Baalekaayi Dose (Plantain dosa) - meet this delicious coastal Karnataka special!

"A child hugs everyone until an adult teaches it not to" ~ unknown

I sit down after a normal Sunday of chores & activities, looking at the hundreds of pictures I have taken and copied to folders, neatly arranged by the dish name, waiting for me to pick one and start writing.. I spend some time trying to pick the one dish that talks to me today, the one that I can talk about today with you all. I do choose what I want to blog about. But just as I start to catch the floating thoughts in my head, all that comes out as I try to hit the keys on my keyboard are jumbled words, nothing related to the recipe but everything related to the world around me, around us..

I sat staring at the screen for an hour, tried to take a break by doing something else, tried to organize thoughts by doing mundane tasks such as prepping for tomorrow's work day lunch, spending time on enhancing the pics, watermarking them etc but I knew in my heart that I wanted to say something different and far away from the recipe I chose to blog about today. I don't usually let things happening around me take control of my emotions but sometimes it is hard not to respond to what is happening around me. Every day this past week, I have woken up to read/hear about some incident, from Dhaka to Texas to Louisiana to France. People are hurting and it doesn't matter whether you white, black, male, female, adult or child. 4 college students lost their lives in this unreasonable violence, 4 young lives with hopes and aspirations, budding spirits just went away before it was time. Black & white family men lost their lives leaving young children and wives behind to tend to a life of memories and loneliness. I strongly believe that every life matters and deserves respect, irrespective of where you come from, what your religious beliefs are and the color of your skin. Let us teach the children to appreciate diversity, accept differences and embrace everyone as they are. My prayers for each of the families trying to face the grief due to the loss of a loved one. I am in general a very hopeful, positive person and believe that there is a lot of good in everybody, hope it finds the strength to prevail over violence.

I have a very simple recipe today, if you are a dose (dosa) lover, you will like this version. I saw this a few years back in the blogosphere, that was before I was a blogger. I have talked to my Mangalorean friends since then and learnt that it is a very common dose in the coastal homes since banana is grown in plenty in every backyard and most every part of the plant finds its way into the kitchen and into a recipe. A dose made with raw banana intrigued me and I tried it. The flavor is so fresh and the dose so tasty, we got hooked on it. Whats more, it is very easy to put together (soak, grind and pour) and doesn't require any fermentation at all. You can make this for breakfast, lunch or dinner as it can be as light or as filling as you want it to be. The traditional version has rice in it and just adds the chopped plantain. Over the years, I have made up my own version of this recipe by adding a little bit of urad dal (for the soft texture) and methi/fenugreek seeds as it is generally added to dose batter and brings a nice hue when dose is cooked. You can skip these and stick to the rice, plantain, salt version if you prefer. One of my friends adds 1/2 cup of shredded fresh coconut which also lends an undeniable sweet taste and soft texture to the dose.

Baalekaayi or raw banana/plantain is one of my favorite vegetables, and I always end up getting them from the grocery store if they look fresh. This versatile vegetable can go into the recipe all by itself or pair up and play nicely with others. You can find many of my favorite recipes using this vegetable on the blog here, here, here, here, and here :-). We have always had these plants in the backyard in Mysore and mostly grew the ripe fruit variety at home. I only have ornamental plants in pots here as the weather doesn't allow me to put them in the ground. They move in to the house as the cooler months come by but stay outdoors and sway happily during summer. Fruits or not, I love the plant just like that so they are here to stay with us..

What do you need? 
1 big plantain/green banana
1 cup quinoa*
3/4 cup millet (sawa or foxtail)*
1 tsp urad dal
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
3-4 green chilies
2-3 Tsp oil to roast dose

* Look in the notes for replacing it with rice

How do you make Baalekaayi dose? 

