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1 is to 4 should be the alternate title of this thread. As long as you remember the ratio, it doesn't matter how much dosa you need to make. Just remember that for every 4 parts rice, you need 1 part urad daal. I'm using basmati rice in this batch, because I want you to stop thinking of dosa as a finicky thing that you need to baby all the way. You take ANY rice that you have, and soak with fenugreek seeds. Then, soak some urad daal. Then, grind it to a fine batter. Then ferment the batter. Then stir in a little water, and make a dosa. That's really it. Measuring out 4 parts of rice.  For that much rice, I needed a bit of fenugreek seed. No you can't substitute it. No, I don't have a measurement. Put in a little bit.  Some like a little more, some like a little less. Just get some fenugreek in. Add a lot of water to soak it. I use the HOT tap water from the tap, because I'm lazy, and soak my urad daal and rice at the same time (the night before). If you do it the proper way (where you soak the rice in cold water overnight, and urad daal in room temp water for an hour), then use regular cold tap water. I don't care how you prefer it.  That's how much water to add. Now, we're going to measure the urad daal. Since I had 4 of those cups of rice, how much urad daal do I need?  That's right! Just 1. The type I use is called "urad gota" in the store I bought it at. Most of the urad daal is skinned and split in half. I like the kind that's whole, but skinned.  Here is a closer look, so you can show it to the aunty at the Patel Bros. Throw it in a thing, and add a lot of water to soak it too.  Now, I used cold cold water from the sink to soak the urad daal. Now I'm going to let them soak for overnight. It's cold in here, so I'll leave the urad daal out (so it stays cooler), and put the rice/fenugreeek/water mixture into the oven, where the pilot light keeps things warm all the time. The REAL rule is as follows: soak the rice for 4 - 6 hours (if white). Soak the urad for 1 hour. But I'm too lazy to follow that. Tomorrow morning, we'll grind it to a batter, and let it ferment.
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Nov 16, 2013 06:42
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 19:54 |
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Do you like Lay's potato chips? I'm usually a tortilla chip guy buy I got some kettle cooked jalapeno potato chips from the vending machine at work and really liked them. I couldn't find that particular brand at the store, but I saw Lay's had some jalapeno kettle cooked chips and bought those. They're really good. Lay's.
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Nov 16, 2013 06:52
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Dino, please do chapati next Edit: because I'm having trouble  Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 11:34 on Nov 16, 2013 |
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Nov 16, 2013 06:56
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Yayyyyy. Youre awesome Dino! I have tried a few times to make dosa but the proper texture and flavor I get at good south Indian restaurants around here I can never seem to get on my own. Looking forward to trying your method.
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Nov 16, 2013 07:25
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Hey you made me remember I bought a kilo of urad dal ages ago with the intention of making this. Guess I'd better get up on that, then. Also I should probably make my quarterly giant vat of sambhar while the iron is hot too.
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Nov 16, 2013 10:27
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It's now the morning. The urad daal has increased in size.  The rice has gone from translucent to opaque.  Funnily enough, this is the same colour change (for the rice) that you look for when you're frying it on the stove to make a pilaf. When the rest of the humans in the house wake up, I'll grind everything. For now, I will decant the water off the urad daal, and discard it. Urad daal is a bean, and bean soaking liquid can give gas. We want a little bit of it, because that same gas seems to help the fermentation along. But for the most part, throw out the bean soaking liquid. For the grinding, we'll use the rice/fenugreek's soaking liquid. Why did I soak them separately? Because the also grind at different rates. You want the resulting mixture to be as smooth as possible. This is impossible when you've got everything together.
