There’s something really satisfying about having a bowl of something slowly changing on your counter-top. You don’t actually have to do anything. But all by itself it moves from one state to another. Flavours and smells develop, digestibility varies, and most importantly for me, good bacteria has a field day.
For gluten-intolerant people dosai (“dosa” = 1 crepe, “dosai” = multiple crepes) can be a godsend. You take lentils and you take Basmati rice and you soak them separately overnight in big bowls of water, drain, then blend them and let them sit together in one big bowl for another 6-12 hours with a bunch more water and some salt. The batter keeps for days afterwards in the fridge (though you could leave it out for one more if you don’t mind a more sour flavour. It’s Indian sourdough bread, really. You can even keep some of a batch of dosa batter to kickstart the fermentation of your next batch, just like sourdough, so you never lose the mother culture. But because it’s such a relatively quick fermentation (soy sauce and fish sauce take a year…) there’s no need to save any of it. You just make a new batch.
The only thing is that you’re going to want a decent blender, because the lentils don’t digest as well when they’re in bigger pieces, and I personally prefer a smoother consistency in the crepe. To help get this, you can use rice flour instead of also grinding Basmati. You won’t have as much of that good bacteria, and your kitchen will smell more like bitter lentils than nutty popcorn, but your dosa will be smooth.
Traditionally this is stuffed with a spiced potato mixture with turmeric, cumin, garlic and a little to a lot of chili pepper and served with a spicy tomato-lentil soup called sambhar, and a selection of chutneys (usually coconut, cilantro or mint, and tomato or tamarind). But I’ve also used dosa as a sandwich wrap, as a utensil with just about anything you’d eat bread with (it’s particularly great at picking up steamed carrots, fish, chicken and braised greens…), or just as a snack. I’ve also been known to have it for breakfast with honey and jam. So it’s a savoury bread, but it pairs well with sweets too. Really, it’s just fun to crack off crispy edge pieces and enjoy the different textures of the crunchy parts and the chewy, softer parts. The crepe never cooks perfectly evenly (I don’t have a traditional grill called a tawa, so I use a regular skillet or flat grill). They’re supposed to be giant crepes with maybe a 40 cm diameter, but unless you have a large open flame good luck getting a heat source to heat your pan consistently. Your average large stove burner doesn’t go above 25 cm. But never fear, because open flames are notoriously random anyway (think of the beauty of a Montreal bagel with its unevenly browned edges).
The point is, any pan will work. I make mini pancake-like crepes sometimes so more than one person can be served at a time. It takes a couple minutes to cook each dosa and they should be eaten right away, so it’s no fun if people are waiting for dosa while one person is eating a giant one. I actually also use two skillets, more often than not, to avoid this problem. But you can stack the dosai under a kitchen towel and keep them warm in the oven while you make a few more if that’s more practical.
Dosa Tips:
1. Fermented batter can be left in the fridge for about 5 days. It gets saltier and sourer, so when it gets really salty you should throw it out. That’s how you know when it’s had enough.
2. Really thin dosai can be cooked on just one side only.
3. Cook the dosa for a few minutes and then place the potato filling in the middle to warm it. When the dosa is cooked through wrap the crepe around the filling and serve.
4. You can use a mix of potato and Jerusalem artichoke, or kohlrabi, or even sweet potato in the filling to make it a little sweeter. It all depends on what kind of potato you use. No South Indian restaurant would do this, however. They would do raw onions and chopped cilantro and a generous sprinkle of chili powder and salt while the dosa is cooking. The result: horrible breath for at least a day, but tongue-tingling satisfaction.
5. Pour a portion of the batter into the pan like a crepe, then use the back of the spoon or measuring cup to help swirl it out toward the edges. It should be very thin. If it’s thicker it’s more like uttapam. Nothing wrong with uttapam, but it’s not dosa. Holes in the dosa are fine (encouraged, actually), but you don’t want to give it mutant arms and fjords.
6. You need a fair bit of oil so the dosa doesn’t stick, and you need to wipe the pan with an oiled paper towel between every dosa (this depends on your pan, but I needed to be liberal with the oil)
7. You can drizzle a little oil or water around the edges of the dosa as it cooks to keep them from rising and curling. Or brush the oil over the entire dosa. This is the help the heat distribute evenly throughout the crepe. Oil does this better than water.
8. Cook the dosa over medium heat first. If the dosa starts cracking it’s because the heat is too high. You won’t be able to fold it if it cracks.
9. If you flip it over to cook the second side it’s especially important that the heat not be too high and the pan be well-oiled to distribute the heat or the dosa will definitely not be pliable—still delicious, but just not a beautifully folded dosa.
10. And just remember that dosa is very heavy. Lentils take at least 15 minutes to cook from scratch normally. Some take longer. By fermenting/soaking them you’re cutting the cooking time but they’re still a little difficult to digest. Adding a sprinkle of fenugreek seeds to the second eight-hour fermentation period can help with this, but you should try to avoid having more than two large dosa per meal. You won’t feel full at first, but an hour later it’ll hit you like a ton of bricks in your stomach. You may get flushed or overheated because your digestive system is working hard. But it’s long-lasting fuel and it tastes delicious.
Okay! Ready!
Homemade Dosa
3/4 cup urad dal (or “urid” at South Asian grocers), soaked overnight in cold water
3 1/2 cups water (plus extra)
2 cups rice flour (also South Asian grocers. Not sweet rice flour and not sticky rice flour)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds, optional
1 tbsp high-heat oil (sunflower, vegetable, etc.
Drain urad dal. Blend. Add 1 cup water. Blend again.
Heat 1/2 cup water over low heat in small saucepan. Whisk in 1 tbsp rice flour and continue to stir until slightly thickened (max 5 minutes). Remove from heat.
Combine ground dal, salt, optional fenugreek, the rest of the rice flour, and 2 cups water in a large bowl. Add the rice paste from the saucepan and stir again. Cover (dish towel or plastic wrap) and leave on the counter for another 6 hours (or up to 12. In summer or in a hot, humid kitchen you don’t need to wait as long).
After wait time, add more water if necessary to make a thin crepe batter. Cook over medium-high heat (see notes above) until golden brown and cooked through. Optionally turn over to cook second side if thick. (About 2 minutes on first side and 1 minute on second. But overcooking is better than undercooking.)
Serve with sambhar, coconut chutney, and coriander chutney. To eat, tear off edge pieces of the dosa with your right hand and use them as utensils to scoop and squeeze pieces of the filling. Work your way in toward the centre of the dosa. It will have softened by the time you get there.
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