Dosa Recipe
Preparation for making dosa batter
Ingredients
2 cup Parboiled Rice )
1 cup Whole Urad Dal or Biuli Dal
1/3rd teaspoon Fenugreek Seeds (methi dana)
White Oil, for shallow frying
1. In a bowl take 2 cups parboiled rice or Siddha Chal (some people say 1 cup para boiled rice and 1 cup regular rice - I do not do it ).
2 In another bowl, add 1 cup Lentil - urad or Biuli dal & 1/3rd tea spoon Fenugreek Seeds (methi dana)
## Do not mix rice and dal. Ratio should be 2:1. Though there are some other variations too. Restaurants give less quantity of Dal to save cost
3. Rinse the rice and dal in water 3-4 times. Soak rice and dal for 4-8 hours (and some people do it even overnight) in separate containers (adding double the quatity of water in both rice and dal)
4. Drain water from urad dal and fenugreek seeds in a small bowl and put it in a mixer grinder or blender. You need to add approx 150% water (vis a vis the dal - in our example -1.5 cup) to the Dal, in the mixer slowly.
5. The past should not be very thick. Transfer it to a large container.
6. Drain water from rice and add put it in the same mixer grinder .
7. Don’t add too much water at one go; Rice requires less water compared to urad dal while grinding. You need to add approx 50% water (vis a vis the rice - in our example -1 cup) . Rice batter will be little grainy and will not be as smooth as urad dal batter.
8. Transfer it to the same container having urad dal batter in it.
9. Mix both batters well using spoon. The final batter should not be too thick or too watery. Cover it with plate and leave it at room temperature for 8-10 hours or overnight for fermentation. (During cold weather, keep the batter in warm place for fermentation).In winters, the time of fermentation can go up to 14 to 24 hours.
10. Add salt later, after it is fermented, since it will slow down the fermentation
11. During fermentation, the batter volume would increase and the tiny bubbles would appear on the surface . Stir the batter with a spoon. If it looks too thick, add few tablespoons water and mix well until it has attained pouring consistency (little watery than idli batter).
12. Heat non-stick tava (or iron tava if not available) or skillet or griddle over medium flame. Sprinkle few drops of water on the surface. If water drops sizzle and evaporate within few seconds, tava is hot enough to cook. You can take a onion or wet cloth and wash the tava with it.
13. Apply 1/2-teaspoon oil on the griddle and spread it evenly with a spatula.This will help to prevent dosas from sticking to the pan. Sometimes the first few dosas are wasted due to want of proper heating. So first try a small quantity.
# Don’t forget to wipe the tawa with a clean wet cloth before spreading the batter for each dosa.
14. Take a ladle full of batter, pour it over the surface of tawa, swirl it as thin as possible in a spiral motion by rotating ladle and make it into round shape
15. Apply 1-teaspoon oil (or ghee / butter for crispy dosa) around the edges of dosa (or spread oil/ghee/butter evenly with brush for crispy dosa)
16.Cook until the bottom surface turns light brown and the edges start to come upward, it will take around 2-minutes.
# Fermented dosa batter can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.
# If you are using the refrigerated dosa batter, take it out from the refrigerator and wait for at least 30-minutes before starting to make dosa
For the potato filling for Masala dosa
Ingredients
Potatoes – 500 gms /2 cups heaped boiled and mashed
Onion -2 or 1 cup thinly sliced
Chana dal or Bengal Dal - 1 table spoon
Ginger – 1 inch piece
Green chilli – 2-3 (finely chopped)
Tomato -1 small (optional)
Turmeric powder and Sambar Powder – as per taste
Curry leaves – few tender ones
Salt needed
Cumin seeds
mustard seeds
Sambar powder
1.Wash and cut potatoes into half and boil it in pressure cook for 3 whistles. and mash it well.( not to a fine paste) Keep it aside.
2.Soak the 1 table spoon chana dal in hot water for 30 minutes. Then drain the chana dal and keep aside.
3.Cut onions lengthwise, finely chop green chillies and ginger.
4.Heat oil , Saute the chana dal for 2 to 3 minutes on a low flame or till they turn light golden . Then add mustard seeds, when it splutters then add hing
5.Then add thinly sliced onions, green chilli, ginger and 1/3 tea spoon of cumin or jeera seeds . Saute for a few minutes until onion turns pink.
6.Add turmeric and Sambar powder, chopped tomatoes,curry leaves and salt needed.
7.Add 1/2 cup of hot water. When water starts boiling, add mashed potatoes and mix well with the Masala in the wok. Do not add too much water, then the dosa will become soggy.
8.Switch off the flame. Our filling for the masala dosa is ready.
Sambar Dal
Ingredients
• 1 cup toor dal (i.e. Arhar Dal / Lentil)
• 1 teaspoon sambhar powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch fenugreek seeds
• 2 cloves garlic
• 8 baby onions
• 1/4 teaspoon powdered turmeric
• 1/2 cup tamarind
• 1 tablespoon refined oil
• 1 red chilli
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• curry leaves
Step 1 - Saute the dals
Heat little oil in a frying pan over medium flame. Saute the remaining baby onions and mustard seeds Add the pureed tamarind to a pan over medium flame. Add salt, turmeric powder, chilli, sambhar powder. Bring the mixture to a boil. Then add Arhar (i.e. toor) dal and bring to a boil again on low flame. Add some curry leaves, grind it and then add it to the Sambhar. This will add on to the taste and aroma of this recipe.
Step 2 - Tips for making lip-smacking Sambar at home
1. Try to add as many veggies in it to make it colourful and flavourful, and probably steam them so that you have a great taste.
2 To make it tangy, don’t use amchoor or dry mango powder in it. Try to use soaked tamarind in it, as it will make the sambhar tastier
3. Last, but not the least, do not forget to add drumsticks in it. You can only get the real taste of sambhar when you add drumsticks in it.
Chutney
Ingredients
1 cup grated coconut
2 small green chillies , chopped
1 tsp grated ginger (adrak)
1 tbsp roasted chana dal or Cholar dal from badam or mumphali-walas
salt to taste
Pinch of Asafoetida
For The Tempering 1/2 tsp mustard seeds ( sarson)
1 red chilli , broken into pieces
2 to 3 curry leaves (kadi patta)
1 tsp oil
Method
1. Put the coconut, green chillies, ginger, roasted split gram and salt in a blender with a little water and grind to make a fine paste. Keep aside.
2. Prepare the tempering by heating the oil and adding the mustard seeds, red chilli and curry leaves and stirring till the mustard seeds crackle. Pour this tempering over the chutney and mix well.
3. Refrigerate and use as required.
Source :
My Kitchen are influenced by the following :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaYZ4u3wrnQ (see from 1.06 minute)