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Nov 16, 2013 14:08
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I hate this part so much, and I'm not alone. There are entire mountains built on the amount of hate that South Indians have for grinding the dosa batter. There are machines built to make the process easier. Spoiler alert: it never is. It sucks, and is noisy, and time consuming. And then they invented the blender. However, I don't have a fancy blender. I have a crappy one that looks like it came off the pages of Thrift Stores R Us. ALWAYS GRIND THE URAD DAAL FIRST.  Don't fill your blender more than that. Even if you have a fancy blender. Why? Because you want the stuff ground down as finely as possible without overworking or wearing out the motor. You think I'm joking? I've managed to burn through some beasts of a motor while grinding dosa batter. My mum ploughed through a VITA MIX. Why all the blender concern? Water level. You want to grind the thing to a smooooooooth batter with the least amount of water possible. Why so little water? Because the less water you can get away with adding, the more friction will be present in the machine, meaning that you'll get a buttery smooth batter. More water, less friction, more lumps. Start at low speed, with no water at all (drain the urad daal well, and let the blender chop up the big pieces into smaller pieces).  Watch the urad daal splatter all over the place.  Sigh loudly, turn off the blender, scrape down the sides, and add a little bit of water. I use the lid, because I'm a pro like that. Also, because it means that it looks like I'm adding a LOT of water, when i've just added a bit. Run the blender on low speed again, to get the water 'corporated. Watch the sides splatter again. Swear quietly because everyone else is asleep, scrape down the sides, add another splash of water, and gradually increase the speed from lower to higher. As needed to keep things moving, add a bit more water at a time, until you've added too much water, and the goddamn thing is now a vortex.  Swear slightly less loudly, but increase the speed even more, so that the too much water thing will finally turn to a batter. Nervously watch the clock and smell carefully for the smell of burning and sadness. Because now you're going to overwork your motor. Cry, and wish you had a vita mix. Check for the thing's smoothness. When you feel no grit left, it's done. Or, it's done when you're sick of waiting for the loving thing to finish grinding, and you are pretty certain that your blender is going to die now.  Pour into a comically large container, because I'll tell you later. Just like with the urad daal, drain the rice (BUT SAVE THE LIQUID) and add it to the blender. Chop it dry on low speed.  Scrape down the sides, splash in a bit of water, and gradually build up speed and water until the thing starts to become over-watered again. WHY CAN'T I HAVE A NICE BLENDER? gently caress YOU, BLENDER. It's 11:00 on a Saturday morning, but I'm past caring. Open the fridge to find the tonic water, which you finished last night. Swear more, and get a glass. Fill with ice. Pour in gin. Splash in some bitters. Drink. Cry more. Grind until the rice is no longer gritty. Or, as before, when you think the blender is going to die.  Pour over the ground urad daal. Do the next batch of rice. I managed to finish in two batches. Much more, and I'd have needed a cigarette, and new room mates. Also, a new window, because they don't prevent flying blenders from passing through them unscathed. Mix well. Rinse out the blender with a bit of water, and mix it through.  Homogenous mixture. The reason you need such a large storage unit is because the wild yeasts will make this fucker puff up a lot if you did everything right. If it's winter (as it is here), you want to keep the batter warm, or else it won't rice. I'm keeping it in the warm oven, because the pilot light keeps the oven warm. You can also wrap it in a bath robe, and set it near the radiator. You can also fill a larger container with hot water, put the smaller container inside, and then set the whole works in your cabinet. Cover the top of the rising batter with a non tight fitting lid. If you use plastic wrap or aluminium foil, poke a few holes in. Otherwise, use a towel, or a crappy lid. Whatever works. This container has a crappy lid built in, so that when you put boiling hot soup or anything else that emits a lot of pushy gas, the lid won't pop off. It's not water tight, but it does stay put. Hooray. Let it ferment until it's poofed up by about double. This can take anywhere from 3 hours (in a warm climate, where the environment is dosa country) to 9 hours (in the winter). Mutter a lot to yourself, because it all started out so well until you realise that your kitchen sucks, and you're poor.
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Nov 16, 2013 18:10
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This thread is amazing. Thanks, dino.
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Nov 16, 2013 18:46
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I've been wanting to make dosa for a long time and had read your blog post about it before, so glad for this thread to get some more detail! I won't be able to make the excuse to put it off any longer. You're awesome dino. 
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Nov 16, 2013 20:25
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This is a wonderful thread. As soon as I acquire some motorized circly blades, I'm going to make the hell out of this.
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Nov 16, 2013 21:33
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 Notice that your formerly full bottle of wine(s) are now empty. Curse at them, and call the wine store to send over some more. No, I'm not paying cash. What the gently caress do I look like, some kind of cash-having cash face? Put it on the card. And put in a lil' something for yourself too. OK. Thanks.  It's been about three hours in the warm womb of the oven. You see all those bubbles? THEY ARE LIES. This batter is NOT ready, even though it was sat in the optimal temperatures. Do not trust the bubbles. They will disappoint you, like everything always does. You had such plans. No more. No more. Put it back in the oven. You'll know that it's done when the batter has enough cohesion to form a sort of dome with its rising. It will (when stirred) look like a proper yeasted bread. I'll take pictures. For now, I'm going to my friend's house to help her "house warming." No dosa will be had. Instead, I'll take the wine, and a few packs of smokes. We can all sit around and bitch about batters taking too long to cooperate. It's OK if your batter overferments. If you happen to leave it for 12 hours instead of just the 6 - 9, it's fine. It'll be more sour, but that's not a bad thing. In case you do forget, and don't set a calendar reminder on your phone (which, after all that work, why the gently caress not?), you can still salvage it. More on that later.