• Wash quinoa and millet in a couple washes of water. 
• Soak them together for 4-5 hours
• Wash, pat dry the plantain. 
• Remove the ends and peel the plantain.
• Chop into bite sized pieces. 
• Drain the water, take it to a blender along with the green chilies. 
• Grind into a coarse paste with 1/2 cup of water. 
• Add the chopped plantain pieces and grind to a smooth paste. 
• Add water if needed and bring the consistency to a pouring liquid (imagine a thick buttermilk)
• Add salt, mix well and let it sit for about 10 minutes. 
• Heat the dose griddle, add a drop or two of oil on the pan. Take a piece of paper towel and rub down the oil evenly on the surface of the griddle. 
• Mix the batter, take a ladleful and pour it in the center of the griddle, using the back of the griddle and in a circular motion, spread the dose to a nice, round circle. 
• Add a couple drops of oil around the surface of the dose and let it cook for a minute and half until the bottom side cooks well and turns golden in color. 
• Using a spatula, slowly nudge the dose from the edges and remove it from the griddle. 
• If you want to, you can cook it on both sides. Fold the dose in half and serve with your choice of chutney or pudi :-)

Notes: 

• Traditionally this dose is made with rice as it is the grain of choice in Karnataka, I replaced it with a combination of quinoa & millet. If you want rice, use 2 cups of rice instead. Rest of the procedure is same. 
• Green chilies add a tiny hint of spice, if you are making it for children or don't like chilies, reduce or skip them together.
• I sometimes add some fresh cilantro or ginger while grinding to make it flavorful. 
• Taste in this dose comes from the plantain, choose green skinned, firm plantains in the recipe. 
• I use my cast iron pan for making dose, it is well seasoned by years of use and hardly needs extra oil to roast dose and gives a bright golden color to the dose. 

Tips for making good colored dose: 

• Use heavy cast iron pan if possible. 
• Heat the pan well, when you sprinkle a few drops of water, it should sizzle furiously. 
• Rub the surface of the pan with a chopped piece of onion before you ladle out the batter. 
• Reduce heat to medium while you pour the batter and once done, increase the heat. 
• Some doses are cooked on one side only while others are roasted on both sides. 
• Thickness (or thinness) of dose is a personal choice. Thinner ones are for people that enjoy crispy doses while thicker ones are for those who love the soft, velvety texture :-)
• Adding 1/2 Tsp of sugar brings the golden color in dose, if you are ok with the extra sugar, go ahead. 

This is how BH likes to make this dose :-)

He was preparing it on a weekday morning and I usually wrap the breakfast to go, so he made my dose, slathered it with loads of chutney pudi, deep roasted it and rolled it for easy handling and eating once I reach work. Ah I am blessed!!

Pour the batter, add a liberal dose of chutney pudi on top. Let it cook

Once the bottom is golden brown, flip it over and let the other side get hot for a few secs

Take it onto a foil, roll it! I gobble it after I reach work and ready to eat bf

Dasha Ratna uttappa - a super pancake made with multi grain flour and vegetables

I admit, I am such an OCP(Obsessive Compulsive Planner) :-). I feel lost and think it is very inefficient executing things when I don't have a plan. I sometimes feel jealous of people that do things quite differently, on the fly, especially those who seem to go into the war zone without a clear plan of action :-). I know these kind of people, BH being a prime example. For all my thinking ahead and planning, he comes in and changes things at the last minute. But it works well with the two of us complementing each other except when one of us decides to be not s(u)p(p)ortive about the other's approach :-), well that is another story for another day.

In addition to being an OCP, I am a visual person too, may be they coexist.  For example, I get into the kitchen having completely drawn a picture in my head of what I use from the pantry, refrigerator, to the details of which pans and pots and all the way down to the sequence of how I will clean, chop to make the most of my time. I actually close my eyes and picture my entire menu before I go into the kitchen. Any given point in the week, you can tap me on the shoulder and I will tell which exact corner of the refrigerator you will find the ingredients you are looking for, same with the pantry. I told you I was an OCP. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying this because I am on a boasting spree, I know I can be a pain in the neck for people around me, it is just who I am. I think about the cooking I will do when I get home while I am on my way home on the bus, not that it always turns out the way I saw it in my head but it helps me going in to have a plan and I am ready with a backup if there was to be a turn of events. To my credit, I can be flexible and adapt quickly to changes too, I can shift gears and still go. Ok, I agree that was quite a bit of bragging :-) and so I stop right now.

