Today was breakfast experimentation day and the item was Dosa. After a few rounds of trial and error, I had to stop making it. The dosa wasn’t sticking to the Tava/pan (non stick) and was tearing off in large chunks and as a result I had to make really thick ones at the beginning. Because I was making them thick, I had to either put a lid on the pan / turn the Dosa over to ensure the top side was cooked as well. Which is really not needed.
So, went online to refer this dosa making video by the inspirational Vahchef – Sanjay Thumma.
Then went back to making Dosa.Basically made a few tweaks to the batter and the way I was pouring it. Bingo, the Dosa came out thin and super crispy which would give any professional Dosa chef serious competition (or so I think :)).
Since most videos and recepit sites didn’t give me tips on what to avoid and I ended up experimenting to get it right, I am writing this post.
- Making the batter is real easy. Get the proportions of rice, split black gram (Urad dal) and split bengal gram (Channa dal) right and let it ferment overnight. The first error I was making was getting the batter too thick. This is one of the reasons for the Dosas coming off the pan while spreading. Get the consistency of the batter runny. The batter needs to just coat the spoon (see the video at 2.15-3.15 to refer to the consistency I am talking about.
- I realised the other reason why the Dosa was coming off the pan was because I was greasing the pan with oil heavily to avoid the Dosa from sticking. If you are using a non-stick pan, you don’t really need to grease the pan. Infact, make sure you remove traces of grease from a non stick pan from the pervious dosa. Some people rub a half cut onion on the pan for this. I think one of the benefits this offers is that it absorbs excess oil off the pan. The second benefit is ofcourse the amazing smell you get (it instantaneously reminds me of home and mom making Dosas in the morning for breakfast).
- Now comes spreading the batter to the right thickness (or should I call thinness). If you get the right consistency of batter, spreading the batter thin is a breeze. Getting the pan up to the correct temperature is the other thing you should ensure for getting the Dosas thin. The pan should be just around 100C. Basiclally, once you sprinkle a little water on pan it should sizzle and evaporate. Once the water evaporates, clean the pan again with the piece of onion to remove traces of oil. Some tips on the internet says that water is sprinkled to bring the temperature of tava a little down temporarily so that we can spread the batter well on the pan. At this temperature when you pour the batter, you hear that sizzle of the water in the batter. When you hear it, you know you are getting your Dosa right :)
That’s it, 3 simple things to ensure/avoid and you get wonderful Dosa.
Before I sign off, I should say this… VahChef has an amazing channel on Youtube with vidoes of Indian recepies. You can visit his site – vahrehvah – too for the recepie info.