The secret to make crisp yet soft dosas without using a lot of oil is in the batter. Dosa batter should be fermented to the right consistency for good, tasty dosas. Different people make dosa batter in different ways, few add cooked rice, few add puffed rice and few add rice flakes (poha). I use poha which makes the dosas light and fenugreek (methi) seeds for fermentation and colour. There are few more secret ingredients revealed in below recipe. Look out for the notes mentioned in the recipe for important pointers.
This dosa batter is an all-rounder batter for making different variety dosas like masala dosa, benne masala(butter masala dosa), ghee masala dosa, open dosa, dosa uttapam and the list goes on. Doesn’t it look like a menu card from a Darshini/hotel/dosa camp? I use a heaped half cup measure(U.S 1/2 cup = 120 Ml) to measure out all ingredients, which will be sufficient to make dosas for 4 people. Use 1 cup measure or any measure you want to make dosa batter in the same ratio, 1:3:1, urad dal:rice:poha ratio.
- 1 Measure or Cup urad dal/black gram/uddina bele
- 1 Measure or Cup raw rice/sona masuri rice
- 1 Measure or Cup basmati rice
- 1 Measure or Cup idli rice/fat grained rice/mota daana chaawal
- 1 Measure or Cup medium poha/avalakki/rice flakes
- 10-12 or ¼ Tsp methi/fenugreek/menthya
- ½ Tbsp chana dal/kadale bele/gram dal
- Salt to taste
- Clean and wash urad dal and chana dal twice
- Clean and wash all 3 types of rice twice/thrice
- Soak both dals along with poha, methi seeds for 7-8 hrs or overnight
- Soak all 3 types of rice for 7-8 hrs or overnight
- Drain the water from the dals and grind with water as required into a thick batter. Add salt while grinding. See notes
- Drain the water from the rice and grind. Add salt while grinding. See notes
- Mix rice batter with dal batter
- Cover and let it ferment for 12-15 hrs or overnight or sometimes a day. See notes
Adding basmati rice gives a nice fragrance and taste to dosas
Adding chana dal/kadale bele makes dosas crisp but do not add more of it, dosas will become very crisp and turn hard when it cools
Adding methi seeds/menthya helps in fermentation of dosa batter and also gives a nice golden colour to dosas
Adding poha makes dosas soft and fluffy
If the weather is very hot and humid do not mix salt while grinding, instead add after batter is fermented just before making dosas
Depending on temperature, leave dosa batter to ferment overnight or 10-12 hrs. Sometimes I keep the dosa batter for 20-22 hrs for fermentation when weather is very cold
If weather is very cold, pre-heat oven to 40-50 Deg C. turn off oven. Leave the oven door open for 15 minutes. Cover the dosa batter and let it ferment inside the oven in warm environment
Same dosa batter can be used to make variety of dosas
Use 1 cup measure or any measure you want to make dosa batter in the same ratio, 1:3:1, urad dal:rice:poha ratio
Stepwise:
Clean and wash urad dal and chana dal twice
Clean and wash all 3 types of rice twice/thrice
Soak both dals along with poha, methi seeds for 7-8 hrs or overnight
Soak all 3 types of rice for 7-8 hrs or overnight
Drain the water from the dals and grind with water as required into a thick batter. Add salt while grinding. See notes
Drain the water from the rice and grind. Add salt while grinding. See notes
Mix rice batter with dal batter
Cover and let it ferment for 12-15 hrs or overnight or sometimes a day. See notes
This is after the batter has fermented. It increases in size and becomes airy and bubbly. Make dosas as required
