Comforting Masala Dosa

Masala Dosa is a thin crisp dosa/crepes layered with a spicy coconut chutney & then stuffed with onion-potato filling, usually served along side Sāmbhar. Without the filling, it’s devoid. I tell you its one of the best comforting foods that you can have be it breakfast or lunch or dinner! This is one of my favorites and also everyone in my household just loves it, Ya, Now who cannot love Masala Dosas, Who am I talking to here!?!;) Whoever invented the idea, hats off to him/her!!
The base for the batter is rice-lentil combo. Also there are many variations to prepare this batter, each person might have different ratio and also some ingredients too.This is my sister’s recipe and it’s the best!I prepare masala dosa using this ratio and it’s crispy and delicious.
You can read more about them here

Ingredients:

For batter:

1½ cups Rice (I use long grain rice)
4 tsp heapful urad dal or black gram
2 tsp heapful chana dal or bengal gram
½ tsp methi or fenugreek seeds
½ cup of rice crispies or murmura
Salt to taste
A pinch of sugar

Method:

1. Firstly, in a wide bowl soak the rice, dals and the methi seeds together for at least 4 hours. Wash the ingredients in 3 to 4 changes of water or till water is clear.

2. In a blender add the batter ingredients along with rice crispies and blend it with little water until it’s fine and smooth, the consistency of batter should be like pancake batter. (Not too thick and not too thin).Add salt and sugar & let it ferment well till you see lot of bubbles. (The batter should ferment well to get good dosas)


For Filling:

3 medium sized potatoes boiled and chopped
1 medium sized onion chopped
1 tsp chopped ginger. (Optional)
½ tsp minced garlic. (Optional)
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp jeera or Cumin seeds
½ tsp urad dal or black lentils
¼ tsp chana dal or Bengal gram
5 to 6 curry leaves
3 to 4 green chillies chopped
¼ tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves.
Salt to taste

Now on to the filling:

1.Heat oil in a kadai or deep skillet, when hot add mustard seeds, when they start to sputter add jeera/cumin seeds and fry for a second or two. Now add urad dal and chana dal and fry till they are light brown. Follow by adding green chillies, curry leaves, ginger, garlic & turmeric powder and fry till for 2 minutes.

2. Now add the chopped onions and sauté till they start to sweat. (If you want you can add about less than ¼ cups of water and cook the onions too, I do this).

3. When the onions are soft and cooked through add the chopped boiled potatoes, salt and mix well. Turn the flame to medium and mix everything together till they are blended well.(Note: The filling should be very dry)

4. Finally garnish with coriander leaves, cover and let it be on the stove on medium heat for about 3 to 4 minutes.

For chutney:

½ cups of fresh desiccated coconut
2 to 3 fried red chillies (you can use fresh green chillies too)
4 to 5 slices of fresh ginger
1 clove of garlic
Peanut size tamarind
Salt to taste

(I sometimes add few sprigs of coriander leaves; it gives a nice flavor.)

Method:

1. In a blender add all the chutney ingredients and little water and blend it till fine and smooth. (The chutney should be spread able on the dosas, if its too watery then you can serve it separately alongside dosas.)

2. Pour this in a bowl.

Now on to making Dosas:

1. Heat up a tava/griddle to smoking hot and with a wet paper towel/tissue wipe off the tava.(If there is grease/oil there are chances of batter to be lumpy and won’t come out thin dosas)Pour a ladleful of batter on the tava and start spreading the batter in circular motion to form a round and thin dosa. Drizzle a tsp of oil/ghee/butter and cook it for about 1 to 2 minutes on a medium hot flame.



2. When the dosa is cooked up and golden, add a spoonful of coconut chutney and spread evenly all through out the dosa followed by the potato filling in the center.
Fold the dosa and serve immediately with some more chutney and Sāmbhar.


Try this recipe and let me know!

I didn’t have Sāmbhar so I just served it with coconut chutney; Sāmbhar makes it much tastier and a complete south Indian meal!