Dosa, the demure damsel

Dosa and peanut coriander chutney

The other day, I posted this dosa and peanut chutney in a fun cook-off organised by Sikandalous Cuisine, my first and favourite food group.

The theme was breakfast.

I wanted to participate, sportingly of course. Too busy to write a story and with none brewing in my head, I made that rare departure from the norm and posted the recipe without further ado.

Although the dosa and the chutney were appreciated by dozens of friends and didn't lack colour or lustre, the post seemed hollow and devoid of personality. 

Then came along my Facebook friend and fellow blogger Suranga Date who often writes poems inspired by things that capture her imagination in her blog Strewn Ashes. 

She filled this void and personified the dosa, in yet another of her apposite verses.

Here is Suranga’s poem about the delicate and demure damsel that the dosa really is!

लहानपणापासून डोळ्यासमोर डाळ तांदुळाचे आदर्श, काहींचे उकडे पारदर्शक व्यक्तिमत्व, रात्र रात्र जागून , तरी पण फ्रेश राहून कमावलेले हलके फुलके चेहरे, मेथी आजींचा मान राखून थोडेसे आठवणींचे दाणे ; सर्व एकत्र करून ती आपल्याच स्वप्नांच्या उबेत गुरफटून बसते .

दुसर्या दिवशी सकाळी सकाळी विस्तवाला स्मरून, देवाचे नाव घेउन ती डावाला सामोरी जाते, आणि चटके बसले तरी "अरे संसार संसार " म्हणात तव्यावर ऐसपैस पसरते . सोनेरी छटा यायच्या आधी थोडी झाकणाखालि लपते, आणि चटणीशी दोन बोटे करण्याची मनाची तयारी कर्ते.

अचानक एक मोठी खोली, स्वच्च प्लेट मध्ये ती उतरते , आणि भोवताली इतक्या टाळ्या वाजवणार्या सिकनदलीय महिलां बघून लाजते , आपलाच सोनेरी पदर स्वतः भोवती गोल गुंडाळून घेते, आणि चटणी कडे पाठ फिरवून म्हणते, "इश्श्य ! आम्ही नाही जा …।"

I am sure now Suranga will translate this for you all! 

Over to you, Suranga Tai!

Dosa and peanut coriander chutney

Dosa

Ingredients

2 cups ponni (idly) rice

2 cups raw rice
1 cup split/whole white urad dal
2 tablespoons chana dal
1 teaspoon methi seeds (it adds not only to the taste but also adds a shine to the dosa)
Salt to taste

Method

Wash and soak the rice in plenty of water. Wash and soak the urad dal, chana dal and methi seeds together. Methi seeds give a great flavour and also a lovely sheen to the dosa.

After 5-6 hours, grind the soaked ingredients in a mixer with water into a fine batter of pouring consistency. It’s best to use the water in which the dal and rice have been soaked. Keep the batter slightly thick as you can adjust the consistency later. Remove it in a steel container large enough to allow for the rising of the batter. Add salt to taste.

Cover and place in a warm spot in the kitchen for at least 8-10 hours, or overnight. In winters I keep the batter in the oven after heating it for a few minutes. The batter will ferment and rise. If you are using a mixture of raw and boiled rice, the batter will ferment faster as boiled rice ferments faster. Some people add some cooked rice or poha to expedite the fermenting.

When you are ready to make the dosas, heat a non-stick dosa tava and brush it with oil. Some people use a half cut onion to smear the oil. It’s important to cure the tava so your dosas don’t stick to the tava. Bring it almost to the smoking point and then remove from the heat. When it cools down, rinse it with water and wipe it fry. Then brush it very lightly with oil and remove excess oil with a tissue paper. 

Then heat the tava again till a few drops of water sprinkled on it make a hissing sound.

Portion out some batter from the master batter in a smaller bow so you can hold it in one hand as you pour out dosas with the other.

You might want to adjust the consistency of the dosa according to the type of dosa you want to pour out. For thickset dosas, keep the batter thick. For thin and crispy dosas, add a little water to make the batter easy to spread.

Take a soup ladle with a long handle and a flat bottom. Pour a ladle full of batter in the centre of the tava and start making increasingly larger circles in the batter with the ladle. Remember to move from the centre outwards. This makes the batter stick to the tava and roast well.

If you want a paper-thin dosa, pour less batter and spread it thinly. Scrape off any excess batter from the top. Pour a teaspoon full of oil or ghee (or more- restaurants pour quite a lot!) all over the dosa and cover it with a domed lid with a handle.

Reduce heat and after a few minutes remove cover and check if the dosa is done. Usually, there is no need to flip the dosa. Also, the edges of a well cooked dosa on a properly cured pan will rise easily, making it easy to lift.

Serve hot with peanut coriander chutney.

Peanut coriander chutney

Ingredients

1 cup roasted and skinned peanuts

1 tbsp roasted chana dal

2 tbsp dry or fresh grated coconut

¾ cup coriander leaves, loosely packed

2-3 green chilies

¾ tsp cumin seeds

1 clove of garlic

¾ teaspoon lemon juice

A pinch of sugar/sweetener

Salt to taste

Method

Wash and chop the coriander. Grind all the ingredients together using a little water. Check and adjust the flavours.

Add a little mustard tadka if you really want it.

No weighty measures, anything goes adai!

An Adai to die for!

I don’t bake much and then again bake mostly savoury stuff that doesn’t need ingredients  weighed precisely down to the last gram, at a specific temperature and of a specific brand… too much of a hassle. An intuitive cook, I have had my share of failures, but have also learnt to morph dishes – so a batch of failed croquettes can be transformed into a savoury muffins with the addition of an egg or two, only to be hungrily devoured by all! A cabbage soup made enthusiastically for the GM diet and deserted on day one as everyone thinks it’s like ditch water, actually tastes good as a minestrone soup… and to finish the pot full of soup I mentally prepare to make it into savoury pancakes, pasta sauce, risottos… a little cheese will do the trick! 

Mind you, parsimony is not a virtue of mine, but thrift and a never say die attitude certainly are virtues I cherish!  That’s precisely the reason I like this anything goes dish- the Adai,  a simple delicious dosa ( rice and lentil pancake) to die for- why don't they come up with some more exclamation marks?

No excruciating over- how much of what is soaked for how long and ground in which way and fermented for how long at what temperature and where and in which season and served with what and for which meal…..Whhhoooaaa!

A really wholesome dish that can be a whacky snack or whole meal in itself! Okay okay…I will come to how I made them todai!

Ingredients

2 cups rice soaked for 3-4 hours (overnight is better, but not a must)

A fistful each of chana dal, moong dal, masoor dal, tuvar dal, urad dal (you can use any legumes or pulses) soaked for 3-4 hours

1-2 tbsp grated coconut

1 small onion

2-3 large garlic cloves

½ inch piece of ginger

1-2 (or more) dry red chillies

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds (slightly roasted)

A pinch of hing

A pinch of ground black pepper

4-5 curry leaves

Salt to taste

Water for grinding

Oil for cooking Adais

Method

Grind all the ingredients together with water to make a dosa like batter and add salt to taste. Pour and cook the adais like dosas on a non-stick griddle with a little oil. Serve with anything- even ketchup!

I served it with coconut, roasted chana, raw onion (for the first time!) chutney and a coriander, mint and coconut chutney.