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Dosa
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- Total Time
- 2 hours, plus soaking and fermenting
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2cups basmati or jasmine rice
- 1cup urad dal (split black gram)
- ½teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- ½teaspoon instant yeast
- 1½teaspoons kosher salt
- Ghee, as needed
Preparation
- Step 1
In a large bowl, mix the rice, dal and fenugreek. Rinse a few times with water, then fill the bowl with water and leave to soak for 4 to 8 hours. Drain the mixture and mix at high speed in a blender, gradually adding 1½ cups lukewarm water, until very smooth and pale. Add the yeast and ½ teaspoon salt and mix again.
- Step 2
Scrape batter into a large bowl and cover. Let ferment at room temperature until the batter has mushroomed and nearly doubled in size, and is foamy all the way through, 8 to 12 hours.
- Step 3
Gently stir in the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, which will cause the batter to deflate slightly. The batter should make ribbons when ladled back onto itself; add 1 tablespoon of water at a time, if needed, to thin it out.
- Step 4
Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium. When hot, lower the heat to medium-low, then lightly grease the inside of the skillet with ghee. Ladle about ¼ cup batter into the center of the pan. Using the bottom of the ladle, gently smooth the batter in an outward spiral to form a 6-inch disk. Drizzle the top of the dosa with 1 teaspoon ghee.
- Step 5
When the top turns white and spongy, and the edges of the dosa turn golden and start to release from the pan, in 3 to 4 minutes, loosen the dosa from the pan using an offset spatula. Peek to check the bottom of the dosa: If the bottom is brown, flip the dosa. Otherwise, let it cook a little longer, then loosen it all the way and flip. Let cook on the second side for about 30 seconds, then transfer it to a plate.
- Step 6
Repeat with remaining batter, adding more ghee as needed.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
In an Indian kitchen practice is to soak par boiled rice with fenugreek and split Urid dal in two different containers and grind separately and mix the batter and leave it for fomentation. Usual proportion is 4 parts Rice and one part Urid Dal The batter can used both for Dosa and Iddli. More can be learned from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idli. Both Dosa and Idli are described as the healthy food containing best natural probiotic.
Since pretty much every grocery store in NYC is out of instant yeast (also Amazon, and most other online vendors), I substituted with 1tbsp of mature sourdough starter, and it worked like a charm.
Good dosa and idly are representations of South Indian cooking. There are variations of the recipe but this nytimes recipe is very divergent from the traditional recipe. The recipe also includes parboiled rice and not basmati rice , yeast is not included and the ratio between the rice/urad dal is incorrect. I wish nytimes cooking did a better version of an iconic breakfast dish. It is also noteworthy to see a food critic write such a questionable recipe.
I assume it's split urad dal withOUT the skin, correct?
I’m from S India and we never use yeast. 2 cups plain rice - don’t use basmati or jasmine 1 cup Uncle Bens plain rice 1 cup plain urad dal 1 tbsp fenugreek seeds 1. In the morning wash and soak in water in separate bowls for 8 hrs. Dal and fenugreek seeds 3 cups Rice 2. Blend both separately to a smooth but pouring consistency. Use the fermented water from the bowls. 3. Combine the batters. Cover and ferment it overnight in a warm place. 4. Add salt and make dosas next day.
Yes, without the skin -it's almost white. Also, it's common to soak the rice and dal separately and grind them separately. and then combine and let rise. The dal batter should be soft and foamy, and the rice batter should be very slightly griitty and not be too pasty.
I don’t have a powerful blender, so I cooked red lentils (what I had on hand) and then blended. I mixed the cooked lentils 1/2 and 1/2 with my fermented brown rice flour batter and whipped it to a foam. A very tasty flat bread, made in a very hot pan coated with butter and oil. I keep the brown rice batter refrigerated and just keep feeding.
Generally the proportions for dosa are 4:1 ratio of rice to urad dal. No one uses yeast in either idle or dosa recipes. Also this is the most sorry looking dosa. This happens when the batter has not fermented enough.
Dosa batter is best prepared using Table Top Wet Grinder which can easily purchased from Walmart out lets. Wet grinder does uniform grinding at controlled speed without heating the batter.
I’ve been eating and watching my mom make dosa my entire life and never have I seen her add yeast. Also pro tip: they are so much better if you let them crisp up more to be golden.
Sometimes takes 24 hours using the warmth of the oven light to get fermented dosa batter for me in Boston.
My mom's dosas were the best. Grew up in Southern India eating dosa at least twice a week. I have never heard of using yeast to ferment dosa, that would be considered blasphemous!
My South Indian mother-in-law who taught me how to make dosa would certainly not have ever used yeast. I was taught to soak the rice and dal separately before grinding and I use “idli rice” which is a much shorter grain. Once the dal and rice are ground and mixed water can be added until the constancy is that of “thick cream” (MIL description). After a night out on the counter the dosa maavu is gorgeously thick and fluffy with fermentation. It certainly helps though being in a hot climate.
