Dosa is perhaps the most symbolic South Indian food. Whenever one mentions South Indian dishes, the first picture comes to your vision is that of a Dosa with Sambar and Chutney, its well-suited complementaries. From the point of view of western foodies, Dosa can be regarded as a savoury pan cake rolled around a super delicious potato curry. Dosa, although a South Indian delicacy, finds fan following all over India.

I myself, not being a great fan of dosa never thought to prepare it at home. Still I took up the challenge with the pursuance of my husband,  to try my hand at this which turned out to be a success. Undoubtedly, the process is quite lengthy which needs quite a long list of ingredients, still the end product worths all the hard work.

Ideally the size of Dosa is quite large. However, since I do not possess that large equipments (tawa), I had to be satisfied with a miniature version, which nevertheless was equally crispy and tasty as the original ones.So, with full humility, I dedicate the recipe to all Dosa fans.

Ingredients for 15 mini Dosas :

For Dosa batter

1. Rice – 1 cup
2. Urad dal or Skinless Black Gram lentils – 1/3 cup
3. Flaked rice – 1/3 cup
4. Fenugreek seed or Methi – 1/3 tbspoon
5. Water as required
6. Salt to taste

For Sambar

1. Mung dal – ¼ cup
2. Chana dal or split chickpeas – ¼ cup
3. Chopped Onion – 1
4. Small pieces of Carrot – ½
5. Medium size pieces of Green Beans – 4 to 5
6. Medium size pieces of Drumsticks – 2
7. Chopped Tomato – ½
8. Grated Coconut – 3 tbspoon
9. Curry leaves – 8 to 10
10. Black Mustard seed – ½ teaspoon
11. Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon
12. Sambar Garam masala powder – 1 teaspoon
13. Ginger paste – ½ tbspoon
14. Green chilli paste – ½ tbspoon
15. Tamarind pulp as per your taste
16. Salt to taste
17. Oil – 2 tbspoon

For Spicy Potato Mixture

1. Boiled Potato – 3 large
2. Green peas
3. Chopped Onion – 1
4. Ginger paste – ½ tbspoon
5. Chopped Green Chilli – 2
6. Pinch of Turmeric powder
7. Cumin powder – ½ teaspoon
8. Coriander powder – ½ teaspoon
9. Mustard seed – ½ tbspoon
10. Curry leaves – 8 to 10
11. Salt to taste
12. Chopped Coriander leaves (optional)
13. Oil – 2 tbspoon

For Coconut Chutney

1. Grated coconut – 5 to 6 tbspoon
2. Ginger – ½ inch piece
3. Green chilli – 1 to 2
4. Yogurt – 2 tbspoon
5. Few Coriander leaves (optional)
6. Salt & Sugar to taste (sugar is optional)
7. Mustard seeds – ½ tbspoon
8. Red chilli – 2
9. Curry leaves – 5 to 6
10. Oil – 1½ tbspoon

Procedure :

Preparation of Dosa batter 

Wash and soak the rice, dal/lentils and fenugreek seeds in water over night.

Wash and soak the flaked rice in minimum amount of water for 30 minutes before making the paste.

Now take out the additional water from all the ingredients and reserve the water for later use. Make a smooth paste with rice, lentils, flaked rice and fenugreek seeds in a blender. Add small amount of reserved water if needed. Don’t make a thin paste.

Transfer the paste in a large bowl. Add salt to the mixture, cover the bowl and let the mixture ferment for at least 6 – 8 hours. I will recommend to ferment your batter for 8 hours to get a soft and crispy dosa.

After the fermentation, mix the batter very well, add water if it is too thick. The batter should be in pouring consistency.

Preparation of Sambar

While the batter is fermenting lets prepare other supplementaries.

To get the tamarind pulp, take some warm water and soak the tamarind in it for 30 mins. Once the tamarind gets soft, then squeeze the tamarind and remove the pulp. Strain it later.

Wash the mung dal and chana dal with water. Pressure cook them upto 4 whistles or until they are mushy. Then mash them completely either with a hand blender or in a mixer or simply by a “dal ghotni”.

Heat oil in a large pan over medium flame. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter.

Then add onion and fry until translucent. Add other vegetables and fry till they get mostly cooked.

Now add tomato, ginger paste, chilli paste, salt, turmeric powder, grated coconut and curry leaves. Cook for another few minutes and then pour the mashed dal into the vegetable mixture.

Add water to make the sambar at your desired consistency. Add sugar (optional), sambar garam masala and tamarind pulp to it. Let it boil for few minutes. Now sambar is ready to serve.

Preparation of Spicy Potato mixture

Roughly mash the boiled potato by hand.

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium flame. Add mustard seeds, let it splutter.

Add onion and fry till it gets translucent. Add ginger paste and saute it for a while.

Now add the mashed potato onto it.

Add salt, turmeric, cumin & coriander powder, green chillies, green peas and curry leaves into it. Mix them very well and fry for few minutes so that the flavour of these ingredients incorporate in the potato very well.

Put the gas off and add the coriander leaves but it is completely optional.

Preparation of Coconut Chutney

Grind the grated coconut, ginger, green chilli and coriander leaves along with yogurt, salt and sugar to make a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds and red chillies into it. Let the mustard seeds splutter and then add the curry leaves. Stir for a while and put the gas off. Now tamper the coconut paste with this mixture.

Making of Dosa

Put the “tawa” over very low flame. For making dosa you need your tawa to be just warm, not hot. That’s why after making each dosa sprinkle little amount of cold water over the tawa to bring its temperature down and sweep the water off with a clean cloth. It your tawa becomes too hot then put it under the cold running water.

Take the batter in a big ladle and pour at the centre of warm tawa. Spread the batter form the center to edges by making small circular motions by the bottom of the ladle.

Now sprinkle little amount of oil around the edge of the dosa and cook it for few minutes. Oil gives the dosa golden brown colour althoug it is optional.

Dosa is cooked by only one side. As it gets cooked put the filling i.e. the potato mixture at the center of the dosa and fold it form both sides.

Now enjoy your dosa with sambar and coconut chutney. 🙂

Note :

1. Always take rice and lentils in 3:1 proportion.
2. Flaked rice makes dosa soft.
3. Give the dosa batter sufficient time to get fermented otherwise your dosa will not be quite crispy.
4. Always bring down the temperature of the tawa otherwise it will be tough for you to make dosa.