Dosa

Native to : Southern India

Image credit : Tapioca | The region of Southern India comprises of 4 states and the surreal Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshdweep groups of islands. The exact state or location to which the Dosa is indigenous has not been clearly established.

The dosa is - truly - one of the most popular foods in the Southern India. In fact, for the North Indians (and Western and Eastern and Central Indians), the words "South Indian food" remind at once of "Dosa". It is a yummy dish - the simplest kind of which is the masala dosa.

In a masala dosa, a spicy potato pudding is hidden in the middle of the dosa and here is what it looks like -

Image Credit : KnowledgeGenerator | A paper masala dosa, named so as it it thin as a paper. A variety of dosas have evolved, a couple of them with a foreign twist - like with noodles stuffing!

The second most popular dosa is the paneer dosa- the potato in the pudding replaced by cottage cheese. Recently, schezwan dosa and spring dosa are some manipulated varieties that have spicy schezwan noodles, inspired the the Chinese Sichuan (Szechwan ) cuisine.

Normally, there are three specific dips that come along with a typical dosa serving.

1. The Sambhar - The sambhar is a healthy stew that is cooked in tamarind broth and has a base of lentils and a mixture of many vegetables like gourd, carrot, pumpkin, beans, potato, tomato, brinjal, onions, and some others.
2. The coconut , a condiment chutney - This chutney is also used with some other popular South Indian cuisines.
3. Tomato sauce - A freshly self-prepared one, not a bottled sauce or ketchup. 

The dosa

The dosa - resembling quite well a crepe in appearance - tastes nothing like a crepe. A dosa is made up of a special fermented batter. The batter consists of a paste with the following ingredients -

1. Rice (soaked for around 6 hours) (4 or 5 portions)
2. Split Black grams (soaked for around 6 hours) (1 portion)*

*Do not confuse the black grams with something resembling a black version of grams

Ground the soaked grains, heat and add salt to taste. Leave for a further 8 to 9 hours to ferment them. Mix well before you do the following steps to make the dosa. It is because due to fermenting, the air escapes leaving some air vents. Therefore, for consistency, it is advised to mix well.

• Heat a non-stick pan
• Pour half a tsp of oil and spread it
• Pour some batter (depending on the size of your pan, the desired size of the dosa, or your ability to make larger thin dosas!!) and pour it over
• Right after pouring the batter, spread it gently outwards to make a think flat dosa
• The dosa is very thin so it is cooked only from the one side. Therefore, as soon as the base is crisp, remove the dosa from the pan.

This will result in a dosa that is crispy on one surface and soft on the other. Now we will take a look into how to make a potato stuffing for the type - "masala dosa". Once ready, this stuffing shall be put over the soft side of the dosa that was never in direct contact with the heating pan. Thereafter, a dosa is rolled in different shapes (2-D triangular, cylindrical, or 3 D conical).

Image Credit : MysoreMasalaDosa | A dosa served in a conical shape. You can notice a decorative leaf under the tiny bowls of the 3 sauces. These reflect the ancient and/or traditional way of eating South Indian food - using big banana tree leaves as plates. Why not - they are bio-degradable, and you don't have to wash utensils!

Masala Stuffing - Potato

Mustard seeds are a small part of this story, but they make a real good difference to the flavor in the stuffing of this dish (also in the coconut-condiment chutney).

Here, I will write about the potato stuffing for a masala dosa. While a paneer dosa stuffing would be quite similar - with the cottage cheese (or paneer) being the main ingredient istead of the potato, but the other kinds of dosas would be quite different. 
However, the masala dosa and the paneer dosas have a monopoly over the popularity of dosas, so - we're good.

For the masala stuffing, we need :

1. Boiled and mashed potatoes (3 cups)
2. Cumin seeds (1/2 tsp)
3. Black grams (1/2 tsp)
4. Bengal grams split (1/2 tsp)
5. Onion (1/4 cup)
6. Curry leaves (5)
7. Green chilies 
8. Turmeric (1/4 to 1/2 tsp)
9. Mustard seeds (1/2 tsp)
10. Salt - to taste
11. Oil (1 tbsp)

Heat the oil and when it heats to a suitable temperature, add the cumin seeds, the black grams, the split Bengal grams, the mustard seeds and fry them. The mustard seeds will pop meaning that they are going to give that flavor that is expected of them.

Add cut green chilies, the curry leaves and the chopped/sliced onions. Saute the onions. When that is done, add the mashed potatoes and the salt, slong with the turmeric powder. Cook for 5 minutes. You can add few tablespoons of water so that the mashed potato embibes the flavors within itself.

So that is the masala dosa! If you really want a compelte authentic masala dosa plate, you have to prepare a coconut chutney as well. For that, you need : 

1. Fresh Coconut
2. Roasted Bengal Grams
3. Mustard seeds
4. Curry leaves
5. Curd
6. Lemon juice
7. Water
8. Salt
9. Oil
10. Cumin seeds
11. Dry red chili
12. Green chili 

To make the coconut-condiment chutney, grind the fresh coconuts to makea paste and set aside. Grind the roasted Bengal grams, green chilies and then add the coconuts to it along with curd, lemon juice, salt and some water. In a separate pan, heat some oil and fry the mustard seeds till they begin to pop. Then add dry red chili and curry leaves and continue to heat along with the mustard seeds for 10-15 seconds.

Add this hot fried combination to the coconut - curd - chili paste and it will  make a little swoosh sound (hot stuff meets cold stuff) and will smell good.

Image Credit : IndianHealthyRecipes

Good things take time and we are yet to prepare the sambhar stew. 

Sambhar stew, as we saw above, is a very healthy thing to eat and has a lot of healthy ingreditents Therefore, it does not take as much time as it does to make a sandwich. It is one of the staple foods of South India - and is a South Indian speciality.

It is common to eat the dosa with only the potato stuffing - specially because of the ease to carry it and because of the efforts and time needed to make separately the dosa, the chutney and the sambhar - three things for one dish. However, it is a perfect package if you do have the time to cook and the willingness to eat great food! Therefore,if you are interested to make the the sambhar stew, click here. Regarding the tomato chutney, it is always an integral part of the dosa dish but somehow is not honored as much as the remaining 3 parts - the dosa, the coconut chutney, and the sambhar. Therefore, (I hope I am not offending any South Indian when I say this) you can ignore that part and still be confident that you ate the authentic dosa.

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