Crispy Dosa

Crispy Dosa (rice+lentil pancakes)

Ajoy Joshi (Chef/Owner at "Nilgiris, Australia") and Regi Mathew (Chef/Owner "Kappa Chakka Kandhari- Chennai and Bengaluru") recently gave me some great tips for  consistently making crispy Dosa and here is a recipe that seems to work. 

Of late, instead of using the oven with the oven light on to ferment the batter, I have been using an "Instant Pot" with pretty good results. During cold winter days in the US, this technique appears to work well.

Note: I have seen numerous recipes for dosa batter and I am not going to comment on whether this is better than others. I am posting it simply coz it seems to work for me 😅 

Step 1: 

Soak and REFRIGERATE the following for 4-5 hours. I start soaking around Noon so that around 5-6 pm, I can grind the batter.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Urad Gota (whole urad without skin) 
• 1 Tbspn. Fenugreek seeds
• 3 Cups iddli rice
• 1/2 Cup Poha (rice flakes)

Note: "Starter" to accelerate the fermentation: If you have a few tablespoons of leftover dosa batter from a previous batch (or you could borrow from a friend), you can use that in Step 2. 

Step 2: 

Note:The batter should be smooth and of "pouring" consistency and not too runny. So add water in small quantities while grinding.

• Grind the Urad + Fenugreek seeds  (I use a Blendtec high speed blender) with a little water until very smooth. I typically use the "Smoothie" setting. If the batter starts warming up because of the high speed, add a couple of ice-cubes to "cool" it down.

• Remove to the IP container.

• Next grind the rice, Poha, salt and "leftover" batter from a previous batch.

• Add to the batter in the IP container. Mix well.

• Set the IP to yogurt mode. Cover with a regular lid (Not IP lid)

• The batter should be well fermented in about 8-10 hours. 

• Mix well. Remove a small portion to use as as starter for your next batch of batter and keep refrigerated.