Ultra’s delicious dosas
A staple south Indian breakfast dish, dosai or dosa is extremely versatile. The amount of water, the sourness of the batter and the ratio proportion of ingredients can help make so many variations of dosais.
From a dosai batter that makes crispy ghee roast and fluffly uthappam to an adai or pesarattu, the difference is just a few ingredients.
Here are some tips on how to make crispy and tasty dosas with your Ultra Mini T.
Crispy Dosai Batter
Dosai is essentially urad daal and rice ground to a batter with some fenugreek seeds added for fluffiness. There are so many variations of the batter. Firstly, there is a subtle difference between the idli batter and the dosai batter. Knowing what each ingredient does will help you decide what goes in and in what quantities.
Urad daal is added to the batter for the fluffiness. Most people use 1 part of urad daal to 4 parts of idli rice. However, you can reduce the quantity of urad daal for dosa batter. Try ¾ urad daal to 4 parts rice to start with and see how your batter turns up. It is essential to experiment before arriving at a proportion that best works for you because batter will vary with the rice and daal used and not just the quantities and the consistency.
Idli rice is generally a starch heavy, parboiled, short grain rice. Compared to raw rice, parboiled rice varieties are more nutritious and easier to digest. There are several varieties of idli rice available commercially. Choose the one that works best for you.
Raw rice is sometime used in part along with idli rice in a ratio of 1:1. Long grain raw rice like basmati has lesser starch compared to parboiled idli rice and makes the dosa batter lighter and the dosa comes out crispier.
Millets and pulses are used to make dosa variations like adai dosai, bajra or cholam dosai, ragi dosai etc. The substitution could be 3:1 or 2:1 along with 1 or 1/2 part of urad daal; where rice is still the major ingredient.
Fenugreek is used to hold the fluffiness in idlis and both fenugreek and urad daal add colour to the dosas.
Aval or beaten rice or poha is sometimes soaked and added to the rice while grinding. This adds fluffiness to the batter
Semolina is sometimes added to give crispiness to the dosa and is added to the fermented batter just before making the dosa.
Salt slows fermentation. If you are in a warm place, then add salt to the batter to slow fermentation. In colder climates it is better to allow the batter to ferment overnight and add salt before you make the dosai.
Crispy rice dosai
INGREDIENTS
Makes: 25
10 MINS
20-30 MINS
4 hours
10 MINS
20-30 MINS
4 hours
Fermenting Time: 8-12 Hours | Keeps for a week (refrigerated)
4 Cups idli rice
¾ Cups urad daal
1 Tsp Fenugreek seeds
Salt
METHOD
1. Wash the idli rice thoroughly and soak in water. Make sure the water level is over 2 inches above the rice.
2. Wash the urad daal well and soak in a separate bowl. Make sure the water level is over 2 inches above the daal. To this add the fenugreek seeds.
3. Soak for 4 hours.
4. Remove the water and grind the daal and fenugreek first adding water, a little at a time. Grind till the urad daal is ground to a smooth and fluffy mixture.
5. Remove the daal batter and add the rice after straining the water. Add water a little at a time, grind till the rice is ground well.
6. Mix the rice batter with the daal batter thoroughly.
7. Ferment overnight with a little salt.
8. Add the remaining salt before making the dosas.
Tip: Dosa batter should be a little runnier than idli batter.
Raagi Dosai (Finger Millet)
INGREDIENTS
Makes: 25
10 MINS
5-10 MINS
2 hours
10 MINS
5-10 MINS
2 Hours
Keeps for a week (refrigerated)
2 Cups raagi grain
1 Kg or 1 Litre of idli/dosa batter
Water to soak
Salt
METHOD
1. Soak the raagi in water for a minimum of 2 hours
2. Add to your Ultra grinder and grind well. Add a little water at a time, followed by 5 to 6 cups of idli/dosa batter
3. Add the remaining batter, salt and make crispy raagi dosas.
4. You can add chopped onion, curry leaves and green chillies to make a thicker uthappam.
Cholam Dosai (Shorgum / Jowar)
INGREDIENTS
Makes: 25
10 MINS
20-30 MINS
4 hours
10 MINS
20-30 MINS
4 hours
Fermenting Time: 8-12 Hours | Keeps for a week (refrigerated)
3 Cups idli rice
1 Cup cholam/jowar
¾ Cups urad daal
1 Tsp Fenugreek seeds
Salt
METHOD
1. Mix the idli rice and jowar together, wash thoroughly and soak in water. Make sure the water level is over 2 inches above the rice.
2. Wash the urad daal well and soak in a separate bowl. Make sure the water level is over 2 inches above the daal. To this add the fenugreek seeds.
3. Soak for 4 hours.
4. Remove the water and grind the daal and fenugreek first adding water, a little at a time. Grind till the urad daal is ground to a smooth and fluffy mixture.
5. Remove the daal batter and add the rice and jowar after straining the water. Add water a little at a time, grind till the rice is ground well.
6. Mix the rice batter with the daal batter thoroughly.
7. Ferment overnight with a little salt.
8. Add the remaining salt before making the dosas.
Tip: Dosa batter should be a little runnier than idli batter.
Elgi Ultra Grinder
Ultra is the pioneer in compact table top wet grinders and innovator of the patented conical stones. The patented conical stone design makes the batter smooth.
PATENTED CONICAL STONES
For effective grinding without high batter temperature rise
AISI 304 STAINLESS STEEL
Rust-resistant food-grade stainless steel drum for healthy food
ABS BODY
Lighter weight, longer life and great looks
150-WATT MOTOR
Powerful 150W motor for better grinding
2.5L WET GRINDER
Ideal for a family of 4
DIGITAL TIMER
Beep alert & auto switch-off at preset grinding time
MULTI UTILITY DRUM
Batter can be stored in the same drum after grinding
BATTER CLEANER
For easy cleaning of conical stones