Avalakki Dosa

So here is another type of dosa to make on a Sunday morning! Made out of rice and avalakki/poha, it comes out extremely fluffy and soft. Accompany it with a coconut chutney of choice and it makes a perfect weekend breakfast! To make it better, make some Mango Seekarane also and sever along with chutney and the weekend is made!

Ingredients:
Dosa Rice - 3 cups
Avalakki / Poha - 1 ½ cups (1 cup if you want a little denser dosa)
Fenugreek / Methi seeds - 2 tsp
Curds - ¼ cup
Salt - 1 ½ tsp, or as per taste

Method:
Batter:
• Soak the rice and methi in enough amount of water for 4-6 hours
• Wash avalakki and soak in curd and more water for 30 minutes
• Grind both together into a smooth paste and let it ferment overnight
• Next morning, add salt and mix well

Dosa:
• Heat the griddle
• When the griddle is hot, smear a few drops of oil
• Pour 1 to 1 ½ Tbsp of batter on the griddle. Spread it like a normal dosa - thick or thin as you want. The dosas come out fluffy
• Smear a few drops of oil
• Cook on medium heat, covering
• Serve hot with a coconut chutney

Notes:
• Increase the amount of curd if you want a sourer tinge
• Do not cook the dosa on high flame. It’ll brown too soon

Hurali/ Horsegram Dosa

I love dosas - not just the traditional one, but ALL types of dosas. The newer kind it is the better it is! I find it very easy and convenient to make dosas for breakfast - than any other item.... once the batter is ready, make chutney before people are ready for breakfast and then make hot and crisp dosas and serve one after the other. And you can customize it for each person as they like - thick or thin, fluffy or crispy, small or big, with chutney smeared on it or without, and so on. So everyone’s happy and so you are, without much effort.

Coming to the varieties of dosas, I do keep looking out for different kinds and came across this HuraLi (horsegram) dosa in some blog. I'm so sorry that i forgot where i got this from, and in case this recipe is one of yours, please do update me and i'll add your link. I did search again to find out from where i had noted down this recipe but couldn't find.

I decided to give it a try as horsegram was lying in the kitchen counter in a huge quantity and also people kind of like it at home. I added some spices like cumin, coriander, ginger while grinding the batter as I felt the smell of horse gram was overpowering.

The dosas were good - quite crispy, irrespective of being thin or thick. It tasted good for breakfast and better when the dosas were made the following evening. However, I didn’t like it much when made on the next morning - may be the better had rested too long though in the fridge. Anyways, it was worth the try..

Hurali kalu Dosa / Horsegram Dosa

Preparation time : 15-20 min, excluding time for soaking
Cooking time : 1-1.5 min per dosa
Serves : 5

Ingredients:
Dosa Rice - 1 ½ cups
Horse gram / hurali - 2 cups
Urad dal - 1 Tbsp
Methi (Fenugreek) seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Coriander leaves - a handful
Grated ginger - 1-2 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp or according to taste
Cooking oil - to make dosas

Method:
Batter:
• Soak the rice, urad dal and methi in enough amount of water for 4-6 hours
• Grind it to a smooth paste and let it ferment overnight
• Soak horse gram in enough water at night and let it soak while the rice batter is fermenting
• Next morning, grind the soaked horse gram with cumin seeds, coriander and ginger to a fine paste. Add water to facilitate the blades
• Mix this with the fermented batter and add salt and mix well

Dosa:
• Heat the griddle
• When the griddle is hot, smear a few drops of oil
• Pour 1 to 1 ½ Tbsp of batter on the griddle. Spread it like a normal dosa - thick or thin as you want. This batter is very obedient
• Smear a few drops of oil
• Cook on medium heat, covering
• Serve hot with a coconut chutney

Tips n Tricks:
• Do not cook the dosa on high flame. It’ll brown too soon

Ashgourd Dosa

Ok, now you have saved that ash gourd pulp after making majjige huLi, right? Well, soak some rice and dal for a soft, and fluffy dosa! Don't waste any edible part of any veggies, is my policy! Especially if it can be converted into a new variety of dosa! Though i'm not a big fan of this actually nice and healthy veggie, i never say no to it in dosa form!
Go ahead and make these and you'll surely love it!