I had to give you all that introduction so you have the context for what I am going to tell you next. A couple of weeks back, as the weather turned warmer, both of us grandiosely signed ourselves up for some much needed spring cleaning around the house and also some long pending home improvement work. We went around and pulled all the things down at once and thought we would finish all the cleaning in one weekend. Only later did we realize, it was a tall order and definitely not to be done in one weekend :-). The living room and the bed rooms have been looking as if a storm went through them. Busy week days rolled in, BH got attacked by some seasonal allergies and has been coughing & sneezing. Thankfully there were no visitors to see the mess of the house and we have been managing ok. I didn't cook much at all and when I did it was the simplest, blandest stuff you could imagine. As the week finally wound down, I wanted to make my man happy again and chose to take the short cut to his heart via the stomach by cooking a sumptuous meal :-). I had soaked some black chana on Friday night to make my kadala curry with yummy rolls of puttu for Saturday brunch. After slowly getting up in the morning, was getting ready to start on it.  As I put my soaked chana into the cooker and close the lid, he breezes in and announces in a chirpy tone that he was feeling fit and was ready to get on the home improvement, AND needed a lot of help from the wifey.

This is how these things go in our family. There are certain activities I hate to do and there are some he has no interest in and we let each other be. While I love cooking in the kitchen, I feign dumbness when it comes to lifting heavy things, wielding hammers, electric drills etc and let the man of the house do the job. In all fairness, he is very good at these things and infact has a flair for building things with his hands. But he needs me, the moral supporter and cheer leader to be around him even though I don't help much except for maybe lift a couple of tools and hand it to him, stand away and confirm things are straight or aligned as they need to be :-). So when he said he needed my help I knew I wouldn't be able to spend my planned time in the kitchen making puttu and needed to come up with an alternative quickly. Our man's home improvement activities keep expanding based on his energy levels and I could see he had a good supply of it especially this sunny morning which also meant I needed to have something that would be easy to make, keep us full for longer without tasting like rubber :-). I quickly changed my plan of puttu & kadala curry and made this quick brunch.

Let me jump back to the title of the post here and break it down a little for you so you don't think I am anything less than claritin clear today:-). If you enjoy Indian curries in restaurants, I am sure you are no stranger to a side dish called 'Navaratan korma', it is a delicious curry made with (Nava)9 vegetables including nuts and dry fruits which makes it a slightly sweetish curry. You probably have also tried the famous panchmela dal made with (panch)five different lentils, I have my version of it here. I liked the numbering system in these dishes and wanted to create one for a long time :-). As I was mixing up the flours and adding vegetables, I couldn't help counting and thought the 10 ingredients in this recipe were screaming me to be creative while naming the dish.

I have tried this dasha ratna dose multiple times before and it is infact one of our favorite breakfasts. Dasha (=Ten), Ratna (=Jewels because all the ingredients used are a dream come true for a healthy, low carb diet food). If the name is a tongue twister, go ahead and call it simply 'vegetarian pancake'. There are 5 different flours I used in this recipe and 5 different vegetables making a total of ten main ingredients. This is my own home made multi grain flour, completely gluten free (Yay, you can eat this even if you have gluten allergy) and doesn't have white rice or semolina(bonus, if you are looking to reduce your carbs). To top it all, it has a good dose of the probiotic gold in the form of yogurt that every health coach tells you to eat regularly. You can increase/decrease any flour or replace with another of your choice, there will be variations in taste and texture. I do that all the time and encourage you to find your best fit too by experimenting. As far the vegetables are concerned, I grated a whole big zucchini - my favorite summary squash and added other vegetables I had on hand. You can replace the vegetables I have added with those you prefer, this uttappa will certainly not complain :-).

I chose to call this uttappa since it is spread thicker than regular dosa/dose. So here is how I made my dasha ratna uttappa this weekend. A couple of these eaten with the kadala curry on the side kept us going until we cleaned up most of the mess in the living room, great progress!!. Sorry, I can't share any pictures yet, they will come later, we want to keep it a surprise for someone and not put a spoiler on the blog :-). It took me no more than 10 minutes to get the batter ready while the curry was cooking and I would spread an uttappa, reduce heat to low and let it cook while I was helping BH assemble, disassemble and such.

