Dosa batter is a batter mostly used to make plain dosa or masala dosa all across South India or North India. I always had in mind to post this article on making batter to make dosas and finally, I am posting the secrets on making a delicious restaurant-style dosa making procedure recipe.
About dosa
South Indian breakfasts like dosa, idli and poori were quite popular in South India but now their popularity has been increasing worldwide.
We always try to get perfect dosas but despite many attempts we don't get perfect dosas and if this article is followed well then one can easily make hotel style dosa or south indian style dosa at home be it a plain dosa or masala dosa or onion dosa with this batter.
Making idli batter or any tiffin batter is a long process but is worth when we get the perfect dosa and it tastes best when eaten with certain chutneys like onion tomato chutney, coconut chutney, peanut chutney .
It requires a few ingredients but when the batter is ready it is very important to ferment the batter for a long time.
Tips
1. The ratio of rice and urad dal(mina pappu/black gram) should always be 2:1.
2.Adding few fenugreek seeds and few chana dal into them gives the golden color that we look for in making dosa.
3.The ingredients need to be soaked for a long time i.e atleast for 7-8 hours.
4.When the ingredients are soaked and blended, the batter should again be fermented for another 7-8 hours.
5.Always use a good non stick tawa to make dosa.
6.Do not use tawas on which rotis are made as the dosa made on such tawa might stick to the bottom of the tawa.
7.Always use a ladle to make dosa which give out a perfectly circular shape dosas.
Step by step procedure
- Firstly in a bowl, add rice, wash it well and add enough water so that the rice is dipped well.
- In another bowl, add urad dal(split black gram), wash it well and add enough water.
- In small bowls, add in chana dal and methi seeds, add water into them. I have soaked both the ingredients in the same bowl.
- Soak all the ingredients for 7-8 hours or soak them during the day. After soaking drain the water out from all the ingredients. Mix all the soaked ingredients.
- Make a paste of cooked rice and add it to the blended batter or mix the cooked rice while mixing all the soaked ingredients.
- Take a blender, add all the soaked ingredients together and blend it into a fine paste in batches. If required add very little water and blend the batter.
- Mix the batter well and ferment the batter overnight. The batter should be fermented well in a warm place. The dosa turns out well only with fermentation and the key step is to fermentt it well by covering the batter.
- While making dosa, add salt into the batter as per taste, mix well and the batter is ready to be used to make dosa.
- If the batter is too thick to form or spread the dosa add little by little water to get the consistency right and to easily spread it on a griddle.
Watch these video recipes for more help
Storage
The blended batter can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days after fermentation and dosa turns out even much better in the following days. Too long storage that is up to a week does not ruin the batter but the batter becomes sour in taste and the dosa too turns out sour.
The same batter can be used to make uttapam or punugulu and tastes good for breakast or snacks.
Video
Recipe
Dosa Batter Recipe or Plain Dosa Recipe
Ingredients
For the batter:
- 2 cups rice
- 1 cup urad dal split black gram
- ½ teaspoon methi seeds fenugreek seeds
- ½ teaspoon chana dal
- 1 cup cooked rice
- water for soaking the ingredients
Instructions
- Firstly in a bowl, add rice, wash it well and add enough water so that the rice is dipped well.
- In another bowl, add urad dal(split black gram), wash it well and add enough water.
- In small bowls, add in chana dal and methi seeds, add water into them.
- Soak all the ingredients for 7-8 hours or soak them during the day.
- After soaking drain the water out from all the ingredients.
- Mix all the soaked ingredients.
- Take a blender, add those ingredients and blend it into a fine paste in batches.
- If required add very little water and blend the batter.
- Make a paste of cooked rice and add it to the blended batter.
- Mix the batter well and ferment the batter overnight.
- Add in salt into the batter as per taste, mix well and the batter is ready to be used to make dosa.
Plain Dosa Making Procedure:
- Keep the batter ready.
- If the batter is too thick add few drops of water and mix it well.
- Heat the tawa.
- Take a ladle full of dosa batter and put the batter at the centre of the tawa.
- From the centre rotate the batter in circular motion and spread it circularly to form a round thin dosa.
- Try to spread the batter as a very thin circular dosa.
- Drizzle oil all over the dosa and at the corners of the dosa.
- Cook it for few minutes and remove the dosa.
- Serve hot with sambar or chutney etc...
Notes
2. One can also add soaked poha in place of cooked rice or we can even add soaked puffed rice(murmura) too in place of cooked rice.
3. Adding any of the ingredients that is either cooked rice or poha or puffed rice is essential for a perfect and crisp dosa.
4. Always remember to make use of non stick pan while making dosa and always keep the dosa pan separately and never mix it with roti pan...
Shaun McLoughlin says
Hi Asiya, it says 1 teaspoon of Chana dal on the video. Is that right or should it be a tablespoon? Thanks Shaun
asiya says
Hi Shaun, thanks for your query..Adding chana dal is entirely optional but if we wanna add then we can add a tsp of it...Its better do not add a table spoon of it...just add few countable lentils or a teaspoon... I suggest not to add a tbsp...
Shaun McLoughlin says
Ok Thanks Asiya