Ash gourd Dosa

Preparation time : 30 min, excluding time for soaking Cooking time : 2 min per dosa Serves : 4 Ingredients: Dosa Rice - 2 cups Ash gourd (inner part) - 2 cups (chopped into chunks, deseeded) Beaten Rice / Avalakki - ½ cup Urad dal - 1 Tbsp Salt - ¾ th tsp or according to taste Cooking oil - to make dosas Method: Batter: • Soak the rice & dal in enough amount of water for 4-6 hours, and soak avalakki for about 15 minutes • Chop and deseed the ash gourd • Grind the rice-dal mixture along with avalakki and the ash gourd in a mixie or grinder and prepare a smooth batter. Batter should be like a thick milkshake. • Let the batter ferment overnight or for about 8-10hours. Batter would slightly rise by then. Dosa: • Add salt to the batter & mix well. • Heat the griddle • When the griddle is hot, smear a few drops of oil • Pour 1 to 1 ½ Tbsp of batter on the griddle. Do not try to spread it thin like for normal dos. Just allow it to spread itself or slightly spread it, making a thick pan cake like dosa • Cook on medium heat, covering. • Turn over the dosa and cook on the other side too, till it becomes light golden brown • Serve hot with coconut chutney. Tips n Tricks: • Do not cook the dosa on high flame. They’ll not be done in the middle but get brown on the outer layer, since these are thick

Sending this to Akila's event: Dish name starts with A.

Pesarattu - Moong dal dosa

If you’re from Andhra or have visited Andhra anytime, then you know this awesome dosa for sure! You can’t miss this in any of the hotels..... a hot an crispy dosa topped with finely copped onions served with chutney.... it has all the goodness and appetizing flavor of moong dal.
Well, Dee who was in Hyderabad for a couple of years before marriage had this in his wish list from a long time. I too have tried this pesarattu when I’d been to Hyderabad. Being an avid fan of dosas of any kind, I had fallen for this one as well...
And recently when I saw this recipe in some blog, I couldn’t resist from making it at home. As I browsed through, there were two prominent versions - one with whole moong dal and the other with split moong dal. I was confused as to which would be the best, and so tried out both the versions. And well, both of them were just slightly different and both tasted great.
Here’s the recipe....

Pesarattu

Preparation time : 10 min Cooking time : 2 min for each dosa Serves : 4-5 Ingredients: For batter: Moong dal (split//whole) - 4 cups Dosa Rice - 1cup Curry leaves - 1 small bunch Green chilies - 2-3, depending on taste (optional) Ginger - 1" cube Coriander leaves - a small bunch Salt - 1 tsp or as per taste Water Other ingredients: Cumin seeds - 2-3 tsp Onion - 2-3 medium sized Green chilies - 2-3, depending on taste (optional) Cooking oil - for smearing on dosa Method: Batter: • Wash and soak rice and dal in enough water for 3-4 hours or overnight (I generally soak it overnight) • Next morning, grind the soaked rice and dal with some water and other ingredients mentioned in the ‘For batter’ section in a wet grinder / mixer • Add water if necessary and grind the batter to a medium fine paste • Transfer the batter to a vessel • Add cumin seeds and mix well Dosa: • Chop onions and green chilies finely • Heat a non stick griddle/tawa • Now take a ladle of the batter and spread it on the tawa like normal dosa. Pour the batter in the middle of the tawa and quickly smear it with the back of the ladle to spread it as thin as possible • Immediately spread a couple of spoons of the chopped onion and chili roughly evenly on the spread dosa • Smear a teaspoon of oil and cover it with a plate/lid • After half a minute, open the lid • Allow it to crisp if you like it that way • Take it out of the tawa, roll it so that the onion pieces do not fall off and serve straight to the plate • Enjoy the bisi-bisi pesarattu dosa with coconut-ginger chutney Tips n Tricks: • Ensure that the mixture is thin enough for easy spreading on the tawa • Do not compromise on the onion topping. It is that which makes this dosa even special

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!

Neer Dose - Smooth, Soft, Snow-white 'n lite Dosas

“Ma, I’m coming home this weekend”

“Ohh good... what do I make for you?”