What do you need to make Dasharatna uttappa? 
1 cup oats flour (quick oats powdered in blender)
2 Tbsp ragi (finger millet) flour
2 Tbsp jowar (sorghum) flour
1 Tbsp Rajgira (amaranth) flour
1 Tbsp Bajra (pearl millet) flour

1 packed cup grated zucchini
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup finely chopped tomato
1 cup finely chopped bell pepper (any color)
1 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 cup plain yogurt (a day old, slightly sour is best)
2-3 green chilies finely chopped
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 - 3/4 cup water
2-3 Tsp oil to roast uttappa

How do you make Dasharatna uttappa? 

• Wash and remove the end of zucchini, grate it with the skin on the large hole side of a grater. 

• Chop the remaining vegetables finely. 
• Take a cup of rolled oats and powder them in the blender. 
• In a large mixing bowl, add all the flours, salt and the prepared vegetables. 

• Mix together with your fingers so the vegetables start to leave water. Let it sit for 5 minutes. 
• Add the yogurt and mix well. Let this sit for about 10 minutes. 

• If you have the thick pouring consistency, do not add any water. If not, add water slowly to get the consistency you need to spread. 
• Heat a flat griddle on medium heat, season it with a few drops of oil spread evenly all over. 
• Take a ladleful of the batter and put it in the center of the hot griddle, spread it lightly with the back of the ladle in about 2mm thickness. 

• Fill any gaping holes if they get formed with extra batter. 
• Put a few drops of oil around the edge of the uttappa, cover it with a lid, lower the heat and let cook for 2-3 minutes. 

• Lift the lid off, check the bottom side to see if it has reached your desired color and flip the uttappa gently over. 
• Do not cover, let it cook for a further 2 minutes before taking it off on to a plate. 

• This tastes great without any accompaniments also. 

Notes: 

• You can add other flours such as rice flour, maize/corn flour, semolina if you prefer
• Other vegetables that work well in this recipe are grated carrots, grated mooli/radish, grated bottle gourd or lauki, sauteed chopped fenugreek or spinach.
• The vegetables used here leave a lot of water content and the batter tends to get slightly liquidish over time. So do not add water if you don't need to. 
• Due to the yogurt and the vegetables, this will be a soft uttappa. You can cook longer on low heat to get a nice golden color but it will not be crispy. 
• Always cook this on low heat, covered on the first side for 2.5-3 minutes to let the raw vegetables get tender. 
• Spread them small to make it interesting and also avoid breaking while lifting off the griddle. 

Sweet corn Dose - nothing corny about this delicious breakfast

Yesterday was Summer solstice or official beginning of Summer for the year. Having enjoyed the mildly warm temperatures of the Spring (or "Vasantha" as it is called in Kannada) - the most joyous, coming back to life season of the year, I am looking forward to a great Summer too. How about you?

Our Summer doesn't coincide with the summer back home in India. When leaves started sprouting a few weeks back here, my extended family in India was already sighing at the hot temperatures there :-). Now when summer starts here, it is monsoon there - showers bringing the temperature down. And the cycle of catch up continues. The childhood summer synonymous with school vacations and plenty of free time has been replaced for a long time with short spurts of breaks or extended weekends and continued work. I still enjoy the season for their longer day time.

Along with a cheerful sun comes the bonus of fresh vegetables in most places and I love the sweet corns I get here. Don't mistake me, I love the Indian 'Bhutta' too but while it is called 'corn' in India, it is actually a type of Maize and usually harder grains than the sweet corn. While the Indian variety is perfect for roasting (and eating with spicy green chili paste, salt & lemon juice), American sweet corn is extremely tender and lends itself to be eaten raw, steamed or cooked. I relive my corn country stay by buying bushels of corn cobs in season. Now that it is summer, all the farmers markets are brimming with fresh corn and I usually get them every week. DD loves the buttered up, 'chat-ey' version of the corn (will get that recipe sometime on the blog) and I use them in cutlets, kabobs and other dishes. It is a great ingredient to add flavor and some body to the dish.

