Who doesn't love a perfectly cooked, crisp, browned and non-sticky Dosa? However, on an honest note making that plate of ideal Dosa with a perfect contrast of crisp crust and soft insides is challenging even with the right ingredients and needs some diligence and practice. But making Dosas following a thorough, detailed and accurate guide for an authentic Karnataka-Style Dosa Batter can rejuvenate love for homemade Dosas and the faith in cooking them successfully. This recipe requires you to soak the various ingredients separately to get a voluminous batter. The 4:1 ratio of rice to lentils and different soaking time of the ingredients helps in achieving a perfect batter.
The Origin Of Dosas
To begin with, Dosas mean a pancake made of mainly lentils and rice. As much as we long and struggle for these dosas, historians have also been equally embroiled in claiming and owning its origin. On one hand, historian P. Thankappan Nair argues that Dosa is a native of Karnataka’s Udupi while on the other hand, historian KT Achaya claims Tamil Nadu to be the place of origin citing its references in the Sangam literature.
Whether it is Tamil Nadu or Karnataka, Dosas are surely from South India. However, Karnataka is known for crisp and thin dosas while Tamil Nadu for softer and thicker Dosas. Nutritional benefits? Well, Dosa is rich in carbohydrates and protein as can be understood from its composition including mainly rice and lentils. The fermentation process increases the vitamin B and vitamin C content.
Preparation: 12 ½ hours
Cooking: 15-20 minutes
Servings: 5-6
Ingredients:
• 2 cups dosa rice (raw rice)
• ½ cup white lentils or urad dal
• 1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
• ½ cup rice flakes
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp rice powder
Method:
1. Rinse idli rice thoroughly and transfer it to a bowl and soak in water for 4 hours.
Tips:
1. In a warm place, it takes about 8-10 hours to ferment, while in cold places it takes 10-12 hours to ferment.
2. After 8 hours, mix the batter well and take a portion of it in a bowl. Add salt, sugar and rice powder to it and mix. The rice powder makes Dosa crispy.
3. Note: The Dosa batter should be of flowing consistency, and not runny.
4. Heat an iron pan or non-stick tawa, and wipe it clean with a damp cloth.
5. Pour a ladle of batter on it and spread uniformly towards the outside in a circular motion.
6. Drizzle l tsp of oil over it and cover for 2 minutes and cook.
7. Remove the lid, flip the dosa, fold it into half and serve on the plate.
The addition of sugar and fenugreek seeds gives the Dosa a nice brown exterior, while rice flakes make it soft and fluffy. Learn and try Dosa the next time with this Dosa batter recipe, and set it as your default method to get flawless Dosas every time you make them.