Sorekai / Bottle guard Dosa - the best dosa made of a vegetable

Life can sometimes get so busy that you won’t get time to do your most favorite things at all. You want to do certain things but that never becomes possible due to a lot of other things that you have to do! My situation is just that of late. So much of work at office, marathon of meetings, working late hours, guests at home, hmmmmm...... where is the time to blog? And all I had to do was to write a few lines and post the already ready recipe and pics. And that too became impossible. It’s high time I do something about it. May be fix up a dedicated time for blogging or so? Let’s see....

Coming to the recipe part, we have Sorekai/Bottle guard Dosa today! Trust me, it’s one of the best possible dosas you can ever have! What makes this my favorite is that it needs no fermentation; Can add any combination of spices to suit one’s taste, you can make them crispy or soft-soft as you like, your intake of fiber will automatically increase due to the vegetable used, and more than all, the dosas taste awesome.

Enjoy them hot with one of these chutneys.

Bottle Guard / Sorekai Dosa

Preparation time : 20 min (for batter, apart from soaking time) Cooking time : 15 -20 min Serves : 4 Ingredients: Bottle Guard - 1 small (About 500 gms) Dosa Rice - 2-3 cups Cumin seeds - 2-3 Tsp Curry leaves - 1 small bunch Green chilies - 2-3, depending on taste (optional) Ginger - 1" cube Coriander leaves - a small bunch Salt - ¾ Tsp or as per taste Water Cooking oil - 1 Tbsp Method: Batter: • Wash and soak rice in enough water for 3-4 hours or overnight (I generally soak it overnight) • Make slices of the bottle guard (or cut it into small pieces or grate – need not be too fine, as we’ll be grinding it anyway) • Grind the soaked rice with some water in a wet grinder / mixer • Once the rice is ground to a coarse paste add the sliced guard pieces • Also add the raw spices – cumin seeds, chopped coriander, curry leaves, ginger, green chilies and salt • Add water if necessary and grind the batter to a fine paste • Transfer the batter to a separate vessel • Add enough water to make the batter free flowing (Slightly thinner than normal dosa batter) • The batter is ready! Dosa: • Heat a non stick griddle/tawa • Smear 1 tsp of oil evenly on the tawa • Now take a big spoon of the batter and spread it on the tawa outside in. What I mean here is, unlike normal dosa where you pour a big spoon of batter on the centre of the tawa and run the spoon over it, spreading it inside-out, for this dosa, do it the opposite way. Pour in the batter very quickly making a circumference of the dosa first and start filling the inside. Don’t run the spoon over the batter spread on the tawa. For illustrations, check out Neer Dosa • Cover it with a plate/lid • After half a minute, smear another tsp of oil over the dosa • Allow it to crisp if you like it that way • Take it out of the tawa and serve straight to the plate • Enjoy the bisi-bisi dosa with coconut chutney Tips n Tricks: • The batter should not be too thin, as it would take a longer time to cook and may also stick to the tawa Variations: • A small onion can also be added while grinding the batter to give a different flavor • Green chilies and fresh coriander may be replaced with red chilies or back pepper and dry coriander seeds (dhania) • Or all the spices can be avoided and make a simple version of it!