Dosa, an Indian answer to crepes, which hails from the southern parts of India but is a national beloved. I’ve written a couple posts about Dosa before (you can find them here and here) explaining the art and the Dos n Don’ts. But its only right if I take that conversation further and share with you the recipe for what I always knew was dosa growing up. Since dosa was not something made at home everyday for we were the “roti sabzi” kind of a family which most of the families in the North are. But when mummy did make dosa she always went all the way by making a whole round meal of masala potatoes stuffed dosas, serves with veggie loaded spicy and tangy lentil soup called sambhar and atleast a couple varieties of chutney.
Sharing with you the recipe for Masala Dosa you will very commonly find in all restaurants and street vendors in India serving South Indian food.
Ingredients:
For Dosa: Makes about 15 dosa
1 ½ cups parboiled rice (washed and soaked overnight)
½ cup split urad dal (washed and soaked overnight) I use washed urad dal with no skin on.
2 tbsp semolina or poha (flattened rice) – Using this makes dosa crisper.
1 tbsp salt
Oil (If you have an oil spray then better.)
You will also need:
Griddle, spatula, a wet grinder (to grind rice and lentils) – if you don’t have a wet grinder your blender should also work but with a wet grinder the batter is just smoother.
For Potato Filling: Enough for 15 masala dosa
4-5 medium sized potatoes (boiled)
1/2 cup peas and carrots medley (optional)
1 cup red onion (thinly sliced)
2 thai chili (minced)
8-10 curry leaves (roughly chopped)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 tablespoon oil (any kind)
Salt to taste
Method:
Heat oil in a wok or thick bottom pan. Add curry leaves and mustard seeds. As they sputter add onion. Sautee on medium heat until the onion is translucent, 8-10 minute.
Add chili. Mix. Stir in turmeric and salt.
Add peas and carrots. It’ll only take a minute before adding potatoes if them using frozen, thawed. If using fresh, cover and cook until peas and carrots are cooked through. Approx. 10 minutes.
Add potatoes. Turn off the heat. Using a masher mash the potatoes to mix it well with the rest of the ingredients. Set aside for later.
Method: (Can also be found here)
Soak rice and urad dal for at least 6 hours or overnight. Then grind them separately into a smooth flowing batter. Grinding the two separately and then mixing makes the batter lighter. It also helps in speeding up the fermentation process.
Mix the two, add salt and cover the batter. Let it ferment overnight. The lid should be tight enough to trap the temperature inside but loose enough to let a little circulation of air. So don’t use an air tight container. Also the temperature should be somewhere around 80-85 deg. F for a proper fermentation.
Making of crepes:
Heat a griddle. To test I sprinkle water on the griddle, if the water sizzles away right the moment then the griddle is hot enough.
In a bowl, mix water and oil. ½ tbsp. oil to 2 cups of water. This water and oil mixture is used to clean and oil the pan after every dosa comes out of the griddle.
Spray some oil on the pan. Dip a piece of cloth on the water oil mixture. Squeeze out extra water and then rub it over the pan to clean excess oil.
Now pour a ladle of dosa batter. Starting from the center in an outward direction, swirl the ladle in a circular motion spreading the batter into a thin crepe.
When the batter is spread, after a few seconds (8-10) it will start getting dry, spray or sprinkle oil on the dosa.
Give it a few more seconds and the bottom of your dosa will start getting darker and golden brown in color. This means your dosa is almost ready for the filling. Place spicy potato filling in the center and fold the two sides, one over the other. Serve hot with Sambhar and Chutney.