Rice Flour Dosas

Once upon a time, a decade ago to be exact, I would sleep any time of the day happily, amazing my mom. But now a days, I cannot sleep restfully even during nights. I would consider sleeping late on a weekend without disturbances, a luxury. My blissful sleep depends upon my kids. Don't assume that they are infants or toddlers. My SpongeBob squarepants loving smartypants son, who also happens to be the technical manager of my blog is eight. My girl is a kindergartener who thinks that the whole world revolves around her.
Every morning she has an agenda of her own, which suits her needs. The list goes like this. a) Brushing teeth b) Drinking milk c) Watching T.V.
She has come up with this plan after a myraid number of failed attempts to watch TV as soon as she got up from the bed. She has come to this conclusion that this is an amicable plan for all of us. You may ask how is it bothering my sleep? Let me explain. She needs help for all these things. She exercises her right by saying "Mommy, you are my mommy. Help me". This demanding starts a wee bit early on week ends when she thinks mommy is making her to miss those wonderful shows, even though she cannot understand an iota of it.
Now coming to my son, he gets up barely an hour before the arrival of his school bus on weekdays. Where as on weekends, he cannot sleep beyond 6 a.m though he slept the previous night beyond his usual bedtime. After some time, he comes to me and whispers in my ear "Mom". I am suddenly alarmed. I ask him cautiously ‘Are you nose bleeding’?. He says 'No, mom. I am soooo hungry. Can I get something to eat'? Not willing to get up from my bed, I come up with a bright idea and ask him to brush his teeth. He goes on updating me about his schedule till then. He had already brushed his teeth, read a book, played a video game, watched some TV and got hungry. I will try to remind him that it is barely 7 in the morning. He in turn tries to remind his forgetful mom that it is the usual time of the day when he eats his breakfast. He then goes 'What do you have'? I don't run a break fast joint... Any how, I tell him that I would toast some bread. My son then would share a secret with me that he hates bread. That was his most favorite thing till Friday evening. How would I know that likes/dislikes keep changing every few hours? OK.... Then, how about some cereal ? My son now says in a booming voice that he is tired of cereals. Why did he pick his favorite ones at sam's club last week? It is beyond my comprehension. Then he makes a choice and asks me to make some dosas. Then I have to promise him that dosas would be served next day, since I need to prepare the batter. I give him some milk and cookies and buy some time to get freshen up.
In the mean while, I think of breakfasts which could be done in a jiffy. Rice flour dosas top the list. I thank my grand mother and my mom secretly and dive into the kitchen. My son is happy to eat the thin, crisp dosas where as I am happy to prepare a breakfast without slaving much in the kitchen.
I am sure every Indian household will have an emergency dosa recipe. Dosas made from the basic flours which always come handy when we are short of time and ideas. Here is one such recipe from my kitchen. My grand mother with 7 kids used to make this as a breakfast, when she has to come up with something in a short notice of time. My mom used to make this as an evening snack for us, when we were kids. I make them on a chaotic, weekend. Here follows the recipe. The following ingredients would give 10 dosas.

Ingredients:
Rice Flour - 1 cup
Chillie powder - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Water - 3 cups
Oil - For making dosas

Mix all the ingredients except oil, so that there are no lumps in the batter. Don't be alarmed to see the thin batter. The batter for this dosas should be watery and the above measurements are perfect for the thin, crispy rice flour dosas. Also note that you are not going to spread the dosa batter on the griddle as you do the traditional dosas.
Heat a griddle. Just take a ladleful of batter and pour in the center of the grill, from a little height. The batter spreads by itself through out the griddle as rava dosas do. Fill out the gaps, if any with little batter. Spread a tsp of oil around the dosa, lower the heat and cover it with a lid. Let it cook for a couple of minutes. Remove the lid. By this time, you must be able to remove the dosa without any effort. Flip the dosa and spread the oil once more around the edges of the dosa. Let it cook for a minute and remove the dosa. Repeat the process with the remaining batter.
Make sure to serve them hot. No need to prepare any chutney. They would just taste fine with any pickle.

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