Kal Dosai ~ Breakfast from Tamil Nadu

Event: Blogging Marathon #56
Theme : Indian States
My choice: Tamil Nadu
We are into second week of BM#56 and theme of this week is going to be "Indian States". Owing to my India trip this summer, I had before hand decided that I would neither do elaborate dishes  nor I would go with festive ones for this BM. I chose to go with  dishes that are simple and doable on any given day and I am starting the series with the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. 

The first thing that pops up in my mind when I think of the restaurants there, is the delicious array of south Indian style breakfast dishes. Yummy dosas, melt in mouth kind idlis, the creamy pongal and the crispy vadas served with delicious sambhar and chutney on the side. A piece of heaven for people like my husband when it comes to food. :)  I obviously wanted to try a dosa recipe that is unique for this region and the one that I hadn't tried before. I zeroed in on this kal dosai that turned out to be spongy, and super flavorful dosas. I paired it with Chettinad chutney which turned out to be a terrific combo.

Recipe source: Veena
Ingredients:
1 cup rice (I used extra long grain.)
1 cup parboiled rice (I used idli rice instead.)
1/2 cup / skinned black gram / urad dal
1 tsp fenugreek seeds / methi seeds
1 tbsp. salt
Oil to make dosas (I use canola oil.)

Preparing the dosa batter:
* Rinse both varieties of rice and urad dal thoroughly twice and drain. Soak washed rice and urad dal in water for at least 3 to 4 hours.
* Rinse the fenugreek seeds with water and soak them in little water separately. 
* Drain the water used to soak rice and dal before grinding.
* Add the rice mixture, the fenugreek seeds along with the water it is soaked in and salt to a grinder / blender. Grind the mixture to a thick batter adding water as needed.
* Transfer the ground batter to a big vessel / bowl. Cover and place it in warm place to ferment overnight or for about 8 - 10 hours.

Making dosas:
* Heat a tawa / griddle when ready to make dosas. Sprinkle a few drops of water on the griddle to test whether it is hot enough to make dosas. The water would sizzle, form beads and evaporate when it is ready.
* Pour a ladleful of batter (about 1/4 cup) on the griddle and spread gently with the back of the ladle only to shape. Don't try to spread thinly since we are trying to get soft and spongy dosas. Take ½ tsp of oil and spread around the edges of the dosa. 
* Cover the dosa with a lid and cook on low - medium flame until it is cooked and you start noticing holes on the top. 
* There is no need to flip the dosa. Remove the dosa with a spatula and repeat the process with the remaining batter. (Traditionally, kal dosas are not flipped and roasted on the other side. However if you think you need to roast the dosa on the other side too, it can be done.)
* Serve the dosas warm with a spicy side dish of your choice - chutney/sambhar/milagai podi.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 56

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