspoon
Salt: to taste
Water for soaking the dal and rice
Oil for making dosa

Method:

Soak rice and urad dal separately in lots of water for atleast 4-5 hours. (Tip: Soak these in filtered water as I read on Internet that the wild yeast which is responsible for fermenting the idli/dosa batter is found in filtered water. Also don't wash the urad dal too much). Also if you are planning to add methi seeds, add it now to the urad dal.

Next day grind the dal along with the methi seeds using very little water (if the blender refuses to cooperate, add tablespoons of water one tablespoon at a time) in your blender. I am yet to grind it in mixie/grinder, so I cant tell how efficiently you can grind it in them. Grind it for a long time (I feel it took me around 15 minutes including the breaks I gave to the blender to stop it from overheating). I guess while using a mixie or wet grinder, it grinds much faster and smoother. Next grind the rice using the same process as for grinding the urad dal.

Mix both the batters, and thoroughly combine before adding salt. Next add salt as required. (Tip: If you are adding methi powder instead of methi seeds, add it now and stir everything to combine well. Methi is added to help the fermentation.) Keep the batter for fermentation overnight in a warm oven (which is switched off ofcourse). Or ferment it according to your tested method :-)

Make dosas the next day or the day it ferments ! :) (it took a day and half to ferment in my case) Heat a flat pan to high, reduce to medium-low, wait for the heat to reduce a little. Pour a ladle full of batter on the pan and move the ladle in a spiral way to make dosa. You may also chose not to flatten the dosa, this makes thick dosa which is usually made for making Utthappam. If you are not using a non-stick pan, spray a little oil on the pan before you add the batter.
Else if you are using a non-stick pan, you may spray oil when the dosa is half done on one side. Flip the dosa when the edges start leaving the pan a little, and some portions on the spirals of the dosa turns brown like in the picture below. Lower the fire and take off the dosa from the pan after a minute. I sometimes make "kutti dosa" (I learned it from my mom who used to make small dosas (using less batter in the laddle) for my lunch at school when I was a bad-eater (means I never ate much food unlike now :-D ), it helped me as I was relieved to see the size of the dosa I had to eat :)
The dosa is flipped to cook both sides.

A fully cooked dosa.


Serve along with hot sambar, coconut chutney or pickle :) You can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner or as a snack :)

Done :D

The other dosas in my blog are:

Left-Over Lentil Instant Dosa

Cabbage dosa

Adai


Bread Omelette

Onion Utthappam

21 comments:

bee said...

have you tried buying onine from sumeet canada?

ranji said...

wow mine never comes out evenly spread out like this...very professionally done!!!:)

Unknown said...

Thank you so much ranji ! :)

Dhivya said...

wow!dosa and idli came out so good:)u made like a pro:))tempting

Unknown said...

Thank you dhivya!! :) I love making those spirals on the dosa batter hehe:) Each time I try to make as thin and crisp dosa as possible:))

Rupa said...

Lovely dosas ..So crispy and the plate is so inviting..Idlis look so soft...Thanks

Rupa said...

Hey Roopa, Sumeet mixie is available at amazon.com..Check it out
I bought mine in Chicago,devon street.

Cham said...

He he , if u make like that a crispy dosa, i can have XXXXXnumbers too :) They are beautiful crisp and crunchy. Gosh i can feel it.

Seena said...

Wouldn't use yeast for fermenting?
What abt taking dosas with that sambar.. drooling drooling..vayaruvedana varathe sookshicholu.. :D

Srivalli said...

wow owow..i love all of them..thanks for the lovely entries...good to see that mela is making somebody make more dosas!..:D

Siri said...

The dosas look lovely Roopa. I made my first ever dosas yesterday. will post them soon.. though mine are not as crispy as urs..:D

Siri

Unknown said...

