MILLET DOSA

This dosa or crepes is bursting with flavor and vitality. Millets are soaked overnight and ground along with tamarind, jaggery and choice spices such as coriander seeds and red chillies.

My maternal aunt, an amazing cook, visited me recently and taught me several recipes and one of them is for this mouth-watering “uppu-puli dosai”. Uppu means salt and puli means tamarind and I’m sure you’d understand the sentiment when I say that just uttering those words – uppu, puli, dosai gets me salivating. The recipe is simple and it involves grinding soaked rice along with salt, tamarind, a little jaggery and some roasted coriander seeds, red chillies and coconut. In my new found love for cooking with millets, I replaced rice with millets and have arrived at this recipe. Besides being a healthier alternative to rice, millets impart a nutty flavor to the dish which I enjoy immensely.

When you make this with rice, you can grind the batter and make it immediately. But with millets, I find that if I let the batter sit for atleast 2 hours, the dosas are much softer and easier to make.

You could amp up the health factor by adding some chopped cabbage ,carrots or greens to the batter and then make the dosa.

I love to eat this with my Easy tomato thokku but you could serve with pretty much anything – chutney (carrot, coconut), idli powder, sambar…

SERVINGS: Makes 10 dosas

INGREDIENTS

1. Millets – 1 cup
2. Coriander seeds/Dhania – 2 tsps
3. Red Chillies – 3
4. Coconut – 1/4 cup
5. Jaggery – 1 tsp
6. Salt – 1 tsp
7. Tamarind – small ball the size of a cooked chickpea
8. Oil – for making the dosa

METHOD

1. Wash and soak millets for atleast 4 hours or overnight. I’ve used little millets here but you could use any millets of choice.
2. Drain and transfer to a blender
3. Heat a pan. Dry roast the coriander seeds until it turns a couple of shades darker and emit good aroma. Add the red chillis along the way. Add the coconut in the end and turn off the heat. Let sit for two minutes.
4. Add it to the blender and grind to fine puree along with the salt and tamarind, jaggery. Add water as need to bring it to a smooth dosa batter like consistency. I needed about 1 1/4 cups of water.
5. You could make the dosa immediately or let sit for a couple of hours if you desire softer-fluffier dosas.
6. Add grated veggies, if using, just before making the dosa and mix well. Alternatively, you could sprinkle the veggies while making the dosa.
7. Heat a cast iron tawa/flat pan. Don’t let it smoke. Ladle some batter to the center of the tawa and spread it out in concentric circles. Pour oil around the side of the dosa. Cook on both sides until crispy.
8. Serve hot with condiments of choice. I love to eat it with my easy tomato thokku

NOTES

1. The best timeline for making this dosa would to be soak the millets sometime in the morning, grind it in the night and leave it in the refrigerator overnight and make it the following morning for breakfast.
2. Bear in mind this dosa may not be as easily spreadable as a regular dosa batter. You might need to play around a bit before you figure out the temperament of the batter.
3. If you’re making this with rice, simply replace rice (any kind will do – white, brown, red) with millets. And you could also omit the resting time and make the dosa immediately upon making the batter.