Dosa – the Desi Pancake! Dosas for any time, any season
The Dosa is the ultimate desi pancake. Made with a wholesome, fermented batter of rice and urad dal, the dosa never fails to enchant the diner with its golden hue, crispy texture and pleasant flavour. Combine it with a range of chutneys, dry chutney powders and sambhar and it becomes a sumptuous, grand meal! Serve it simply with sambhar and coconut chutney and it makes a light but wholesome breakfast. Stuff it with a flavoursome potato masala and it becomes an all-time favourite evening snack. That’s dosa for you – versatile, convenient and tasty.
The traditional Dosa is made of a fenugreek tinged batter of rice and urad dal. It is an addictive breakfast choice and many South Indians carry a small grinder abroad with them just for the sake of making this yummy snack often. There are variants to this, such as the soft and spongy Set Dosa and the chutney-lined, masala-stuffed Mysore Masala Dosa. The Crispy Paper Dosa, which is usually served in a conical shape, is so crisp that its edges break like papad, while the centre is slightly softer!
Cook the dosas with ghee and you get the Kannada delicacy, Tuppa Dosa. Another favourite from Kannada cuisine is the Neer Dosa, a soft, super-white dosa made of a plain rice batter. This is served with a spicy curry or a sweet accompaniment of grated coconut sweetened with jaggery.
The Poha Dosa is another fabulous version, made of rice, poha and urad dal. A good dose of curds is added to the batter to give it a pleasant sourness and an awesome crispness. This dosa is unique because it is both spongy and crisp! Another stunning dosa is the Rava Dosa, which is made with a quick-fix batter of rice flour and semolina. It requires no grinding or fermentation and can be made in a jiffy any time. The batter is tempered with mustard, cumin and other ingredients, which give the Rava Dosa a superb flavor. This dosa is traditionally not spread on the tava but poured over it and allowed to spread by itself. So, it has an uneven shape and a crisp surface dotted with holes that form naturally when you pour the batter on a hot tava.
Being an all-time favourite, the Dosa also lends itself to a lot of innovation. With the growing popularity of Chinese cuisine in South India, people have started making dosas with Oriental stuffing, like the Paneer Chilly Dosa or Schezuan Chopsuey Dosa. Once you get the hang of it, you can even invent your own dosas. For example, you can sprinkle some tutti-frutti on the dosas or lace them with chocolate sauce, to make different options! Make a batch of batter in the weekend, and you can serve unique dosas every day of the week!