Quinoa, Millet, Barley, Soybean Dosai

I grew up with a steady dose of Dosai-- the versatile anytime crepe-like flatbread made from hearty urad dal and rice. I didn't think about it much, it was a staple and therefore taken for granted. I didn't bother to analyze its nutritional value when I was young, I didn't care to know much about it, except that the batter was always handy and my mom would make this simple dish without a second thought and serve it with any handy chutneys or leftover sambaror kozhambu.

Now that I am trying to feed my own kids, I find that this unassuming protein-packed Dosai is my best friend-- the kind I can take liberties with and not fall out. The kids love it with or without chutneys and dips on the side. And, these are second-gen enhanced non-traditional Dosai that tradition-loving puritans would probably frown at.

There is the 'ordinary' dosai that was favored by the kids when they were toddlers. A slight variation of it is the Brown Rice Dosai that always satisfies. And then, there is the Soy Bean Dosai which comes from a multipurpose batter that doubles as Idlee batter for steaming. On and off, I make the batter with a mix of barley and pearl millet with brown rice and urad dal which gives a wholesome Barley-Millet Dosai.

It helps to plan ahead: I typically soak the ingredients overnight on a Thursday evening, grind it Friday night, then allow it to ferment all weekend thanks to natural wild yeast in the air. In winter, I help it along by warming up the oven a bit, turning off the oven, and leaving the batter inside the oven to stay warm and ferment better. The batter is ready when it bubbles a bit when stirred and emits a pleasant sour odor.

The batter, once fermented, can be stored in the fridge for a week. I take out a little at a time to make a few dosais as needed for breakfast or dinner, as they taste best fresh off the griddle.

Anyway, there are umpteen variations for the batter - just add whatever grams and pulses are handy and see how it turns out. Sometimes, the texture is off and the batter tends to stick to the griddle making it tough to cook if the combination is not right, but over time, it is easy enough to gauge the outcome while measuring and soaking the ingredients.

This Quinoa-Millet-Barley-Soybean Dosai is one such combination that turned out fine and was much relished by the family

Ingredients for the batter:
1 cup urad dal
1 cup quinoa
1 cup millet
1 cup barley
1 cup soy beans
2 cups brown rice

Preparation

1. Soak the ingredients for the batter overnight
2. Grind using a heavy-duty blender or wet grinder to a smooth batter with the consistency of pancake batter
3. Leave it in a warm place to ferment and rise - preferably cover with a cheese cloth or any breathable towel - anywhere from 24 to 48 hours
4. Add some salt and a little water if needed to make the batter spreadable on the griddle to make the crepes.
5. Cook much like pancakes-- brown one side, flip and cook the other side

Mint Thuvaiyal:

Here, I serve the dosais with red-chili chutney and home-made Mint Thuvaiyal- a pesto-like South Indian concoction. Mint is getting wild in the backyard, their runner roots taking over a small patch thanks to recent rains and warm weather.

Fresh mint leaves from the garden sauteed with toasted urad dal and chana dal, plus grated coconut, chilies, and tamarind paste come together to make this quick thick chutney-like blend referred to as Thuvaiyal/Thogayal in Tamil.

Brown Lentils, Pearl Barley, and Pearl Millet Dosai

What's not to love about flatbreads, right? It is a perfect universal food - for soaking up delicious dips and curries and chutneys; for loading up with veggies and wrapping up for easy consumption; for relishing the simple earthy goodness.

Dosai, a south Indian flat bread, is traditionally made from rice and urad dal. I have taken liberties with it making variations such as Brown Rice Dosai, Soy Bean Dosai, Adai Dosai Waffles, while relishing the simple and sumptuous traditional Mysore Masala Dosai, Adai Dosai, and Onion Rava.

Of course, there's the Ragi Dosai, (ragi is finger millet), which by itself is lovely for its rich color and flavor. But, this time, I went with a combination of brown lentils, pearl barley and pearl millet to make the dosai batter.

Dosai batter is typically allowed to naturally ferment before it is ready for cooking in the griddle into flat breads, crispy or spongy. To help it along, I add a dollop of home-fed, home-grown starter.

Grape Starter: A few grapes from the garden tossed into a mix of flour and water has been doing the magic for us. Wild yeast abounds in late summer early fall and it seemed like a great way to keep a bit of it to last us through the winter. So, since late summer this year, we have fed the starter and kept it going, in between periods of leaving it dormant in the fridge.

Using this grape sour dough starter to ferment the dosai, idli, injera batters adds a pleasantly sour taste and surprisingly quick results for fermentation.

