Erra Karam Dosa

I think everyone has fond memories related to food. Food has the power to bring back memories attached to your childhood or the place where you grew up or the person who prepared the dish so lovingly or any other thing associated to it, which are always pleasant. Erra karam dosa is one such dish to my husband, which draws him back to his childhood and his town. In fact he calls them Ramakkka dosalu, by the name of the person who used to prepare and sell them in his neighborhood, when he was a kid.
 
There is a sort of family business run by women, going on for years in smaller towns around Andhra Pradesh. Women sitting under thatched roofs, in front of their homes or on streets prepare and sell simple, South Indian breakfasts in the mornings to the long queue of customers. I feel, they take off the burden from busy moms and come to their rescue (at least a few times, when moms could afford). The breakfast dishes are neither fancy things sold at restaurants nor elaborate in menu. Instead they are simple dishes like dosas, idlis etc, which are tastier, cheaper and remind us of home made dishes. These places have a few, simple wooden benches and tables for the people who would like to eat there or You would get the food packed in leaves, specially meant for the purpose and then wrapped in (News)paper, if you are taking the stuff home.

Erra karam dosa is one such lovely breakfast dish served at these places. Though these dosas are prepared at our home, I have began associating these dosas with the above said places, because of my husband's nickname for them. These dosas are speciality of rayalaseema region in Andhra. Erra Karam represents the red colored chillie paste used in the dish. The crisp, golden colored dosas are smeared with onion - chillie paste and roasted chickpea powder and served with chutney.

Preparation of erra karam:
Ingredients:
Medium sized onions - 6
Chillie powder - 1tsp
Salt - 3/4 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp

Also add garlic if you like.

Method:
Peel the skins of the onions and chop onions into large chunks.
Grind the onions, chillie powder and salt into a fine paste using water if required.
Heat oil in a pan, add the ground mixture to it and fry it till the raw smell of the onions disappear and the mixture becomes thicker.

Preparation of pappula podi / daliya powder:
Grind 1/2 cup of pappulu/daliya/roasted chickpeas and 1/4 tsp of salt into a fine powder.





Ingredients for the dosa batter:
2 cups rice
1/2 cup urad dal / skinned black gram
1 handful of chana dal
1 - 2 Tbsp poha / beaten rice flakes
1 tsp methi seeds
Salt to taste

Method:
* Add all the ingredients to a big pot and wash them thoroughly twice with water. Soak them in plenty of water for 3 - 4 hours. The water level should be such that the ingredients should be immersed in water through out the soaking period. 
* After the soaking period, throw away the water used for soaking the rice mixture. Grind the rice mixture in an electric grinder / blender into a smooth batter using water as needed. The consistency of the batter should be not runny. 
* Collect the batter into a big container, add salt and mix well. The batter quantity will increase after the fermentation process and so keeping that in mind, select a container big enough to store the batter. Allow the batter to ferment for 10 - 12 hours in a warm place. If you live in a hot, humid place the fermentation takes lesser time.
* I usually soak the ingredients during afternoon and grind them in evening. I leave the batter container covered, in my convection oven with the light on and allow it to ferment overnight. Dosa batter would be ready for breakfast.

Ingredients needed to prepare erra karam dosas:
Dosa batter
Erra Karam
Daliya powder
Oil




Making dosas:
Heat a tawa / griddle. When you sprinkle a few drops of water on the griddle, the water should sizzle and evaporate. This means the griddle is ready. 
Pour a ladle full of batter on the griddle and spread it into a thin circle with the help of the backside of the ladle. Take ½ tsp of oil and spread around the edges of the circle / dosa. Cook on low - medium flame until the lower side turns golden brown. Flip the dosa and again spread some oil around dosa and let it sit for a minute or less so that it is brown on the other side too. 
Now again flip it, take a spoon of erra karam and spread on the dosa uniformly, sprinkle some daliya powder and put a little oil on the powder. Fold the dosa and let it cook on both sides for a few seconds. 
Remove the dosa with a spatula. Repeat the process with the remaining batter. You can just eat the dosas as it is or serve with chutney.

Note: 
The quantities I mentioned here are good for six people. You can reduce the quantities according to your needs.

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