Simple Food: Dosai, Dosey, Doshai. . .I Mean, The Dosa 

There is a popular misconception that the dosa is a very complicated thing that you can get right only if you have one or the other kind of South Indian gene stitched into your DNA. Have rice? Make a dosa.

Think the basic dosa. Think beyond it. Think dosa variations with cucumber, or onion or pumpkin. Surprise the dosa as its three flavours, one from Andhra, one from Karnataka and the basic Tamil version, surprise you.

There are dosas and dosas. And dosas and dosas and dosas. Not to mention dosas and dosas and dosas and dosas. Or as the Tamilian would say “dosai”, or the Kannadiga “dosey” or the Malayali “doshai”. You get the drift.

So, what I mean to say is that while it is true that the classic dosa that is eaten all over India (actually, make that all over the world), does involve a lot of washing and grinding (sometimes even teeth-gnashing for the novice dosa cook) and fermenting and “overnighting”, there are many dosas that are not just as exquisite to taste but simple and quick to make.

Here are two that you can cut your dosa teeth on....

Cucumber Dosa

This dosa is a Dakshin Karnataka favourite, where my mum hails from, a region where they grind rice into a breathtakingly variety of breakfast dishes and snacks, cleverly combining it with all kinds of local produce all the way from from greens to fruit.

Ingredients (to make about 10-12 dosas)

-1 large cup (about 200gms) rice, washed and soaked for about 1 hour. (You can dispense with the soaking if in a hurry)

-1 medium-sized cucumber, peeled and chopped into ½ inch pieces

-1 large green chilli, coarsely chopped (adjust to taste)

-¾ inch piece of ginger, coarsely chopped

-2 tablespoons of fresh, grated coconut

-Salt to taste

-2 pinches of aesfoetida

Method

Grind to a coarse batter the cucumber and the rice together WITHOUT adding any water as there is sufficient liquid released from the cucumber. Now, add the rest of the ingredients and grind to a smoother consistency. You can add a little water only if the batter is too thick to spread.

Grease and heat a tava. Splash a little water. If it sizzles and dries up immediately, the tava is hot enough. Now spread a dal-serving ladle of batter in widening circular motions starting from the centre. Dribble a little oil and cook till the thinner parts of the dosa begin to turn golden brown. Now gently “unstick” and turn dosa upside. Wait for about 30 seconds. Turn again, fold over and serve hot with ghee/butter and coconut chutney.

Variation 1: Instead of grinding the entire cucumber with the rice, reserve about a quarter, dice very, very fine, add to the batter and mix well. The bits come as crunchy little surprise when you eat the dosa.

Variation 2: White pumpkin (bhopla) works just as well as cucumber.

Pesarattu

This is a popular dosa in Andhra Pradesh, but what makes this version special is the onion filling.

Ingredients (to make 10-12 dosas)

Dosa

-½ cup each of whole green gram (moong) and rice, washed and soaked for about 2 hours.

-1 large green chilli, coarsely chopped (adjust to taste)

-¾ inch piece of ginger, coarsely chopped

-Salt to taste

-2 pinches of asafoetida

Filling

-3-4 medium sized onions, peeled and diced very fine

-1 large green chilli, coarsely chopped (adjust to taste)

-Salt to taste

-A pinch of aesfoetida

-1 ½ tablespoons oil

-1 tablespoon fresh coriander finely chopped

Method

Dosa batter: Grind the green gram and rice to a coarse batter, add the rest of the ingredients and grind to a finer batter. Keep aside.

Filling: Heat the oil, add the onions, aesfoetida and the green chillies. As the onion turns transparent, add the salt and stir-fry for another minute or till the onion is cooked but not turning brown. Add the coriander, stir for another 10 seconds, remove from heat.

Make the dosa as indicated in the recipe for cucumber dosa. When the dosa is ready, place about a tablespoon of the onion filling in the centre. Fold over. Serve hot with a dab of homemade butter. The filling is so good, you do not really need to, but you can serve with coconut chutney.

Basic Dosa

Wash and soak separately for about 7-8 hours, rice and urad dal in the proportion of 1 (dal): 3 (rice). Grind separately – the trick is to grind the urad so smooth till it feels like silk to touch. Mix well with salt and water. Leave to ferment – about eight hours. Make dosa as indicated in the recipes above.