Ingredients
¼ cup pearl millet
½ cup pearl barley
¼ cup brown lentils
¼ cup moong dal
¼ cup urad dal
1½ cups short grain brown rice
1 tablespoon fenugreek seeds
1 tablespoon grape sour dough starter

Combine all the ingredients except for the starter; soak overnight; grind to a smooth fine batter; add in the starter, cover and leave in a warm place for a few hours, or overnight. Stir every few hours to see if it is fermented to your liking. I like it bubbly and sour.

Salt the batter before making crepe or pancake like dosai on the griddle. Add finely diced onions, grated carrots, chopped chilies, chopped cilantro, even chopped kale to boost the dosai.

Enjoy with chutneys, sambar, curries.

Soy Beans Dosai and Idlee

I grew up on a steady diet of Idlee and Dosai. Along with the fallback "tiffin" of Upma,  the meals were mostly Sambar, Rasam, Rice, Yogurt and an array of vegetable sides. An amazing array.

Anyway, possibly as a result of the intimate connection with Idlee and Dosai during my childhood, my affinity for them has increased exponentially since the kids arrived.

Plus, I greatly appreciate what an easy yet healthy meal option it is for the kids: good protein, low fat, plus the goodness of wild fermentation; and for the cook: a batch of batter lasts several days if stored in the fridge; and as it ages it can become onion oothappam, or diluted with some roasted cream of wheat to make rava dosai, and if indulgent, hot fried appam can come about as well.

Not many South Indian kitchens are without an Appa Karal which is a traditional apparatus resembling the pancake puffs maker that was the rage a few years ago.

Dollops of gracefully aged idlee batter - with some chopped chilies, coconut, onions, maybe some soaked and softened chana dal - typically fried crisp on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside when made in the appa karal - a great tea time snack during monsoon season.

The traditional idlee and dosai get made often, as do brown rice dosai and idlee; but every once in a  while I change things up a bit in the spirit of experimentation and just for the fun of it.

That's how these protein-packed Soy Bean Dosai (and Idlee) came about. Between the soy beans, urad dal, moong dal and chana dal, there is plenty of protein.

And with the wild fermentation, we get the pleasantly sour flavor, with nutrients intact. As Sandor Ellix Katz describes in his book, "Fermentation not only preserves nutrients, it breaks them down into more easily digestible forms. Soybeans are a good example. This extraordinarily protein-rich food is largely indigestible without fermentation. Fermentation breaks down the soybeans’ complex protein into readily digestible amino acids,..."

I am not a nutritionist or a dietician, but, am always conscious of what we consume - at least what I feed my kids. And Idlee and Dosai have certainly earned a permanent place in their diet and what's more, they relish it.

Ingredients
½ cup split white urad dal (skin removed)
½ cup dry soy beans
¼ cup chana dal
1 cup whole green moong dal aka mung beans

1½ cup idlee rice (or brown rice)

Combine the ingredients, wash well, soak overnight or up to 12 hours.

Drain the water and grind to a fine batter, almost as thick as pancake batter.

The batter will not be smooth and silky as with flour batter - it will be a bit gritty and coarse-textured.

Leave the batter in a warm place covered with a cheese cloth or any breathable cloth overnight, for about 12-16 hours, to ferment naturally; even up to 18 - 24 hours. In a cold place like mine, I warm the oven to a low temperature, turn off the oven and leave the batter in there to ferment.

A pleasantly sour smelling batter that develops frothy bubbles when stirred indicates that it is ready for consumption. On cold days, I leave the batter out, but on warmer days I refrigerate it at this point for later use.

Chop up or mash any vegetables as desired and add to the batter before steaming the idlee or making the  Crêpe-like dosai. Serve it with a few chutneys and potato masaal or cabbage and potato alicha for a fusion Ethiopian.

I prefer to start with the basic thick fermented batter for idlee - but dilute it a bit for the dosai as needed to make thin crisp 'paper roast'. Serve it as breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner - it is a versatile meal.

Mysore Masala Dosai

When I was really young, I remember going to Mavalli Tiffin Room in Bangalore (Lal Bagh). Known famously now as MTR, the South Indian food served there was quite special and had that incredible home-made feel to it. MTR now also sells high quality packaged foods and ready-to-eat foods that are a favorite among Indians world-wide.

Anyway, RCI:Karnataka made me want to dedicate a special post to one particular dish that I used to order consistently at restaurants: Mysore Masala Dosai.

What made it special for me the first time I ate it in Bangalore was that it had this fiery, spicy chutney spread on the inside of the dosa, plus potato masala on the side, along with onion and coconut chutneys. It was a meal fit for a Queen!

Use any regular dosai recipe - I used my brown rice dosai recipe - for the dosai batter.

The fiery hot chutney I make is with red chilies, a tiny amount of shallots, very tiny amount of garlic and some grated coconut.

