Thursday, November 27, 2008

Dosai

Sundays are sacred to most people. Its always the day for relaxation and getting re-energized for the upcoming week. And a way for the family to spend time together, away from busy lives. For us, when I was growing up, Sunday's food was always the same. And something we always could count on and look forward to.

For breakfast we always (and when I say always I mean for 40+ years now) had dosas and shallot sambar, with chutney and milagai podi. For lunch it was spicy potatoes, rasam, any left over sambar (from breakfast), a veggie (most often carrots and peas), and rice. It's incredible that even now sunday breakfast and lunch is sacred to me, and something I look forward to.


Dosai

2 cups Rice
3/4 cup Urad Dal
1 tsp Fenugreek Seed
1 1/2 tbsp Salt

Soak the rice in a bowl and the urad dal and fenugreek in another bowl, in water for 2 hours. Drain well and wash completely.

Grind the soaked urad dal and fenugreek with a little bit of water to a smooth consistency. Keep aside. Grind the rice now, with a little of water, to a smooth consistency. Keep aside.

Mix the two together and add salt. Stir to incorporate the salt. Cover and keep in a warm area of the house for about 8 hours or overnight. If not using right away, the batter can be kept in a closed container in the refrigerator for a week.

Heat a crepe pan (cast-iron works best; the heavier the better - but I've made it on a non-stick $2 flimsy pan and it worked fine :-) ). Make sure the pan gets very hot (test it by dropping a little water, if it sizzles at once, the pan is ready).

Pour about a 3/4 cup amount of dough onto the center of the pan, using a soup ladle (the ladles work really well for me), and very quickly spread the batter using the back of the ladle and a gently touch so that it starts to resemble a circular shape. Here's a video from a road-side dosai-making chap! And here's a picture:


When the bottom is browned, flip the dosai over and brown the other side.


Fold in two or three (letter style) and serve with sambar, chutney and milagai podi. This is a quintessential south Indian breakfast.


Dosais can be had either plain or with a filling of your choice - some people choose to break an egg onto the middle of the dosai (like the chap on the video), or you can fill it with spicy potatoes and make a masala dosai, or spread a thin layer of milagai podi on the inside of the dosai and have mysore dosai! It's going to be delicious regardless! :-) Now I can't wait for Sunday!


Here are some other popular types of dosais: Tomato Dosai, Neer Dosai and Pesarat.

This is off to Srivalli @ Cooking 4 All Seasons for her wildly popular Rice Mela.

Check out my fellow marathoners:
DK, Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya, Lakshmi, Raaga, Lakshmi, Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, Pavani, Karuna and Roochi.

19 comments:

Medhaa said...

I love Dosa and can have it anytime, this is so crisp and nice I can never get it that way

Lavanya Raj said...

Lovely crispy dosa's..i was swinging,what to prepare for dinner..idly/dosa..now its going to be dosa's..

Divya Kudua said...

Hmm..absolutely love the crispy dosas soaked in ulli-smabhar..;-)..and I love the inside dosa look..;-)

Deepthi Shankar said...

I love Dosas .. Its one of my fave breakfast dish .. My dad makes awesome Masala Dosas , cant wait to have them ... Dosa looks realy crisp N i love the color, I also add a handful of Poha to make it more crisp ..

Sunshinemom said...

Nice paper roast! I need my chutney with molagapodi:) I too add a fistful of aval.

Finla said...

Wow they look so crispy.
Just superb.
When i was living at home, my mom made for sundays masal dosa or appom with stew, so that we kids could enjoy the breakfast that the other days, were we just gulped everything in and ran to catch the school bus

Unknown said...

Amazing crispy dosai.I am rushing to soak the dal & rice. Absolutely tempted.

Lubna said...

Simple at lavish looking dosa. Iam drooling over.....

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I am a first timer at ur blog..i hve my lil place too here..just about amonth old. :-)
Your Dosai looks awesome. Will try that....my hubby loves dosas n vadas.

Unknown said...

Arundhati, Made the dosa and it was awesome. Thanks for posting a nice recipe.We all loved it.

Raaga said...

your dosai looks perfect. :-)

Srivalli said...

Anu that looks awesome, and why are you not sending this to the rice mela???...ohh...you are not in town!!!...bhooooo..

Anonymous said...

that's one cracker of a dosa!! i cant live without my nonstick pan!! cant imagine doing this on a cast iron one... tho amma swears it is the best

Arundathi said...


Medhaa - the secret to the crisp dosa is in the pan, i've found. cast iron pans work very well.

Lavi - thanks

Divya Kudua - thank you

Deesha - great idea with the poha - thanks

Sunshinemom - nice idea with the aval - and yes, milagai podi is a must!

Happy Cook - yup, i guess dosais are a staple on sundays in lots of houses.

Pearlsofeast - oh i'm so so glad!! :-) thanks for letting me know!

Lubna - Thanks

Navita - Thanks for stopping by. And congrats on your one month anniversary. I hope your husband enjoys it.

Raaga - thanks a lot, babe :-)

Valli - Oh can i send dosai for the rice mela??

Arundati - you have to try a well seasoned cast iron and you'll never look at non-stick the same way again! ;-)

Srivalli said...

yep...you can surely send in..it looks so crispy man!

Jamie said...

Arundathi, the dosa looks GREAT! I have been craving South Indian food, and those look better than the dosas I get at our local restaurant. It looks so hard to make, but you do it so well!

Arundathi said...

Valli - thanks!

Jamie - thanks so much! i guess it just comes with practice and to use a really good pan that heats up evenly - like a cast iron pan. i got mine at Sur La Table actually. Its so amazing.

Anonymous said...

your dosai is very crispy... i love crispy dosa and whenever I go to saravana bhavan in new york, i always order paper masala dosa

Arundathi said...


myspicykitchen - i love crispy dosais too! the soft ones just make you feel heavy and full too soon! :)