In my Bangalore days, I used to stay as a paying guest. On every Friday morning, PG aunty used to serve wonderful plain dosa. Plain and white, minimal use of oil. .. was a boon to me, since I was introduced to weight watching back those days. In fact, I enjoyed standing in a long queue with other fellow pg mates, chitchat as aunty would pour those wonderful rice dal pan cakes on our plates by turns ☺
Dosas are really easy to make. Just you need proper planning. There can be several kinds of dosas like plain dosa, masala dosa, set dosa, cheese dosa. Plain dosa is made with little oil and real simple digestible ingredients like rice and dal. It can be served to babies who have started chewing food. I make them at home with readily available ingredients at my home and following a simple less time consuming method. Here’s my recipe for plain dosa.
Fermentation time for plain dosa: Approximately 10 – 14 hours
Cooking time for 6 – 7 plain dosa : 30 minutes
Ingredients for plain dosa:
- 1.5 cups of rice (I used my normal daily rice)
- 1.5 cups of biuli dal or urad dal
- 1 tsp methi seeds or fenugreek seeds
- Refined oil
- Salt
Plain dosa – The recipe:
- Soak normal daily rice and urad dal for good 3 – 4 hours in water. Add a tsp of methi seeds or fenugreek seeds. Methi seeds assists fermentation
- Afterwards, grind them to make a fine paste. Let the paste ferment over night. In winters it takes longer to ferment properly. In summers 9 -10 hours are just enough!
- After fermentation, mix a little salt. Dosa batters are better if they are a bit free flowing or running kind. So if need be, add little water to get the perfect consistency of batter
- Heat a non-stick tawa properly. The tawa should be hot enough. Now, brush little refined oil all over the surface of the pan. Grease the surface properly
- Add a portion of the batter to the center of the pan and spread it with the help of the back of a laddle properly in spiral motion over the surface of the non-stick pan. Wait for sometime and let it get fried at the bottom. Slowly, with a spatula, start lifting up the edges of the dosa like you do in case of an omelette 🙂 Slowly, lift up the center of the dosa as well. Flip the other side of the dosa and cook for 1 more minute or so
- Now, take the plain dosa out of the pan and serve hot! You can serve sambar or coconut chutney along with it!
