My mouth water’s just listening to plain dosa or sada dosa. I am happy to share this plain dosa recipe from my mom’s treasurebank with everyone. I love my sada dosa crisp, brown along with a delicious coconut chutney and sambar. I have reminiscences of my childhood going to Udipi restaurants with my parents and sister to eat South Indian delicacies like rava dosa, masala dosa, mysore dosa etc. We used to eat also a lot of dosas at many stalls and corners of Mumbai.
Dosas, Idlis, Upmas have become an integral part of Mumbai Street Food. Mostly south indian food are steamed and consumes less oil hence they are quite healthy. In Mumbai people like to have them as breakfast or quick meal. I remember we used to also get cycle walas (rider) with a horn, he used to blow the horn to communicate to make his presence felt and we could call him to buy snacks from him. This seller used to bring fresh home-made idlis, medu vadas along with two kind of chutney and also is very economical. This cycle wala still comes at many places in Mumbai, although didn’t see any such seller in Pune.
Plain dosa recipe is made from fermented rice and urad dal batter. The only complication to make this is you have to soak them whole night and allow the batter to ferment in a humid place. If you living in very cold countries the batter might take a longer time than usual. You could place the batter in oven with the light on or at any warm place or in sunlight.
Once you make the batter just remove some batter and keep the rest in the fridge. I make batter and use them for more than four days they stay good in the fridge. Just don’t add salt in the batter which you gonna use in the future. Now with the same dosa batter you could make idlis, dosa, masala dosa and masala paniyarams.… I am hungry again. We love all kind of Mumbai street food home like dosas, pav-bhaji, chats, sandwiches, cold coffee etc back home.
Nowadays you also get ready dosa batter. You could use them however I prefer making batter home. You need a good pan for frying dosas. Also always keep a separate pan for dosas for better result. You could also use a non stick tava or pan for dosas. I have used a non stick pan for dosas. Other challenge is to grind the dosa batter. You would need a good, strong and sturdy blender / grinder to grind the batter. I used my bajaj mixer and grind them into small batches. If you have a wet grinder then it’s easier to grind the batter.
Generally urad dal and rice are soaked seperately, however my mom used to soak them all together. Yet it used to taste equally great. Many people also add poha (rice flakes), fenugreek seed etc to make dosas more healthy and soft. Mine is the basic dosa recipe you could add other ingredients if you wish to.
This plain dosa recipe comes from my mom and is almost made the same way on Mumbai streets. I wonder what took me so long to post a plain dosa recipe ???
You could check some Mumbai street food recipes like pav bhaji, sev puri, mumbai pani poori, ragda patties, masala omelette, potato wraps, kanda bhaji, mung dal bhajiya, dahi batata puri, vadapav and cold coffee recipe.
Plain Dosa Recipe below:
- 3 cups of ukda chawal/ idli rice / short grained rice used for idlis
- 1.5 cup of split black lentils (urad dal)
- salt as per taste
- water as required
- 2-3 tbsp oil for frying dosas
- Wash the rice, soak the rice in water for 4-5 hrs. If the rice is looking dry add more water.
- Wash the urad dal and soak them in water separately for 4-5 hrs. Add more water if required.
- Drain excess water from the soaked rice and urad dal. Combine them into a blender and grind until smooth, soft batter is formed.
- You could grind them into batches if it's over-loading your grinder. Combine the dosa batter into a large vessel.
- Allow the batter to ferment for 6-8 hrs, it may take longer if your country is cold.
- Remove a cup of fermented batter, add little salt and little water to dilute the batter. Keep the rest of batter into the fridge or freezer.
- Place a dosa tava or pan over the heat. Grease the tava with oil and wipe with a slice of onion or a potato slice. Again add few drops of oil.
- Once the pan is hot, but not very hot, add a scoopful of dosa batter towards the center. Now spread the batter in a circular motion from the center towards the edges with the help of small bowl (vati) or a spoon.
- Sprinkle and spread some oil over the dosa. When you see the edges changing color and becoming crisp. Flip the dosa other side and cook again. Once your dosas look golden brown in color and crispy. It's ready , repeat the same process with the rest of your batter.
- [b]Serve plain dosa with coconut chutney and sambar.
2. Also the heat should be medium else they might get burnt.
3. The batter has to be blended well else the result won't be good.
4. If you want thin, paper dosas then spread them thinly.
5. The dosa batter is not very thick like the idli or uttappam batter. So add little water to dilute but don't make the batter thin it has to be of medium consistency.
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