Masala Dosa – famous south Indian dish which can be eaten anytime, in snack, lunch or dinner or breakfast. It has a slight tangy taste due to the fermentation, and is savory rather than sweet. Without the filling, on its own it’s called ‘plain dosa’ that can be eaten with a variety of vegetable curries. This recipe uses basic ingredients that is found in almost all Indian homes. Do try it for a leisurely family breakfast at home.
Tips : Take a bowl and add in the urad dal, toor dal, chana dal and fenugreek seeds. Wash the lentils well and soak the lentils in water. In another bowl, add in the parboiled rice and raw rice. Wash the rice well in water and soak the rice in fresh water. If you cannot source idli rice, any parboiled rice will work for this recipe. Soak the ingredients in water for 3-4 hours. After the soaking period, drain the water. Now we will grind the lentils and the rice separately. Place the drained lentils in a heavy duty Indian mixie and add 150 ml water to it. Grind to a smooth paste.
Start preparing the dosa batter at least 24 hours before. Because soaking dal-rice and fermentation takes time. For the ease of making this masala dosa, you can use store bought batter too.
Masala Dosa
Ingredients
For Dosa
- ½ cup urad dal
- 1 ½ cup rice
- ½ cup chana dal
- 4 tbsp poha
- salt to taste
For Masala
- 2 cup potatoes
- 1 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- ½ tsp Jeera / Cumin seeds
- 1 tsp chana dal
- 1 tsp urad dal
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1 pinch asafetida / hing
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 5-6 curry leaves
- 2 green chilies
- ½ tsp turmeric (Haldi)
- 2 tbsp. coriander leaves
- salt to taste
- 1 tbsp butter
Instructions
Making Dosa batter
- wash rice, urad dal and chana dal separately and soak in water separately for 4 – 6 hours or overnight.
- Rinse poha and soak 30 mins and grind.
- Grind urad dal and poha in a blender.
- Use water as much required to make batter. Transfer to large container.
- Mix with dal batter.
- Keep it for fermenting for overnight or minimum 16 hours. In hot weather it takes less time.
- After fermenting batter should turn fluffy.
Making Sambar / curry
- Boil potatoes till just done.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin, mustard, chana dal and urad dal until dal turns golden.
- Add asafetida / hing and ginger. Saute till raw aroma is gone.
- Add onion, curry leaves and chilies.
- Saute till golden, Add potatoes, crumbled
- Add turmeric and salt. Add some water.
- Saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Garnish with coriander leaves.
Masala Dosa
- Put some oil on tawa. Heat on high flames
- Put laddle full of batter on the tawa and spread evenly with laddle or use flat side of katori.
- Put some butter on the edges.
- After a few minutes, batter will start leaving the edges.
- Flip and cook for 2 minutes. flip again till the base turns golden.
- Place the curry on one half of the dosa and roll it.
- Remove from the tawa and eat with sambhar, coconut chutney.
