Dosa with sambar & chutney is a South Indian comfort food…
If you search for the recipe for making dosa batter you’ll come across many recipes. The 2 key ingredients are rice & urad dal or black lentil, without these 2 ingredients we can’t make the dosa batter. Based on what kind of dosa texture we need, a few other ingredients can be added like chana dal, fenugreek seeds & poha or flattened rice. If we add more rice the dosa will turn crispy & more dal will make the dosa soft.
In this recipe, I’ve added soaked white poha or flattened rice along with 2 cups rice for 1/2 cup urad dal, this rice urad dal ratio has made the dosas crispy.
I ferment the dosa batter in the Instant Pot yogurt setting for 10 hours or overnight. While making dosas, we have to soak the rice & dals in the afternoon for 4 hours & grind everything later in the evening & allow the batter to ferment overnight, this way the dosa batter will be well fermented the next morning & we can enjoy dosas for breakfast.
We gotta make the dosas in a cast iron tawa or skillet, it will make a huge difference in the texture, aroma & the dosa will turn golden in color. So, don’t even think of making your dosas in a non-stick pan.
Sambar Recipe, Click Here
Tomato Chutney Recipe, Click Here
- Sona Masoori rice or parboiled rice- 2 cups
- Chana dal- 1 tbsp
- Fenugreek seeds- 1 tsp
- Urad dal- ½ cup
- Poha or Flattened rice- ½ cup
- To a bowl, add rice, chana dal & fenugreek seeds.
- Add water & let soak for 4 hours.
- To another bowl, add urad dal & soak in water for 4 hours.
- To another bowl, add poha & soak in water for 4 hours.
- After 4 hours of soaking, drain the water taken in a strainer & rinse the rice & dals well in water.
- First, grind the soaked rice along with 2 cups water.
- To the ground rice, add the soaked poha & grind till smooth.
- Pour the ground rice to a pot.
- Next, grind the soaked ural dal along with 1 cup water till smooth.
- Pour into the ground rice & combine well.
- I’ve fermented the batter in my Instant Pot- place the stainless steel pot in the main pot.
- Select the yogurt setting, set the time to 10 hours & let ferment overnight.
- If you live in a warm place, the pot with the batter can be kept on the countertop overnight.
- Or preheat the oven to the lowest temperature for 5 minutes & turn off the oven; keep the pot in the oven & let ferment overnight for 8 hours.
- The next morning, take the pot out of the Instant pot or the oven.
- Combine well.
- Pour some batter into a bowl, add ½ tsp salt & mix well.
- Place a cast iron skillet or tawa over medium-high heat.
- For best tasting & golden dosas make the dosas in a cast iron tawa.
- Grease the skillet with oil.
- Pour 1 large spoonful of dosa batter, spread using the back of the spoon.
- Drizzle some ghee.
- Let the bottom side turn golden.
- Flip over & let the other side turn crispy & golden.
- For making small or kutty dosa- pour the batter on the skillet, don’t spread the batter, drizzle some ghee.
- Let the bottom side turn golden, flip over & let the other side cook.
- Enjoy the hot crispy & delicious dosas with sambar or chutney.
- In winter: If you've fermented the dosa batter in the Instant Pot, after overnight fermentation we can make dosas the next morning for breakfast. The leftover batter can be kept on the countertop for one more day so that the batter will ferment perfectly. After that, you can keep the batter in the refrigerator for a week.