The potato masala is the same as what I posted in my poori-potato recipe

Once the dosai is made, spread a little chutney on the inside, scoop some potato masala in and roll up the dosai. Serve it with an array of chutneys like: coconut chutney, tomato chutney, extra potato masala, and even sambar, if you like.

I used my large rectangular griddle on stove-top to get the dosai a nice big oval - and one such large dosai is a huge and filling meal by itself!

adai dosai waffles

There was very little adai batter left for breakfast for all of us, and, this recipe sort of came together as an experiment...

Jaggery, and a mixture of sugar & ghee were quintessential companions of adai in our home when i was growing up...

As adai batter already had dry red chilies and black pepper, these waffles were best served with some brown sugar and a mixture of sugar and butter. But, coconut thogayal, or curry leaf chutney would be good with these as well...


Ingredients
2 cups fermented adai batter
1 cup Bisquick® pancake mix
½ medium onion, finely chopped
1 green chili finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
some chopped cilantro
adjust salt to taste
water as needed

Preparation

mix the adai batter and pancake mix with some water; add the rest of the ingredients, stir gently to have no lumps; this is a fairly thick batter

pour enough of the batter in a pre-heated waffle iron and cook just like waffles

serve warm with maple syrup, or chutney, or brown sugar, or my favorite: sugar with ghee (or butter)

brown rice dosai

Dosai happens to be a favorite meal at home, especially with a variety of chutneys, sauces and dips.

Just like sourdough or artisan breads, it is nice to keep a batch of dosai batter fermenting/rising while the current batch is being used. When i was growing up, dosai and idli batter were always handy, all home-made. As it ages, the dosai batter gets a nice sour flavor and can be used to make another of my favorite dish called oothappam.

Served here is brown rice dosai, with cabbage sambar, curry leaf chutney, and mango chutney.

Dosai batter needs some TLC before it is ready to use.
Ingredients for dosai:
1½ cups brown rice
2 cups par-boiled rice
1 cup urad dal
2 Tbsp fenugreek seeds

Soak the above in enough water, preferably overnight, or at least 6 hours. Drain. Rinse well. Grind into a fine paste, adding water as needed to form a thick-ish batter. Then, leave it to ferment in a container covered with a breathable cloth. This takes about 8-12 hrs in summers, but a lot longer in winters.

So, I usually dissolve about a teaspoon of rapid rise yeast in lukewarm water to activate it. Then gently stir this mixture into the batter. Preheat the oven to 170F, and turn it off. Let the batter sit in the pre-heated oven for a few hours. I found that even after the oven cools off, it is still warmer than "outside", so, the batter ferments well overnight.

When batter seems ready, add salt to taste, a little water if needed to make it easily spreadable... to get the batter to the right consistency takes some practice.

Spray some oil on a pan, heat it to medium high, spread the batter evenly, cook both sides, serve warm.

Adai Dosai

Adai is a thick pan cake made of fermented dal (lentils) batter usually, and some times made just out of rice ("verum arisi adai"). Dosai is usually thinner crepe type dish made with rice and urad dal. Adai-Dosai is sort of a combination of the two - uses dals like for adai, but is a thinner batter and hence ends up more like a dosai.

My wee one started liking dosai a lot since she turned one. So, I try to make dosai or adai-dosai batter once a week; this way she gets enough protein and fiber. The fermented batter from this recipe is usually about 1.5-2 gallons in volume and lasts a whole week for me. I save the unused batter in the fridge and use it on and off over the course of the week.

I try to make different shapes of adai-dosai rather than the traditional round form just to entertain my little one - picture above shows my attempt at a bear :-) It was quite rewarding to hear Ms.Little Tiny saying, "Doh-say- bay" (dosai bear) when I set the above plate in front of her this morning.

This recipe here is sort of made up - I wanted to incorporate as many ingredients as I have handy and I feel is healthy. Each time I make the batter, I vary the proportions a bit just to get a slightly different mix.

Also, in winter, I prefer to use yeast to make the batter rise and ferment well overnight; alternately, the batter can be left for a few days to gather the natural yeast from its environment and take its own sweet time to ferment...

