Thursday, October 25, 2012

Dosa / Idly (or Idli)

Dosas are my favorite, I have never made them but now that Mahesh's mom and dad bought us a proper Indian mixee (grinder/blender) I will give it a shot someday.

Dosas

INGREDIENTS

-- 2 1/2 measures idly rice
-- 1 measure Urad (or Broken Black Gram) dal
-- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt or to taste (if using 1 cup measure)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cover dal with water, soak at least 5 hours, in a separate container, cover rice with water, soak for at least five hours.

2. Thoroughly rinse rice at least 3 times after it has soaked. Rinse dal also but you don't need to be so thorough.

3. First grind dal with water in blender or mixee until it gets fluffy, not too liquid. Pour in a bowl.

4. Using the same bowl for the mixee, grind rice in two or three batches with water (only fill mixie halfway) until it is a smooth nice batter (can grind a bit more coarsley for idli batter), add to bowl with dal and keep grinding until all rice has turned into batter.

5. Add salt to your batter and mix it thoroughly. Ferment it on the counter for one night, depends on the weather, until it gets fluffy and full of air bubbles. Then stir the batter and and keep it in the fridge after that.

6. When you are ready to cook dosas, make sure the consistency of the batter is right, you may need to add some water.

7. You fry dosas sort of like crepes, pour one spoon in a flat pan, then spread it out in a circular fashion. Drip a little oil on the outside edges of the dosa as it cooks to make the edges crispy. Flip the dosa when one side is finished, cook the other side until done.

8. Eat with gunpowder, sambar, chutney, whatever you want.

TO PREPARE IDLY:

You can use dosa batter to make idlies. To do so, add 4 cups water to pressure cooker, oil idly plate and fill each divot with batter until it is flat. Put in pressure cooker, DO NOT ADD WEIGHT, put on high flame for 10 minutes, medium five minute for 5 minutes, low for 5 minutes, then turn it off. Wait 5-10 minutes, then open pressure cooker and enjoy idlies! 

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