Bored of eating the same kind of dose every time? How about some variety? I had seen this corn dosa recipe in a Tarla Dalal book which used rice flour. I prefer to make my dosas from scratch unless it is a known 'quick fix' dosa like the godhi dosa or oats dosa or rava dosa. So I went ahead to make some modifications, soaked rice, ground it with some chilies, onion & ginger along with fresh sweet corn. Made to rest overnight, this batter produced super delicious (not needing any accompaniments on the side), thin & crispy or thick & fluffly dosas. You can also make them as soon as you grind them but I like to grind it up the previous night for a next morning breakfast. They were golden yellow in color with a pronounced corn flavor. Delicious addition to the breakfast list.

While enjoying this easy, yummy dosa, also enjoy some Spring pictures from my neck of the woods. Some are from our yard and some clicked on the road at random places - the theme is the season itself in all its glory.

What do you need to make sweet corn dosa?
1.5 cups rice (I used sona masoori)
3/4 cup sweet corn kernels (use fresh ones in season)
1/2 Tsp fenugreek seeds
2 Tbsp thick poha/avalakki/flattened rice
1/4 cup chopped onion
2-3 green chilies
1 inch piece ginger
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
oil to roast dosa

How do you make sweet corn dosa?

• Wash and soak rice, poha and fenugreek seeds in 3 cups of water for 4-5 hours. 
• Peel the outer cover of the corns and with a sharp knife, separate out the kernels from the cob. 

• Rinse and wash the soaked rice, let the water drain out. 
• Grind rice to a smooth paste using 1/2 - 3/4 cup of water. 
• Once the rice loses the grainy texture, add the corn, chopped onion, green chilies and ginger and continue to grind until everything is smooth.
• Mix well, keep aside to rest for 5-6 hours or overnight. It doesn't really ferment like the regular dosa but the resting period makes the dosas softer.

• Add salt and mix well. Adjust consistency with water if needed. 
• Prepare a flat griddle/dosa pan on medium heat, once ready, pour a ladlefull of batter and in a quick circular motion, spread the batter in to a thin circle. 
• Put a few drops of oil around the dosa and let it cook for a couple of minutes. 

• Add finely chopped onion and/or green chilies on top to enhance taste. 
• Flip the dosa over and cook for 30 seconds. 
• Serve hot with chutney or any powders of your choice. 

Notes: 

• You can make thin, crispy dosas or slightly thick & fluffy dosas with this batter. Thicker the batter, thicker will be the dosa. Adjust the consistency. 
• You can add chopped onion, green chilies on top of the dosa when you first spread the batter to make it spicier. 
• Substitute with canned or frozen sweet corn if you don't get fresh corn but be forewarned that the taste will differ. If you are using frozen corn, you should soak it in warm water to bring it to room temperature before grinding.
• I usually add salt to my dosa batter before making dosas - this keeps the batter from becoming watery. 

Menthya Ade dose(Ada Dosa) - Proteins and a dash of fiber in every tasty bite

Did you notice that I added an alternate pronunciation in my title? I find myself mixing dosa/dosai with dose when talking to my non-Kannadiga friends and I just wanted to be clear that the world famous dosas or the lentil crepes are simply called Dose (with a long 'e' at the end) in Kannada. As I keep mentioning, there are just innumerable varieties of Doses available and they just seem to be growing as chefs get more & more creative and experimental with the ingredients.

Ade Dose is a protein packed dosa (more than usual) because the proportion of lentils is much higher in this dosa as compared to the regular ones. I have seen really thick, almost rotti like Adais in some restaurants but I prefer my ada dosa to be light in texture. It is very easy to spoil this really tasty variety of dosa if you are not careful with the combination of dals. Urad dal lends the soft texture as does the rice & oats, at the same time too much of urad or moong dal make the dosa unfit for spreading, so if you are experimenting with other lentils, keep this in mind. I once ordered an adai in a famous resturant in the Bay area which looked and tasted just like leather slippers (not that I have ever had them for food:-)). The key to softer and fluffier ada dosa is the right mixture of lentils and rice. Adding oats is something I started a couple of years back and by trial & error reached the correct balance of rice and oats in this recipe. Addition of chopped methi leaves gives a wondeful aroma to the ade dose. Check out the notes for hints on replacement of ingredients. Some of my friends add Toor dal and also peanuts in this recipe but here is how I make it.

The advantages with Ade dose is that it doesn't need to ferment too much like the regular dosa and you can make them with a couple of hours setting time. A regular mixer will do very well for this batter as it doesn't have to be ground too long, but just enough for the lentils to turn soft.

