Masala Dosa

Masala Dosa is a famous recipe not only in India but abroad too.  Its on the menu list of many North Indian Specialty restaurants too. Though making Masala Dosa is a long process, but its worth it.

There are different types of Dosa one can make like Plain dosa, Masala Dosa, Paper dosa and Paneer dosa etc. You can have Dosa with Sambhar for lunch, dinner or for breakfast on a holiday. Dosa can be eaten along with Sambhar, Chaat Chutneys, . (To know about Filling for Masala Dosa click here )

So let us start preparing Masala Dosa.

- Ingredients for Masala Dosa

• Rice - 3 cups
• Urad dal(washed) - 1 cup
• Methi(fenugreek) seeds - 1 tsp
• Baking soda - 3/4 tsp
• Salt - add to taste
• Oil - to cook Dosa

Spices for Masala Dosa :

• Potatoes -  400 grams (6-7 medium sized)
• Peas - 1 small bowl(peeled)
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Rie - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Coriander(dhaniya) powder - 1 tsp
• Green chillies - 2 to 3 (finely chopped)
• Ginger - 1 1/2 inch long piece(grated)
• Salt - add to taste (3/4 tsp)
• Amchur(mango) powder - 1/4 tsp
• Red chilly powder - less than 1/4 tsp
• Green coriander - 2 tbsp(finely chopped)

- How to make Masala Dosa

Clean Urad dal and Methi, wash then soak them in water for 4 hours or the entire night. Clean rice, wash and soak it in a different bowl for the same amount of time.

Remove water from the soaked dal and grind Urad dal-Methi with little water to make a fine paste then put it in a big bowl. Similarly using very less water grind the rice, but make a bit thicker paste. Mix the 2 pastes together and prepare a thick mix which when poured with a spoon does not fall freely.

Add salt and baking soda to the mixture allowing it to ferment, cover and keep aside for 12-14 hours. Fermented mixture doubles in quantity. This mixture is ready to make Dosa.

Prepare spices for Dosa

Boil potatoes, cool them off then peel and break them into small pieces.
Heat oil in a frying pan(kadhai), put Rie in hot oil and roast. Now put turmeric powder, coriander powder followed by green chillies, ginger and fry for 1 minutes. Add peas and 2 tbsp water then cover the pan and cook till peas turn soft. Put potatoes, salt, Amchur powder, red chilly powder in the pan with spices and fry for 2 minutes. Turn off the gas then mix coriander to the fried spices. Spices required for Dosa are ready.

If you want to put in onion then finely chop 1-2 onions, ginger, green chillies. Fry all the ingredients till they turn light pink, mix the other contents as instructed earlier and make the spices for Dosa.

How to make Dosa

Stir the  mixture with a spoon, if it seem too thick then add some water(mixture should be a bit more thin than the mix for pakoras).

Heat a non-stick pan or a heavy flat pan(tawa) to make Dosa, when the pan is sufficiently heated keep a medium flame. Now wipe the pan with a thick wet cloth, first grease the pan with little oil(pan should only look smooth, oil should not be seen). Pour a big spoon full of mixture in the middle of the pan, move the spoon in round circles as you spread a thin layer of Dosa(12-14 inches in diameter) on the pan. Pour little oil with the spoon all around the Dosa.

Cook Dosa on a medium flame, when the upper layer seems cooked even the layer below turns brown. Now place 1-2 spoon of potato with spices on the Dosa and spread it all over. Using a ladle pick Dosa from the edges and fold it, take it put of the pan and place on a plate. For the next Dosa pour 1 spoon full of mixture in the pan and spread it all over, follow the same process to cook the Dosa. All Dosas are to be made in this same manner. Serve hot Dosas with Sambhar and groundnuts Chutney and eat..

To make Plain Dosa :

Mixture has to be spread in the way instructed above, potato with spices mix should not be kept on the Dosa, lift this Plain Dosa from the edges, fold and serve.

To make Paper Dosa :

To make Paper Dosa the mixture has to be made more thin compared to that of Plain Dosa, mixture should be spread on the pan very thinly and it has to be cooked like Plain Dosa.

To make Paneer Dosa :

Grate Paneer, add salt to taste and chopped coriander instead of potatoes, put 1 tbsp Paneer on the Dosa then fold and serve in the same manner.

Note :

1. Before you spread put the mixture do not forget to wipe the pan with a wet and thick cloth.

2.  Heat the pan sufficiently before you spread Dosa mix on it.

3. Before you fold the Dosa cook it's lower layer till it turns brown.

Minced Chicken Filling for Masala Dosa

One of my collegue used to tell me about this dosa which he had in one of the local street shop. The way he explained made me to do it so badly. Infact I got so many ideas of my recipes from him and my friends.  Some of the recipes are Popcorn Chicken, Poricha Parota and many more. My wish is "what people like to eat all day have to in my blog".  He also told me so many recipes too which I am yet to make like bread omlette, ghee idli sambar, set dosai and vada curry, kulambu omlette and many more. Most of the recipes are street food favour recipes..You know right street foods are the best ones..

Traditionally the filling is made with minced lamb, but I used minced chicken and made it. Still it tasted great. My perippa came to my house that day and had this dosai, he absolutely loved it. I am liking a lot to cook with minced chicken because they take so less time to cook. Nowadays I am having a packet of chicken mince always in my freezer.

I am also planning to do some other recipes with chicken mince like keema matar, mince curry and many other..So keep checking my recipes and tell me how it turned out for you..