Ingredients:
1 cup urad dal
1 cup whole green moong dal
1 cup chana dal
1 cup par-boiled rice(puzhungal arisi, or idlee arisi)
2 cups toor dal
3 Tbsp fenugreek seeds
3 Tbsp flax seeds
3 Tbsp poppy seeds - optional
6-8 dry red chilies
1 tsp rapid rise yeast
--------------------
some water
some oil
salt to taste
1 medium onion diced finely (optional)

Preparation:

1. soak all the above adai batter ingredients, except yeast, in enough water for 4-6 hours; grind into a fine batter; add the yeast and leave it in a warm place to rise overnight or up to 16 hrs.
2. the batter usually gets fluffy and rises well as in picture above
3. scoop 4-6 ladleful of the fermented batter into a bowl, add the onions, some salt, and a little water at a time to make a pourble batter of sorts - like the consistency of a medium-thin pancake batter
4. heat a non-stick pan or griddle; use a touch of oil to ensure that the adai-dosai lifts off the pan without struggle
5. scoop a ladleful of the prepared batter and spread/draw it into desired shape on the hot pan; or just spread them into simple circular form
6. leave pan in uniform medium-high heat; when underside seems done, flip carefully and cook the other side
7. serve warm with mint chutney or ridge gourd peel chutney or sambar or paruppurundai kozhambu
8. traditionally, my mom used to serve this with sugar & ghee, or jaggery or both:)

Fermented Adai batter is quite a sight - and smell - a pleasant sour smell when perfect, can turn to putrid if left too long :)

rava onion dosai

Traditional dosai batter requires soaking, grinding, fermenting; but, this rava onion dosai batter is sort of quick to make and keeps for a day or two in the fridge.

Ingredients
2 cups sooji rava, dry roasted to a light brown color
1 cup rice flour
1 cup all purpose flour (or, maida)
1 cup finely minced onions
4 Tbsp chopped curry leaves and cilantro (optional)
3 green chilies finely chopped (optional)
salt to taste (say about 1 Tbsp, more or less)
3 cups water (more or less)
oil as needed

tempering (optional) :
heat 1 Tbsp oil in a pan, add 1 tsp mustard seeds and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds; when mustard seeds spatter, remove from heat and add it to the rava onion dosai batter, stir well.

Preparation

1. combine all the ingredients, except water, in a bowl
2. add a little water at a time and start kneading into a dough; gradually add more water and stir or knead well till there are no lumps and a fairly thin batter is formed
3. heat a non-stick pan on medium, pour about 1/2 cup of batter and swirl it around till it forms a thin layer
4. when bottom side is cooked, flip and cook the other side of the dosai
5. brush the pan with oil as needed to ensure dosai lifts off the pan without struggle
6. rava onion dosai is a soft crepe type dish, it usually does not get very crisp and is best eaten hot
7. serve warm with mint chutney, or coconut chutney, or even 'dosai milagai podi' (a versatile lentil+spices powder)

dosai : rice crepes

There are quite a few variations of dosai and i hope to be posting a few of them over the next few weeks... this is one of my favorite 'tiffin'/snack items.

This recipe here involves soaking, grinding and fermenting rice and urad dal - which is the traditional recipe i learnt from my mom. Some other recipes using other methods and ingredients like semolina are quicker - like rava dosai, maida dosai etc. and i hope to be sharing them here soon.

Ingredients
for dosai:
1 cup urad dal (de-husked, i.e., black skin removed)
4 cups parboiled rice (sometimes sold as 'puzhungal arisi' in indian stores)*
water as needed
salt to taste
oil for greasing the pan

*i've tried basmati rice, and jasmine rice instead and they do turn out alright for home-made dosai, but, i prefer puzhungal arisi whenever it is available

Preparation

1. soak urad dal and rice separately for about 4 hours; i've tried soaking for 6-8 hrs or even overnight, and didn't find a significant difference in how the dosai turned out eventually; however it might make a difference in helping the grinding process - when soaked longer, many standard blenders handle grinding better than otherwise
2. drain the water, grind urad dal in wet grinder (or heavy-duty blender) and let it get soft and fluffy (usually i let it run for about 30-35 mins in the wet grinder); set aside in a large-ish bowl
   
3. then drain and grind the rice as well, and add it to the bowl with the ground urad dal; use very little water for grinding, preferably leave the batter thick and sort of sticky
   
4. cover the bowl and leave it in a warm place for several hours or overnight till it ferments well - you can smell the sourness (sort of like sourdough smell) and notice the rise in the dough/batter; i've found that fermentation makes a difference in taste and texture of dosai
   
5. when ready to make the dosai, stir the batter thoroughly, scoop a few ladles out onto a separate bowl, add a little water at a time to get to a pouring consistency, add some salt to taste - experiment with this 'diluted' batter's consistency till you find the best one that helps spread the batter evenly and without struggle;
   
6. heat a non-stick pan or griddle, pour about half a cup of dosai batter and spread it around to form a nice round shape; when underside seems done (the sides usually start lifting from the pan), flip the dosai and cook the other side
7. i've found the need to grease the non-stick pan between dosais to help them come off the pan without much struggle; also, i save the thick fermented dough/batter as-is in the fridge for later use; i find this more convenient than diluting the whole batch of fermented dough/batter and saving it for later
   
8. serve warm dosai with mint chutney, or coconut thogayal and sambar