On another note, I watched a movie recently called 'Morning Glory', it is probably a couple of years old and stars Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton. I guess the cast is what attracted me to the movie to start with and then a little bit of the story line. It is a very guessable, feel good end but has some wonderful moments. I completely enjoyed watching the workoholic Rachel McAdams run around like a headless chicken trying to get her morning show ratings up while trying to drag along a very  demoralized group of people, Harrison Ford is good as the crusty, bitter, once very successful journalist and Diane Keaton as always adds that extra splash of liveliness whenever she is on screen.

So this movie is about a young, executive producer of a TV show that has no pedigree, no big college tags on her resume, has been fired (for reasons not her own) from her job, gets into this 4 decade old morning show and has the mountainous task of getting its ratings up. Harrison Ford is just 'spending' time on the network because his contract allows him to do it and he doesn't want to do any piece that he doesn't deem 'serious enough'. Diane Keaton is a former AZ beauty queen who has been on the show the longest and has seen many, many EPs come and go. So why am I talking about a random, 2 year old movie on my food blog? Well, the movie ends with HF putting on an apron and cooking up a 'fluffy', delicious Italian Frittata while explaining to his morning show viewers that he cooks it only for people he cares for. For all the fun, frolic and chaos in the movie it actually touched a chord with some real touching advice on the importance of balancing work & life which I think was what resonated with me most. So now that I have told you the story and spoiled it :-), if you are looking for a movie to watch while on your treadmill, this suits the mood, pace and timing perfectly, that is what I did :-). It is on Netflix, so watch it if you get a chance.

What do you need to make Ade Dose/Ada Dosa? 
Makes about 20-22 home sized dosas
To soak: 
1/2 cup rice (I use regular sona masoori or long grain)
1/2 cup chana dal
1/2 cup moong dal
1/2 cup urad dal
1/8 Tsp fenugreek seeds
3-4 dry red chilies
Others:
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 Tsp black pepper
1 small piece of ginger
2 Tblsp chopped onion (optional)
1 cup finely chopped fresh fenugreek leaves
1 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
About 4.5 cups of water to make the batter
1-2 Tsp oil for making Dosas.

How do you make Ade Dose/Ada Dosa? 

• Soak all the ingredients listed under 'To soak' for 4-5 hours.
• Wash & drain the water. 
• Powder the oats in the mixer, add the chopped onions, ginger and soaked red chilies and grind it into a smooth paste adding water as needed. 
• Add the soaked dals and rice and grind into a semi solid smooth paste adding water. 
• Take the ground batter into a big bowl, add salt, mix it well and set aside for 3-4 hours. 
• When ready to make ade dose, add the fresh ground black pepper and finely chopped fenugreek leaves, adjust the batter to a pouring consistency and give it a good mix. 
• Heat a flat griddle on medium heat, when hot, pour a ladleful of batter in the center of the griddle and with a rapid motion spread it into a thin round of about 6" diameter. 

• Drizzle oil around the edge of the dosa and let it cook for a minute or until the edges start to lift up slightly. 
• With a flat spatula, flip the dosa over, let it cook for about 30 seconds and take it off on a plate, serve hot with any chutney or curry of choice. 

• Repeat for the remaining batter or for as many dosas as you want.

Notes: 

• If your mixer jar is small, do the grinding in batches and mix them together at the end.
• If you are not using oats, increase the rice to 1 cup and follow the same process.
• You can replace chopped fenugreek leaves with other flavorful greens such as spinach or drum stick leaves. Avoid greens that take long time to cook such as Swiss Chard or Kale. If you do not have access to these greens, add a handful of cilantro or coriander leaves while grinding the batter.

• You can replace dry red chilies completely with black pepper if you prefer that flavor.
• I like just a faint hint of onions in this recipe but if you prefer, you can increase the quantity of onions or add finely chopped onions to the batter before making dosas. 
• Setting aside for a couple of hours definitely softens the texture of the end product but take care not to over ferment so the sour taste sets in. The batter should be fresh tasting.
• The thickness and crispiness of dosa can be adjusted by adjusting the batter consistency.  

