Plain Dosa

Planning A Summer Tradition

I am a cleanliness freak.

I literally freak out when my house is clean.

No. I am kidding! I freak out when I am the only one who is cleaning it and maintaining  it clean. Then I go through a phase when I don't clean the house at all. It's messy, dirty and things are everywhere.

It's like an obstacle course where we try to dodge things on the floor to reach another spot in the house. It's quite fun and challenging. It is mostly to improve Sonshine's hand to eye coordination and improve his tactical and problem solving skills. I am just saying.

Up to a certain point, I can handle clutter and mess.  Then comes a phase when everything has to be clean & tidy - nothing out of place. This phase does not happen on its on. Needs an outside stimuli -  we generally invite friends over.  I find my cleaning supplies from under a truck load of clutter and start the cleaning.  So, understanding in my family is that if I start cleaning the house, there is a party happening in the near future, like , in two days.

Anyways.... last summer (when it was time for me to do a mess control and of course, after it was done) we decided to call friends over and have a little get together. To make it  interesting, I decided to host a restaurant style dosa party. Dosa (Polo in Konkani) is south Indian specialty -  a crepe made generally from fermented batter(rice and udad).It is typically served as a breakfast item. But then, you can serve it for brunch, lunch, and even dinner.

There is a restaurant in Kochi (where I grew up), which serves variety of dosas.  I was trying to emulate that idea in my kitchen.  We planned a menu for the same and my husband worked on the Menu board. He tried to make the menu board look like the ones we see in Kerala's thattukada (street side eateries in Kerala). 

I love his Malayalam handwriting.

Sonshine cannot read or write Malayalam . When he saw the menu board, he had no clue whatsoever.  So, he took upon himself the job to translate the menu for his friends.

I love Sonshine's handwriting too. Come on... I have to say it - he is my Son.  Sonshine's logic was that if he keeps the prices low, people would eat more (without worrying about the price) and he would earn more. I guess Sonshine was trying to earn some college funds. Please note that we did not charge anybody for the dosas.

A little party planning helped. Made the dosa batter ready and the accompaniments like Sambhar and chutney too. During the party, the only job left to do was to make the dosas.

It was an evening of fun and laughter and one of the favorites at the party was the simple and humble plain dosa. I should probably make this a tradition and host another one this year as well. What say, my friends?

Before you proceed to the plain dosa recipe, learn how to make dosa batter.

Plain Dosa

Dosas are a staple South Indian breakfast. Made our of naturally fermented rice batter and are vegan and gluten-free.

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Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups Dosa Batter fermented.
• Oil for greasing

Instructions

 

• Heat a non-stick griddle on the stove.
• Grease the griddle with oil.
• Reduce to medium high heat. Using a ladle, pour about ¼ cup of fermented dosa batter. Using the back of your ladle, spread the batter in gentle circular motion from the center of griddle to the sides to get a thin crepe.
• Reduce the heat and cook till the dosa starts to brown.
• Sprinkle a little oil on top. Cook for about a minute or till the dosa starts to brown.
• Flip over and cook for a few another minute or so. Fold in half.
• Repeat to make more dosas.
• Serve with Coconut Chutney.

Notes

Make sure that griddle is sufficiently hot. To check, you can sprinkle some water and if it sizzles immediately, your griddle is almost ready. Give it about half more minute to heat before you pour the batter.

Making a thin crepe using the batter takes practice. Don't give up.

If the dosa (crepe) is not very thin, you can cook the dosa covered with a lid.

If you find your non-stick pan is too greasy to spread the batter properly, use a paper towel to wipe excess oil.

You can serve Dosas with Sambhar as well as coconut chutney.

Serve the dosa hot - easiest way to serve is to fold the crepe in half.