Thavala Dosa

Right… back to my love for dosas. I saw a new recipe put up by my friend on Facebook for thavala dosa. I was happy to see it was a quick one where I did not have to do any soaking or prepping the day before. Generally, this is what stops me from making dosas from scratch as I think I want one and of course since I do not have the batter ready I cannot. If I buy the readymade batter then it is possible to make it immediately or else, I have to go out to eat. This recipe did turn out all right even for an amateur like me. The recipe makes dosas for 4 people and since we are only 2, I saved half the ground mixture for another day. In fact, the second time I added a teaspoon of cumin seeds in the batter and it tasted lovely. The sourness to the dosa comes from the yogurt and there is no need to ferment the batter. I also found that making the batter a little thinner than the original recipe was better as you got lacy dosa. The texture is similar to oats dosa.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice
• ½ cup tuvar dal (pigeon pea lentil)
• 2 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour yogurt
• A few curry leaves

Method

• Mix the rice, tuvar dal and peppercorns in one bowl. These ingredients have to be ground in the dry grinder of the food processor. The flour should be ground to the consistency of coarse suji / rava. (A tip – I tried to do the grinding in the bigger mixer which I use for wet grinding in the hope that I could do the lot in 2 halves. Not a wise idea as it was not getting anywhere near the consistency I wanted. So, had to change to smaller portions being ground in the dry grinder. Also, it requires a fair old whizz to get to the right texture.)
• Put the flour in a big bowl. Add cumin seeds and salt.
• The curry leaves can be added whole or chopped finely (I prefer to chop them).
• Add the yogurt and stir to mix the ingredients.
• If necessary add water to get the consistency required.
• Let the batter rest for 15 – 30 mins.
• When ready to make preheat the non-stick frying pan or tawa.
• Add a few drops of oil and since the pan is warm you should be able to spread the oil drops by just moving the pan.
• Ladle the batter on to the hot frying pan. You can spread it with the back of the ladle or just pour the batter in circular motion from centre to outwards.
• Drizzle a few drops of oil on top and cover the frying pan with a lid.
• You will see the edges lift off the pan as the dosa gets cooked. Flip the dosa and cook on the other side for a few minutes.
• Then serve it with coconut chutney or idli podi or with potato sabji like I did.