Set dosa & kayi chutney - spongy & soft

A Very Happy Navaratri/Dasara to all my readers. It is great to see blogs busy with Navaratri celebrations and the prasada dishes. I have not started my Navaratri celebrations yet and will come back later in the weekend to tell you all about the goodies and celebrations.

Back to today's special - Set dosa, Why am I posting this during Navaratri? What is the relation you may ask. Nothing really, other than the fact that my family is game for this soft and spongy Dosa anytime of the year (and day). Also since I didn't make ahead any Navaratri dishes and don't plan to get my act together until later this week, here I am with my everyday Dosa but with a difference that will make you drool.

I have many non-South Indian and non-Indian friends who adore Dosas, these Indian pancakes (yeah, yeah, whatever.. since I can't seem to find a good word in my vocabulary that can actually do justice to these culinary marvels, let us go with pancakes for now) are a fixation with many of them. But for someone like me who grew up eating varieties of Dosas regularly, I find it hard to sometimes decide on a particular type of Dosa when I have my dosa loving guests. Most of them are exposed to the Dosa seen commonly in Indian restaurants and do not know the array of dosas that can be made at home. I usually fall back on the regular dosa unless it is a small group I can try something new on.

You find set dosa on the menu regularly in Mysore, Bengaluru restaurants though they seem to have morphed over years especially in the newer places catering to different palates, I saw a cheesy set dosa on my last visit. These are thick, soft and spongy not to be confused with the Uttappams which are made with regular dosa batter over fermented on purpose or by accident. Set Dosas have their own separate batter and ingredients that give the unique texture to it. Over the years I have experimented with many variations of set dosa recipes with poha, baking soda/eno fruit salt, sour yogurt, puffed rice & saboodana. While most of them give you a near hit recipe, I am very pleased with this one here and have been making my Set dosas with it.

Set dosas get their name as they are served in sets of 3 (or sometime 4 if the size is small) stacked one on top of other. These dosas are never cripsy or even browned in color, you only see a few light golden spots on the dosa. Set Dosas are served with the typical saagu in restaurants which is spiced liberally with cinnamon & cloves and a side of coconut chutney. I served mine with an extremely simple and delicious chutney, look for the recipe below. My daughter who usually touches her dosa to the chutney (since I give her the 'eat it now or else' mommy glare :-)), actually eats visible amounts of this chutney with anything.

What do you need to make Set dosas? 
Makes about 20-22 Dosas of 6-inch diameter
1/2 cup urad dal
1/2 cup saboodana/sabbakki
3 cups rice (I used sona masoori)
1/4 cup thick poha/avalakki
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)

How do you make Set Dosa? 

• Wash & soak all the ingredients in water for 5-6 hours. 
• Rinse and drain water.
• Grind into a smooth batter using water to make a thicker than regular dosa batter but slightly thinner than idli batter. 
• Add salt, mix it well, set aside to ferment overnight (atleast 12-14 hours in warm weather).
• Heat a flat dosa griddle, pour a ladle full of batter and spread it lightly into a thick circle. 
• Cook for a minute and half and flip it over and cook for half a minute before taking it off. 

Notes:

• Keep the heat at medium and let the dosa cook for a minute or so without getting burnt or browned. 
• Do not let the batter ferment to become sour, set dosas are mildly sweet. 
• Original recipe tells you to soak the ingredients separately, I have made this many times and don't find a difference whether I soak them separately or together. Make your own choice. 
• If your batter has fermented right, you will see small holes developing in the dosa immediately after the batter touches the hot griddle. 
• Do not spread this dosa thin, it needs to have meat and be soft. 
• I din't use any oil on this dosa and used my non-stick griddle thus making it a healthier too. 

Coconut Chutney - Take 1 cup hurigadle (chutney dal), 1/2 cup grated coconut, 3-4 green chilies, a small piece of ginger, 1/2 Tsp chopped onions and salt to taste and blend them into a smooth chutney adding water. 

You can use garlic instead of onion if you love the flavor (that is what my friend does where I tasted this first). Adjust the amount of green chilies based on your heat tolerance. 

