Tavalai dosai
1 Servings
Ingredients
| Quantity | Ingredient | |
|---|---|---|
| ½ | cup | Each moong (mung beans), moong dal, channa dal, toor dal |
| 3 | Dried red round chillies (about the size of marbles) | |
| Salt to taste | ||
| ¼ | cup | Thick sour yoghurt |
| 2 | tablespoons | Oil |
| 1 | teaspoon | Black mustard seed |
| 1 | Dried red round chillie | |
| Oil for frying | ||
Directions
I want to post some Gujerati recipes, since it's a wonderful cuisine which is very under-represented in restaurants, even in India -- but my recipes are mostly of the "little of this and a pinch of that" variety. I'll fix them, but meanwhile, this is a Tamil recipe from a friend which qualifies as comfort food in my opinion: it makes a thick, flying-saucer-shaped crisp patty, which can be a substantial snack or part of a meal. Although it's called a dosai, it's not the usual kind which resembles a crepe. It's cooked in a wok-shaped pan, but you could probably use a griddle as well.
Extra batter can be refrigerated for a couple of days.
Soak the dals and the dried red chillies overnight. Drain and reserve the chillies. Grind the dals briefly in a blender without adding water. Do not grind to a paste -- there should be fine uniform grains. Grind the chillies to a paste separately and add them to the ground dals along with salt and yoghurt. Mix well. Keep this mix in a warm place for about six hours, so that it becomes slightly sour. Heat 2 tblsp. oil until it's quite hot, add the mustard seed and red chillie. Fry until the mustard seeds jump, and add them to the dal batter. Put about 1 tblsp. oil in a wok-shaped pan, turn to coat the pan with oil, and pour in some of the batter -- it should be about ½" thick in the center. Smooth the top of the batter with a spoon, cover with a tight lid, and cook over a slow flame for about 8-11 minutes, until a dark brown crust forms on the bottom. Turn the dosai very carefully, add a little oil underneath, and cook again until a dark crust forms on the bottom. Posted to FOODWINE Digest 03 Apr 97 by Nancy Gandhi <gandhi@...> on Apr 4, 1997