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Nov 16, 2013 21:37
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So, dino, let's assume that I live in the middle of Nevada where there are no airborne yeasts. Can I add some baker's yeast instead?
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Nov 16, 2013 22:19
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Mr. Wiggles posted:So, dino, let's assume that I live in the middle of Nevada where there are no airborne yeasts. Can I add some baker's yeast instead? The yeasts are actually on the rice already.
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Nov 16, 2013 23:06
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Well I ask because I have tried dosa before and get no fermentation at all. So maybe my rice is super clean or something.
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Nov 17, 2013 01:51
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Well I ask because I have tried dosa before and get no fermentation at all. So maybe my rice is super clean or something. oh. I guess maybe older rice the yeast could have died off. I've had the same problem with flour/sourdough starters
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Nov 17, 2013 03:52
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This is awesome. I'm assuming you'll also be sharing a recipe for filling the dosa (please)? The one and only time I had dosa it had a filling of cabbage, potato, mustard seed, and onion that I loved. I don't know why, but seeing this made me think of filling them with thanksgiving leftovers (mainly cornbread dressing) and dipping them in some kind of cranberry/tamarind chutney.
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Nov 17, 2013 04:36
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Mr. Wiggles posted:So, dino, let's assume that I live in the middle of Nevada where there are no airborne yeasts. Can I add some baker's yeast instead? If the fenugreek isn't the issue, go ahead and add the fresh yeast that comes in cake form, and see where it takes you. You won't get quite that full tart sourness, but you'll get pretty close to it. It is a long ferment though, so it's possible that you didn't let it go long enough? @ Bolo: If I have time, I can make a separate thread for the potato masala. My family fondly calls it "yellow potato", even though drat near all the potatoes served in Indian fashion are yellow from the turmeric. It's a pretty special dish (for me), and I feel like it deserves its own post. dino. fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Nov 17, 2013 |
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Nov 17, 2013 20:50
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I got home at 1 PM, after yesterdays drunken rambles.  It fermented so hard that the lid is ajar.  You don't have to go quite that long to where the thing overtakes your kitchen. This batch is a bit on the over-fermented side. That's OK because I like my dosa really sour. If you're not such a huge fan, add lots of onions, a bit of cumin seed (crushed lightly), some grated carrot, grated coconut (if you use the desiccated unsweetened coconut, just bloom it in a little hot water to make it taste like fresh) and some freshly grated ginger. Make the pancakes about as thick as you would make a wheat flour pancake, and call it uttapam. Nobody will be the wiser. Or, just make the drat dosa and serve it sour, with no apologies. You remember how I said that the initial bubbles were too small? This is how the bubbles look when it's properly fermented.   See how it looks like a very well risen yeast bread? At this point, go ahead and knock it back.   Once it's knocked back, add about this much salt:   Stir it up well, and you're ready to fry! Right now, everyone is still asleep, so I think I'll save it for dinner.
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Nov 17, 2013 20:56
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dino. posted:I'd say give it a shot. Is sourdough or yoghurt also difficult to get started for you? Also, do you soak the fenugreek with the rice, or separately? It's pretty crucial that the fenugreek soak with the rice for the fermentation to get going. Do you use whole seeds, crushed, or ground fenugreek? Yoghurt and sourdough are impossible completely. I even add yeast to injera. I'll give it a shot with dosa because dosa is really one of my very favourite things. quote:It is a long ferment though, so it's possible that you didn't let it go long enough? Like a week.
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Nov 17, 2013 20:57
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My family used to add a bit of natural yogurt to the mix - might help?
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Nov 17, 2013 22:54
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What exactly is this? Like a fried rice bread or something? Looks pretty drat good. Can't wait to see the finished product.
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Nov 17, 2013 23:32
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Slightly spongy slightly crispy salty tangy pancake. It's made from rice, but ground to a paste and fermented into a batter - you wouldn't know it's rice based.
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Nov 17, 2013 23:43
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I'd probably call them a fermented crispy rice crepe.
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Nov 17, 2013 23:44
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Streptovsky posted:What exactly is this? Like a fried rice bread or something? NO SPOILERS
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Nov 18, 2013 01:23
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dino. posted:I hate this part so much, and I'm not alone. I'm still impressed you do so much Indian cooking without a mixie.
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Nov 18, 2013 02:19
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Bob_McBob posted:I'm still impressed you do so much Indian cooking without a mixie.
