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.