Idly Dosa Batter

Idly and Dosa is a comfort food for every south indian. A crispy dosa and soft idly combined with chutney and sambar makes it all the more better. But to enjoy these first we have to prepare the batter . That is not a quick process. Though its easy takes long time for the batter to be prepared.

 You can find dosa/idly wet batter in any Indian grocery shop and the dishes come really well with them but nothing like home made if its not made from scratch.

We usually prepare batter on weekend to be used for the whole week and depending on the number of people in the house the amount of batter increases. I remember from childhood there used to be 7 members in the house and my mom used to prepare a huge box of batter.

We need to soak urud dal and rice for atleast four hours and grind them and let it ferment for atleast 6-8 hours before it can  be used. Ive seen dosas prepared without fermentation though it comes good its quite raw and that fermeneted salty taste is missing.

And when preparing dosa there are two varieties of rice you can use normal raw rice or idly rice (par boiled one). raw rice better use indian varieties like (ponni or sona masuri) , dont use basmathi rice or thai rice varieties, it comes very bad speaking from experience.

The batter prepared with idly rice can be used as common batter for both idly and dosa . but if raw rice is used then only dosa can be made.

This batter recipe is for common idly /dosa.. for every busy women who dosent want to prepare multiple batters..

Recipe:

Ingredients:

urud dal - 1 cup
idly rice - 3 cups
salt as needed

Procedure:

• Soak dal and rice separately for atleast 4-5 hours.
• Once soaked use either wet grinder or mixie( food processor) to grind them to paste.
• first add idly rice to grinder and let it grind it coarsely and then add urud dal.
• dont add too much water the initial batter should be thick
• While grinding take the batter between fingers and feel the texture once its smooth its done.
• If we want to prepare for next morning.. soak today morning and grind them evening and let it ferment overnight.

Sponge dosa

We south Indians love Dosa. With so many varieties of dosa around you would never get bored all the week. With the same dosa batter we can prepare different dosa dishes, but have you tried different Dosa recipes.. with different batters. Sponge dosa or steamed dosa is a healthy and spongy alternative.

Ingredients:

urad dal / black gram without outershell – 1/4 cup
plain raw rice - 1/4 cup
par boiled rice - 1 1/2 cup
fenugreek seeds - 1 tbspn
salt - 1tbspn to taste
water

Procedure:

Soak urud dal, raw rice, par boiled rice and fenugreek seeds together for 4-5 hours.
Grind it to a smooth paste and add salt as required.
Keep it for 4-5 hours to ferment. The no of hours to ferment depends on the climate. If the climate is quite hot it will ferment in 4 hours , in cold climates it might take 8 hours to ferment.
To know if the batter is fermented the quantity of the batter increases and you see bubbles .

Once the batter is ready with fermentation. Add water to make it a watery mixture.for the quantity above add 1/4 cup of water assuming the current batter is thick. It should be thin than a normal pancake/dosa batter.

Place the flat pan/tawa on the stove. Once heated take a ladle of batter . As the consistency is watery it will spread nicely or just spread it lightly to form a circle.

It will start forming bubbles. pour 1/2 spoon oil around the dosa and cover it with a lid for 1-2 mins.
No need to flip the dosa . But you can flip it to roast the other side of dosa too.

Serve it with chutney or Sambar.

This dosa is used as part of Set dosa recipe and used as steamed dosa without pouring any oil.