Ingrediants:

Dosa batter - as needed ( Click here for recipe)

Oil for dosa

Onion - 1 finely chopped for sprinkling over the dosa

For Chicken Filling:

Chicken Mince - 500 gms

Fennel Seeds / Sombu / Saunf - 1 tblspn

Onions - 1 large chopped

Tomatoes - 3 chopped

Green Chilli - 2

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tblspn

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder / Malli podi - 1 tblspn

Turmeric powder / Manjal podi - 1 tsp

Garam Masala powder - 1 tsp + 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil - 2 tblspn

Method:

Heat a kadai with some oil and add in fennel seeds. Let them sizzle for 30 seconds.

Add in onions. green chilli and curry leaves and saute for a min.

Add in all the spice powders along with some salt and mix well.

Add in tomatoes and cook everything till mushy.

Now add in the minced chicken and stir it till everything is cooked.

Now cover the pan and let it simmer for 15 mins.

Sprinkle some garam masala in the end and mix well.Filling done.

Now lets make the dosa. Heat your tawa and spread your dosa batter thinly. Drizzle some oil over it and using a spatula smoothen the top. Let it cook till it turn light golden.

Now spoon some filling in the center along with some onions. Fold from all sides so that it forms a triangle.

Serve hot..

Pictorial:

Take all your ingrediants

Saute some fennel seeds in oil

add onions, ginger garlic paste and green chilli

add some salt, so that the onions cook faster

throw in the spice powders

and some lovely ripe tomatoes

cook till everything turn mushy

add the chicken mince to this

and mix well...

Cover and cook for 15 mins

Finish the whole dish with a sprinkle of extra garam masala powder

filling done..

Now lets make the dosa...I took out my trusty big'ol nonstick tawa

cook till turn golden brown...I smoothen the top of the dosa using a spatula

add a generous amount of filling

Sprinkle some onions for crunch

fold in three..So that it forms a triangle..

Serve hot..

Thanks ThattuKada Recipes...............

Appam kerala style ~ Appam with yeast

First i hate to name this has Appam. we call it as ஆப்பம்(aappam), in english it may be read / means burp. so without heart i call it appam now! My great grand mom used to make appam with coconuttoddy (kallu) for us. the flavor and taste of those appam is just unbeatable. forget the drowsiness after eating appam. and just for the drowsiness, we kids won't be fed appam on school days!! 

On our recent trip to kerala, i had appam for break-fast and also for dinner all the 2 days we stayed. i like these soft white bowl shaped appam so much! 

                                as the appam is in oval shaped plate, it looks in oval shape! 

what i have made here is, appam with yeast. yeast is used as a substitute for toddy. usually fresh toddy should be added to the appam batter, which naturally ferments. it should be allowed to ferment for at least 8 hrs. In my experience, even if you are preparing appam without yeast, the batter should be allowed to ferment for above 16 hrs. only then you can get perfect appam's.

How to eat the appam is, sprinkle 2 or 3 tsp's of sugar in the centre of the appam and pour coconut milk/ just plain milk, let the appam soak for few seconds and eat! It will be a divine break-fast!

appam served with veg stew & milk and sugar

Appam 

yields about 20 appam's

Ingredients:

• Raw rice - 2 cup's (400gms)
• Par boiled rice / Idly rice - 2 cup's (400 gms)
• Urad dal - 1/2 cup (50 gms)
• Fenugreek - 1/4 tsp
• Luke warm water - 1/4 cup
• Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Rock salt / kal uppu - 1 tsp

Method:

Soak the raw rice, par boiled rice, urad dal and fenugreek in water for about 4 hours. Grind them into a very smooth and thin batter(not very thin actually). the grinding time may take from 45 minutes to 1 hour when grinded in grinder. Once the grinded appam batter is ready, transfer the batter to a clean vessel and close it with its lid and let the batter to ferment for overnight or 12 hours. 

After fermentation, its time to add yeast and let it ferment for the second time. so prepare for this second fermentation, ahead of 2 hrs of preparing appam. In a small mixing bowl, mix yeast, sugar, rock salt in Luke warm water and stir well with a spoon so that the yeast get's dissolved. close the mixing bowl with a plate and let it rest for about 10-15 minutes. this is to prove the yeast for its activeness. once the yeast mixture turns frothy, add it to the fermented appam batter and stir well. Now let the appam batter ferment for the second time for about 1 and half hrs to 2 hrs. once the batter ferments. its ready to make appam.

this pic is taken after first fermentation. it actually ferments more after adding yeast!

Mix little water, if the batter is too thick. heat a appa kadaai, i use my non-stick appam pan. smear the pan with a drop of oil. with a sliced onion, just spread the oil on sides of the pan(repeat this when preparing each and every appam). Pour 2 heaped ladle full of appam batter in the center of the appa kadaai / pan and swirl the kadaai / pan, this makes the batter spreading towards the sides of the pan. close the pan with its lid. let the appam get cooked in high flame for just a minute. 

if you want the centre of the appam to be thick(like in the above pics) and the sides thinner, you should add another ladle of batter, this makes the excess batter get into the center. but you have to put the flame in medium and close the appam pan. it may take more than a minute for the appam to get cooked. you can test, by touching the center of the appam. if it sticks, its not cooked! then wait for some more time.

The left over appam batter can be put back in fridge, actually it ferments again and that gives still good appam 's in the next batch. do not forget to finish up the batter in 2 day's. its not like our idly batter, which keeps good for 5-7 day's. 

Notes:

if you want to prepare appam without yeast, just let the appam batter ferment for about 16 hours. take half a cup of water, add 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp rock salt and 1/4 tsp of cooking soda and mix well. now add the mixed water to the fermented batter and mix well. let the batter rest for 30 minutes before you start making appam.

You can also add Instant yeast and add it to the batter, without proving the yeast. if using coconut toddy, add 1 cup of toddy, for this recipe.