Rupa, thank you for the information dear, I will check it out. I dont think I can come to chicago, but let me see if I can get some here. The experience with these indian stores here have left me no choice but buy online :) Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Thanks Cham :) I am glad you liked it ..:-D My spirals makes it soo thin that sometimes the dosa doesnt have any body to it :)))....hehehe yeah its paper thin :))

Seena, vayaru vedana eeyedekku vannu poyathe ulloo hehe , ini venda :(( :-DD ....Thanks for stopping by:)

Srivalli, hehe yeah your dosa mela made me do more than just making dosas, it is pushed me to force V to buy me a Indian mixie or grinder

Unknown said...

Siri, I am looking forward to your dosas:) I am sure they are yumm-o :) Let me tell you one small secret, my dosas crispiness sometimes makes me go too far by making it sooo thin that the dosas fail to retain shape when I try flipping them :)) I just have to control my urge to stop moving the ladle around while spreading the batter too much :-DD

Anonymous said...

ooo... i love dosa!

Vanamala Hebbar said...

Wow nice step by step and cripsy dosa.

Unknown said...

stonielove: Me too love dosa a lot!! Thank you for visiting my site :)

Vanamala: Thank you Vanamala, I love dosa when its crispy and hot:) my love for spreading dosa sometimes goes a bit too far as I keep on spreading it until it becomes toooo thin:))

Andhra Flavors said...

Hey dosa looking yummy. Very big dosa.

Unknown said...

Andhra flavors, thanks a lot dear :) I visited ur blog too, I especially liked the prawns with drumstick:)

Unknown said...

I found this page while searching for a secret for a crisp golden brown dosa. And I am amazed that u have made this kinda of dosa in USA.. just like a pro. I can make all cuisines to T but south Indian- esp dosa-- NO... I have tried enomrous times but my dosa never gets spread or becomes thin and crispy and most importantly-IT never gets brown.I use to think that my batter is thick, so last time I added lots of water, so batter didn't get ferment at all and my usual problems still persisted.

Whats your secret.. I use the same recipe u are using-urad dal, idly rice and methi seeds..on a friends suggestion, I even put i/2 cup chana dal to make it golden but in vien.


Also, I think I never get time to spread dosa batter that much at its start cooking and sticking on the tava. I use black & decker mblender to make the batter and big skillet kind tava to make dosa...

I really want to make good dosa..Pls help.
RVG

Unknown said...

Hello RVG! I am sorry for the delayes reply. I was on a long break. First of all thank you for such a nice comment:) I used to struggle to make good dosas with the blenders used in US. The proportions I used in a blender is:

1 cup rice
3 cups urad
Soak them overnight at room temperature
Next day , keep it in fridge for 2 hours . Grind the urad first, grind it with breaks in between so that the blender doesnt start becoming warm. You may grind it portion by portion. Grind urad until it is silky smooth and small bubbles start appearing on the top of the batter. Grind rice with as little water as possible, add water little by little if your blender doesnt co-operate. Grind with breaks in between and until it is very finely ground and small bubbles appear on top. Mix the urad and rice batter well. Add a little salt. Keep it in a warm oven (dont keep the oven switched on though). Try to grind the batter in the morning so that you can make the oven warm when it cools off so that batter stays in a warm environment. If you have a oven light, keep it switched on.

To make dosa brown, I dont use any special method. I use a non-stick tava , keep the heat to high, then reduce it medium, add 1 laddle of batter, spread it as thin as possible, increase the fire to high, Use a cooking spray to spray oil evenly on the dosa, close the tawa with a fitting lid, Wait for a minute or two until the dosa browns (you can peek inbetween by removing the plate, but make sure to replace it all the while when the dosa is cooking. Flip the dosa and do not replace the cover. The first dosa of mine is doesnt come out that well. The dosas that folow come out good.

If you have problems making regular dosas, which require fermentation, try making Adai Dosa, which only requires soaking of dals, and lentils, and rice, and once ground , you can make dosas instantly. You may refer my post on Adai Dosa for the recipe. Its healthy, easy and nutritious. I make it a different way by grinding the batter very smoothly and making crisp thin dosas. I hope my answer helps. Good luck with the dosas:)

manisha0_0 said...

hi,

i love ur dosa recipe. i am surely going to try this.

i have come up with maysoor masala dosa recipe. please do check it out and pass me the feedback.
http://recipe4cooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/mysore-masala-dosa.html

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