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Nov 18, 2013 03:10
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^^^ My GF is obsessed with her VitaMix, and I will admit to being impressed with the thing. Mr. Wiggles posted:Yoghurt and sourdough are impossible completely. I even add yeast to injera. I'll give it a shot with dosa because dosa is really one of my very favourite things. My magic trick for "jumpstarting" a sour dough (or injera, or whatever), is a teaspoon of live sauer kraut juice. Works great! sweat poteto posted:My family used to add a bit of natural yogurt to the mix - might help? Is that the same microbe as in the kraut? Great thread Dino, thank you very much! Squashy Nipples fucked around with this message at 14:52 on Nov 18, 2013 |
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Nov 18, 2013 14:50
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Took pictures of the making of the dosa. Then phone crashed. Then computer crashed. Everything was wiped clean. >_< Will try again tonight.
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Nov 21, 2013 23:18
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 OK, so this is what happens when you don't actually make the dosa immediately after fermenting. Don't be alarmed. It'll be fine. Just stir the separated water back into the rest, and it'll be fine.  OK, much better. Heat your favourite nonstick skillet over medium heat. Now that you've got the batter ready to roll, put in a bit of batter into your pan, and swirl it around with a ladle. You can go as thick as a pancake, or go as thin as a crepe, depending on how thin you make the batter. Don't expect to swirl it around with the pan, because it's not going to spread out as quickly as it needs to. As soon as the heat hits the bottom, bubbles start coming up, and it sets up rather quickly. Just use your ladle. The first few will look gnarly. That's OK. They'll look better as you make more and more. Here's one that I thinned out with the ladle.  Here's one that I left alone, to have a little thicker than the rest.  Now, I want you to notice the bright white colour that the dosa begins with. Once that is cooked, it'll start going from bright white to a darker, more translucent (not sure that's the exact word, but you do see the colour change, right?), and lots and lots of bubbles will rise up to the top.  You have two different ways you can go with this. Option one is to flip it over. This is my favourite way, because I like a crispy dosa. OR, you can go the lazy way, and just cook one side, once all the bright white spots have gone away. This works better with a thinner dosa than a thicker one, because it'll get steamed through faster. And there you go. It tastes wonderful and goes with pretty much whatever you like. I ate a bunch yesterday with hummus. It was wonderful.
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Nov 22, 2013 01:28
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this is awesome. I've had dosas tons of times, but for some reason always forget what they are and gloss over them in my cookbooks. I had a loving awesome a couple months ago on my singapore vacation, from a street vendor with an over easy egg and some curry on top. absolutely stellar. will try your recipe for sure.
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Nov 22, 2013 07:54
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Although it is a vegan dish, a lot of people like to customise their dosa, Phlux. Some people throw on a pat of butter or ghee, some like it with sugar and ghee, some like it with cheese, others like it with dosai podi, some like it with coconut chatni, peanut chatni, tomato gotsu (that tomato curry recipe that I gave casu all that time ago; I think it's on the wiki), the potato thingy with onions and spices and ginger, sambhar, or whatever leftovers are lying about.
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Nov 22, 2013 18:00
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Been waiting to see some after pictures. Sorry about your computer. Any pictures of the fully cooked dosa?
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Nov 22, 2013 18:39
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Sure thing. This is one with the potato thing. Notice how it's not browned all the way on the underside (the side that you put the filling on), but it doesn't have anything near that wet look? It's because I cook mine on both sides. Some prefer the stuffing side to be completely white, and still a bit moist. It's a personal preference thing.
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Nov 22, 2013 19:27
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Looks delicious. What kind of consistency and flavour does it have?
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Nov 22, 2013 19:41
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 I must have this.
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Nov 22, 2013 19:45
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Streptovsky posted:Looks delicious. What kind of consistency and flavour does it have? dosas are typically crispy, toothsome sour crepes filled with curried vegetables. typically served with sambhar, a spicy tamarind soup with vegetables and lentils and with spicy chutney and coconut chutney.
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Nov 22, 2013 19:59
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Dino you are magic.
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Nov 23, 2013 01:55
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Kicking this back up because I don't want it to drop into archives while I'm in the middle of making it edit: VVV okay, maybe later Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Dec 7, 2013 |
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Dec 7, 2013 10:07
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Steve Yun posted:Kicking this back up because I don't want it to drop into archives while I'm in the middle of making it Add it to the wiki.
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Dec 7, 2013 10:34
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Using brown basmati and split washed urad dahl. Hot water on the rice + fenugreek, cold on the dahl. I'm going to just leave them both out on the bench for 24 hrs.
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Dec 7, 2013 10:49
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