Neer dosa - delectable coastal Karnataka specialty

What is the best part about having friends from different places or travelling to different places in the world? There are many, first and foremost you make friends, you get to learn new things about different ways of life and yes there is definitely the most enticing part - food. I never shy away from asking a person for a recipe if I like it, you can even believe that I do sometimes chase people until they part with their recipes so I can recreate it in my kitchen.

We had this huge group of people in my project when I first started working many years ago. In those days (yeah, I make it sound like I am ancient but I am not, it is just that things have changed so rapidly) eating out was not the norm and even people who worked in the software industry preferred home made dabbas for the canteen or restaurant lunch. Infact, our office used to be in the city center in Bengaluru but we reserved eating out only to special occasions and occasional TGIFs. So a large group of us used to sit down together with our lunch boxes and just like in schools the boxes would go around for everyone to taste. And just like in schools, there used to be favorites and some of us would never get anything back in the dabba but some would come back with a little bit tasted :-).

One of my friends S is from Udupi region known for its distinctive flavors and yummy pickles and papads. His mom made some of the best neer dosas I have ever had. If there is a dosa I would carry in my lunch box, this is one as it stays soft even when cold. Aunty would pack him these soft layers with a spoonful of midi uppinakayi (pickled tiny whole mangoes) on top, so by the time we sat for lunch the dosa would have had a bath from the flowing pickle juice and would have turned just heavenly. There were 3 of us girls who would jump on S's lunch box every time he got neer dosa and poor S had to eat from one of our boxes whether he liked it or not. I think he did become smart since we started seeing more layers (= more dosas) in his lunch box after a while :).

Nammamma & akka make a similar dosa and we call it kaayi(coconut) dosa, the meat of tender coconut is used and the texture is very similar to neer dosa. This is usually made in Summer months when you drink a lot of tender coconut and have had enough of eating the pulp (though that has never been a problem for me as I love those soft, almost melting, not fully mature coconut and can just eat them forever). But 'neer dosa' is an authentic coastal karnataka name and recipe.

This is a dosa that doesn't get fermented like the traditional dosa and also needs just 3 ingredients including salt. If you are craving for soft dosas and do not want to wait for the batter to ferment, go ahead and give these a try. Eat it with any juicy pickle, chutney or spicy powders as the dosa itself is devoid of any spices.The rice to coconut ratio below gives a perfectly soft dosa, however you are welcome to increase the coconut if you like it. Although I have heard people making neer dosa without coconut, I recommend against it as dosa turns dry in that case.

Use a flat tawa/griddle and also notice how I don't call for a flipper. I use my non stick, flat, rectangular tawa and once cooked, I can easily peel the dosa and fold it in. This dosa is cooked only on one side, so keep the heat medium and the dosa covered so it cooks slowly and thoroughly. Aunty always folded the dosa twice, though I don't know the reason, here is my theory - it keeps the dosa soft for longer and it fit snugly into a lunch box :-).

What do you need to make Neer dosa? 
Makes about 5 regular size dosas
1 cup rice (I used regular sona masoori)
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 Tsp salt
5-6 cups water (adjust to get a flowing consistency)

How do you make Neer dosa? 

• Wash and soak rice in water for about 6 hours.
• Grind the soaked rice and coconut to a very smooth batter. 
• Add salt and adjust the consistency of the batter by adding water. The batter should be flowy, almost runny like reduced fat milk :-). 

• Heat the flat dosa griddle on medium heat, take a ladle full of batter and pour it in the center of the griddle. 
• Lift the griddle off the heat and with a quick motion move it around so the dosa batter is spread. Do not use the back of the ladle like regular dosas. 

• Cover and let it cook for a minute.

• Hold one end of the dosa and fold it in half. Fold once more so you get 4 layers. Take off heat and serve with any spicy pickle or chutney. 

Notes: 

• Grind rice and coconut to a very fine paste and add water to get the right consistency. 
• Add a Tsp of cumin seeds while grinding if you like the flavor. 
• The batter should be like milk, if it is thicker it will not self spread and the dosa becomes thick. 
• It is important to let the dosa batter find its destiny in terms of shape, do not be impatient and use the ladle like regular dosa. Your role is just to move the griddle a little bit to guide the flowing batter. You will become an expert in making decent circular dosas with some practice. 
• This dosa is white in color with very faint and few light brown spots and it is important to let it cook covered and on medium low heat.