Easy Recipe for Masala Dosa

tstan

I have had a couple of unsuccessful attempts to make dosas - too many variables (humidity,temperature, oil etc) - even though the filling is easy to make and is very tasty.The finished product in no way resembled the magnificent Mysore Masala Dosas I had eaten in India and I ended up putting the embarrassing glutinous mess in the compost bin - at least some good may eventuate!

One (among many) of the food books I refer to is locally produced by an ISKON devotee
who is often seen on TV. He has a very good website
http://www.kurma.net
and I will give you his recipes for the Masala Dosa filling and Coconut Chutney shortly.

In desperation, I googled to see what good advice might be on the net to help would- be dosa makers and I was surprised to see some recipes for Chinese style spring rolls using a dosa base, cooked in the South Indian manner.

If it were possible for Indians with their characteristic ingenuity to produce a spring roll wrapper on a tawa, surely it would be possible for some Chinese person to make a Masala Dosa using spring roll pastry, which is readily available all over China. I can imagine IMers pouring scorn on the notion of Chinese people being remotely interested in making dosas but I can report that, among Chinese people living in Singapore and the larger Malaysian cities, there is considerable appreciation of Indian cuisine.

Spring roll pastry is readily available - a pack of 20 sheets (about 9 inches square or 250mm) costs less than $US1 from a supermarket in Sydney - and when peeling off the sheets, care must be taken not to allow the unused sheets of pastry (less than 1mm thick) to dry out and crack. The solution to this particular problem is to place a wet tea towel over the unused sheets which maintains humidity levels.

Simply lay out the thin square of pastry on a board, place the filling along one edge and roll up into the shape of a cylinder. Dampen the edges so that the pastry sticks together.When all the sheets are used up - you need another damp tea towel to cover the dosas you have made up otherwise they too will crack - simply remove the number of dosas you require and freeze the leftover dosas.

Heat ghee or oil -I use a 1:2 mix of ghee and oil for reasons of health and economy - in a frying pan and fry the dosas, making sure that you turn them frequently. Serve with coconut chutney.

Masala Dosa Filling

1 tbs finely chopped ginger
Half a red onion finely chopped (or use asfoteda powder if you don't like onions - Jains and Hari Krishnas)
Half tsp Ajowain Seed (if you don't have any, simply omit)
1 tbs chopped and seeded green chillies
Half tsp mustard seeds
15 curry leaves
1 tsp coriander powder
3 cups (750g) diced potatoes
1 tsp coriander powder
Half tsp cummin powder
Half tsp chat masala (omit if you can't get some)
Half tsp tumeric
Half tsp salt
Half cup water (125ml)
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tbs fresh coriander leaves - or for our American friends, cilantro - (don't throw away the roots!)

Boil the diced potatoes for 5 mins and set aside.
Cook everything else in ghee or oil and add the water, lemon juice and coriander leaves last. Mash together with the potatoes.

South Indian Coconut Chutney

1 tbs oil
4 green chillies seeded and chopped
1 tbs Channa dal (yellow lentils)
1 tsp mustard seeds
8 curry leaves
Half red onion finely chopped (or asfoteda)
Pinch of tumeric
2 cups of dried coconut soaked in 150ml boiling water for 10 mins (or the equivalent in fresh coconut)
1 tbs tamarind paste
1 tsp salt
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbs freshly chopped coriander leaves

Boil the dal for 5 minutes until soft.
Cook the other things in the oil
Add the coconut and coriander leaves.
Mash or use a blender.

Enjoy.

Nick-H

Strange! Spring roll pastry has no resemblance at all to dosa!

But hey, if you enjoy eating your pottato masala in spring roll pastry, go for it and enjoy!

Now I come to think of it, I've never liked spring rolls; this sounds like a much better idea

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PortieOwner

In my opinion, dosas are one of those things best left to professionals working in restaurants!

Hyderabadi

To make matters worse (I like these actually )they even have frozen Dosas, and Uttappams, Idlis and Wada...!

Discussed earlier.

Nick-H

Mrs N makes nice ones! We buy the mixture... making dosa flower would be a big thing indeed.

Now, if only we could get parathas to come out right ...

shilpaks

waaaaaaaaah i dont like posts like these which remind me of masala dosas back home
i ordered "special" masala dosa at a restaurant close to office to figure out what the "special" was all abt...only to see paneer as part of the filling...argh!!!!

haritha

home made masala dosas watch out cooking demos

crvlvr

yeah.. I read the recipie with great interest and realized that it was missing the recipie for dosa batter, which IMHO is one of the most difficult things to get right. Especially, since the fermentation process depends on the weather.

shilpaks

yup tht batter is quite difficult to perfect. if u stay in a place that has a temp of 25-30 it must be left overnight.

mani

Just use the ready mix from MTR really good and easy to make.

mix water into the dry mix five minutes before want to start preparing the dosa no fermentation no grinding.

We used to do the whole process of soaking, grinding fermenting and 9 out of 10 times something would be amiss and everybody would grumble.

Tried MTR and now we stick to this every time.

regards
mani