It's a type of dried lentil or bean. The answer of where to get them, as with most things, it's Amazon or some other online store.
I’ve never made dosa with yeast, just sitting overnight has always produced ample fermentation. Not sure how the yeast would affect flavour. And I definitely agree with Krishnan, both with regards to proportion and soaking. My MIL taught me to soak the dal and rice separately before grinding. Dosa is wonderful for any meal. If I have the maavu (batter) ready it is a quick and healthy breakfast or dinner. I’m usually too lazy to make the masala but always throw together some coconut chutney.
As a coastal andhra native, we are very particular about our dosa and (especially) idli recipe - this is not that at all. I am not sure where this recipe hails from but I did try it - the end result was not a dosa, as I would define in from my region of India. It was not foul, but was not worth the effort. You can find authentic dosa recipes online easily, even “no ferment “ ones that end up much closer to the actual dosa than this.
My ABCD (American born confused desi) son eats only idly every morning, which means I have to prepare the batter every week. The fresh batter usually better suited for idly rather than for dosa. We usually wait two or three days before making dosa. And no yeast please.
Am I the only one thinking that that huge ring makes her fairly recognizable anyway?
No yeast. Sugars in rice and lentils do the work. It has to be slow. Also, no basmati or jasmine rice. They make the dosa smell funny. It has to be plain rice.
While yeasts may be blasphemous to an experienced dosa maker, we must keep in mind that the occasional dosa maker probably does not have the wild yeasts present in their kitchen that a frequent dosa maker will have in theirs. Seems a modest compromise to substitute commercial yeast for wild yeast. Especially for those in Northern climates.
So many claims here that the authentic technique is to soak and grind rice and dal separately. Did none of these commenters have immigrant working parents with limited time? Were their servants washing all those extra bowls? I did have working parents, and of course my mom did the grinding in particular in one step. Who wouldn’t at least try it once to see if it works? It does!
Made both the dosa and associated aloo masala recipes- delicious success on my first attempt ever making masala dosa. Videos helpful. Thank you Tejal Rao!
Hmmm. Why does this come up in a search for millet recipes? Like the batter, I am slightly deflated.
I’ve never had dosa, so I’ll have to get some from the restaurant around the corner to compare. The flavor of these is somewhat cheddary to me? I made this with the aloo masala recipe on this site. I used a cupcake scoop for my batter, because my ladle is too big for this. I’m unfamiliar with urad dal, so I bought the kind with the black husk and used them. After reading the comments, I’ll have to try it with ones without the husk.
This has worked for me perfectly and is my go-to recipe for dosas -- well, I don't have any others and never dreamed I'd be able to make dosa myself at home until I tried this. Now I am ready for level 2 -- has anyone tried using this batter for idlis? Since this recipe makes a lot of batter it would be groovy if some of it could become dosas and some could become idlis.
I've tried many times over the years to get homemade dosa batter to ferment properly in the kitchen. This time I followed the advice of another commenter who suggested placing the batter in the Instant Pot on "yogurt" mode. Worked like a charm. Ground the soaked dal/fenugreek and soaked rice (yes, basmati) separately, no yeast, and allowed to ferment overnight. I have observed many Tamil women mix the two batters together with (clean) hands, which is said to get the fermentation process going!
Using commercial yeast in dosa batter is sacrilege. Also, add a fat (ghee, olive oil, etc) to the cooking dosa after it's been poured rather than before. The dosa needs a temporary bond to pan which can best be accomplished when it is free from fat. Also, the optimal cooking temperature for dosa is about 350F which you can ascertain from an infrared thermometer. Quickly rinse the pan under cold, running water in between making each dosa to bring the temperature of the pan back down.
I made this according to the recipe (but halved it). It was so good! Although I used yeast, it did have that fermented “funk.” When I have more time, I’ll try without yeast for a fully natural fermentation. The recipe calls for a non stick pan, which I do not own, but my grandmother’s well seasoned cast iron worked very well. They are very filling, so I kept the rest of the batter in a container in the fridge and made the rest of the dosa the next day— it was just as good!
I am surprised at how mean some of the notes are. There are many ways to cook just about anything. There is no reason to lash out at Tejal.
Failed. Used comments below; soaked 1tsp fenugrek+1c urad dal (split black not whole polished) & 2.5c rice (short grain) separately 12hrs, ground each approx 10min w/ 1c soaking liquid separately in food processor; whisked thoroughly together, got approx 6c med-thick batter, set covered in oven overnight (13hrs?). Did not double. In fact did nothing. Surface changed texture - maybe just dried out? I am in Ohio early spring - it's 40F outdoors, 68 in. Is it just too cold?
Sometimes takes 24 hours using the warmth of the oven light to get fermented dosa batter for me in Boston.
Hi! I lived in Ohio and now live in Chicago ( even colder) my go to method to ferment the batter was to use an Instantpot with the yoghurt setting. Works like a charm.
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