“Anything is fine ma.... I’ll love to eat whatever you make”

“Shall I make neer dose”

“Ohhhh wow! I’d love it! I’m waiting for the weekend....”

This would be my common conversation on phone with Ma. When you’ve never gone and stayed away from home for almost a quarter century, and suddenly you’ll have to go and stay in another home, though it’s supposedly yours from now on, you know how it feels.

Something like, Hmmmm.... everyone’s good there, but still you don’t feel comfortable enough; there are enough people to take care of you here, but still you miss those few who you’ve been with through out your life; you’re given very good food, may be better than what you normally had, still you miss that particular simple dish your mom used to prepare for you....That used to be my state during the initial state (Of course it is the same to some extent still;) ). And this conversation with ma, and the wait for the weekend used to be a like a silver lining!

Coming to the dosa part of the story, I would pull up a chair to the dining table in the kitchen, and settle down with a plate for the much awaited breakfast. A big bowl of coconut chutney would be ready on the table. And mom would start making these smooth, white dosas one by one and serve them hot to my plate directly from the tawa. And before the next dosa is done, the plate would be empty! The bowl of chutney also starts getting emptied. After umpteen servings of hot dosas, I’d start feeling if I’m eating too much! And mom would say, “Stop counting! These are very small dosas, and very thin too. It’ll get digested in less than an hour.”. And another few rounds would go on, before I’m completely filled with these soft, smooth, white dosas. And the satisfaction of it would last for a long time......

Nothing can beat the taste of these dosas that mom makes – first because she is my mom and the second reason being the flat thick old tawa she uses.
I too have started making them now, it sure is a hit with everyone at home. I do get the satisfaction of making them and serving hot to the family, but that joy of sitting in the kitchen, chatting with mom and eating her dosas is something that is unexplainable!

Okie, enough of my story, and here’s the recipe...... Agree that it needs some experience to make these neer-dosas, but it’s not too tough either. A couple of trials, and I’m sure anyone can be an expert in it! The best part of it is that it doesn’t need fermenting. You can make them instantly after making the batter.

Neer Dose

Preparation time : 20 min (apart from soaking time) Cooking time : 10-15 min Serves : 4 Ingredients: Dosa Rice - 2-3 cups Cooked Rice - ½ cup (optional) Grated Coconut - ½ cup (optional) Salt - ½ Tsp or as per taste Water Cooking Oil - 1 Tbsp Method: Dosa Batter: • Wash and soak rice in enough water for 3-4 hours or overnight (I generally soak it overnight) • Grind the soaked rice with some water in a wet grinder / mixer • Once the rice is ground to a coarse paste add the coconut and/or cooked rice (Left over rice would be the best to use) – This is however optional • Add water if necessary and grind the batter to a very fine paste – The finer the better • Transfer the batter to a separate vessel • Add enough water to make the batter free flowing (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/ ladle of the batter and spread it on the tawa outside in. (What I mean here is, unlike normal dosa where you pour a ladle 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 ladle over the batter spread on the tawa. Well, if I’m confusing you, check out the pic above. The thinner the dosa, the better it tastes.) • Cover it with a plate/lid • After half a minute, remove the lid, smear another tsp of oil over the dosa and leave for another half a minute (you may have to adjust the heat, not to burn it or not to leave it uncooked) • Once the dosa is cooked, take it out of the tawa and serve straight to the plate • Enjoy the bisi-bisi dosa with coconut-red chili chutney and a spoon of ghee! 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 • The thinner the dosa, the better it tastes. • This dosa tastes better when not crisped • Use a flat tawa to make things easy – the one I’ve shown in pic is a concave-curved tawa, but a flat one would be better initially Variations: For a flavored version of Neer dosa, add some raw spices while grinding the batter, like any combination of the following: • Onion - 1 small, quartered • Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp • Curry leaves - 1 small bunch • Green chilies - 2-3, depending on taste (optional) • Ginger - 1" cube • Coriander leaves - a small bunch Green chilies and fresh coriander may be replaced with red chilies or back pepper and dry coriander seeds (dhania) Note: Neeru in kannada means water. This dosa is probably called neer-dose as the batter is very much watery when compared to that of normal, fermented dosa.