How to make Dosa batter

     

        When I first sat down to write this, my husband's reaction was, "Who wants that?" But I know almost all of us must know the right amounts of urad dal and rice for a perfect, soft and yet crispy dosas. In the initial days of my marriage whenever I planned to make Idli or Dosa I used to call up my Mom for asking, how much rice to be added for 1 cup of urad dal? It took me sometime for that to sit in my head. Once you get the knack of it, its very easy. You can make the dosa batter in bulk and refrigerate it for 3-4 days. After that it starts getting sour.
        These days you get ready made dosa and idli batters in all supermarkets. Working people too who do not have time to grind all these can happily relish the dosas.

Prep time: 8 hours
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Black gram, skinless: 1 cup
Rice: 2 cups
Cooked rice: 3 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds/ Methi dana: 1 tbsp
Bengal gram/ Chana dal: 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil for drizzling

Method:

1. Soak black gram in water overnight. Wash the rice and soak it separately. Soak fenugreek seeds and chana dal along with rice.
   
2. Drain and mix them.
3. Grind it to a fine paste by adding water and cooked rice in a blender or wet grinder.
   
4. Transfer it to a bowl, cover it with a lid and let it ferment for a whole night or 10 hours. 
5. Add salt before making dosas.

How to make dosas:

1. Heat a nonstick pan or tawa. Sprinkle some water with your fingers so that the tawa is at right temperature.
2. Take a ladle full of dosa batter, drop it on the tawa and spread it in a circle.
3. Drizzle some oil around the dosa, when the dosa is ready the edges will start leaving the tawa. Transfer it to a plate. If you want your dosa to be a little crispy  flip the dosa and cook it on the other side for some 10 secs, i.e. cook on both sides. 
   
   
   
4. Serve with chutney or sambar. 

Notes:

• Soak the black gram and rice for a minimum of 4 hours.