Dosa - Rice Crepes

 I have long had an "on again - off again" relationship with my cast iron griddle. My mother got it for me about 25 years back and she seasoned it for me and cooked dosas for me on it.  I have never cooked dosas in my life and struggled to get the dosa out clean and crisp from the griddle.  Over the years I have tried non stick pans, crepe pans and so on but I have now come full circle and gone back to the trusty old griddle.

What I did different this time was I cleaned it with salt and baking soda and seasoned it again.  I think I have finally got the hang of the thickness of the batter - not too thick, and not too thin.  And loads of patience, very little oil, some helpful tips from my friend Cholena and small dosas first, before graduating to larger ones.

I still haven't managed to get them paper thin like my mother - but they are crisp and golden.  With practice I will be able to put up updated pictures, I am sure!

Ingredients:

Note:

This mix is specifically for dosas.  I know lots of people who do an idli and dosa mix so they can make both items, but my mother was a stickler for tradition ....she didn't like to mix things!  So this recipe is only for dosa and without a doubt my mother got this recipe from my grandmother.

3 cups idli rice ( available from Indian grocers)

1 cup urid dal ( available from Indian grocers)

1 tablespoon fenugreek seeds

Oil for cooking crepes.

Method:

Soak all three items in separate bowls for at least 6 hours. 

After 6 hours, wash the ingredients and grind the dal and the fenugreek first.  The dal has to be ground finely - with very little water - like may be up to half a cup of water only.

Once the dal and the fenugreek have been ground and when you feel it it is light and fluffy, then it is time to take it out and put into a big stainless steel bowl.

Next, in the same grinder, add the rice and grind - it doesn't have to be too fine.

Take the rice batter and mix it in with the dal batter - use your hands to mix it in.  The reason we use our hands is to help the fermentation process.

Melbourne gets quite cold in winter so the next thing I do is close the bowl with a stainless steel lid and put it in an oven at 20 degrees Celsius overnight.  The next morning the batter is all spongy and beautifully fermented.  I have been doing this for 25 years - and it has not failed me yet.

The fermented batter looks like this:

The next morning, add a couple of teaspoons of salt and enough water so batter is not too runny. It must be like pancake batter. 

Then you just have to make them like crepes.

Making of the crepe:

Heat a cast iron griddle.  Add a few drops of oil and spread it around.  I use half an onion stuck on a fort to spread the oil around - it works well.  Add 1 spoon of batter and starting at the centre, make circular motions and spread the batter outwards.  You should get a circle with even lines in it - like this:

I am still nopt fantastic at this technique - it takes practise.  But for now, I am glad I got this far since usually I make them just like pancakes.

You can add your potato filling in the centre of the crepe or have it plain.  I made it both ways and served it with coconut chutney.

Note:  You can buy idli / dosa batter from the Indian grocer too.  Once you have made it at home, however, you will never want to buy the batter from the shop.  There is a huge difference in taste when you make your batter at home.

The potato curry is the same as what I made in this recipe:

http://kitchenanugraha.blogspot.com/2020/04/pooris-and-potato-curry-indian-puffed.html 

Recipe for chutney can be found here:

http://kitchenanugraha.blogspot.com/2020/05/coconut-chutney-2.html