Dosa: The Dish That's Eaten Over A Billion Times a Day!

By Andy Cooks

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Soak the basmati rice, urad dal, chana dal and fenugreek seeds for 4 hours after rinsing them twice. Drain, blend with half the soaking water in batches until mostly smooth but slightly gritty, then cover and leave in a warm place to ferment for 10 hours.
2. Make the tomato chutney: heat the oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Toast the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and urad dal for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the onion, ginger, garlic, green chillies, curry leaves and a pinch of salt, and cook until the onion softens slightly.
3. Stir in the tomatoes, tamarind paste and about 200 ml (¾ cup) water. Cover and cook 35 to 40 minutes until everything breaks down fully, adding a little water if it dries out. Cool slightly, blend until smooth, season to taste and keep at room temperature.
4. Make the coconut chutney: grate the fresh coconut by cracking it, removing the shell and brown skin, then cutting the flesh and blending it until shredded. Dry-toast the chana dal and ajwain in a pan over medium heat.
5. Blend the coconut, toasted chana dal, ajwain, shallots, ginger, chillies, coconut water, half the curry leaves, lemon juice and a pinch of salt until well blended, scraping down the sides as needed.
6. Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat. Temper the mustard seeds, dried chilli and remaining curry leaves for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant. Pour over the chutney, stir in and serve.
7. Boil the baby potatoes early so they can cool. Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat, add the onion, cumin seeds, garlic, curry leaves, green chillies and a big pinch of salt, and sauté 4 to 5 minutes until the onion is translucent.
8. Add the cooked potatoes (lightly mashed), turmeric and salt, mix well and cool to room temperature.
9. Dry-fry the chana dal and toor dal in a heavy pan over medium-low heat for 5 minutes until colouring, then add the urad dal and toast a few more minutes. Add the sesame seeds and toast until browning, then add the cumin seeds and cook 1 minute more. Cool.
10. Fry the chillies, garlic and curry leaves in oil over medium heat until the chillies colour and the leaves crisp, add some salt, and cool. Grind everything to a powder in a spice grinder. Melt the ghee.
11. Stir the salt into the fermented batter; if too thick, add a little water to reach the consistency of pouring cream.
12. Preheat a large cast-iron pan over high heat for 5 to 6 minutes until a splash of water sizzles immediately. Pour in a ladleful of batter and spread it in circles into a thin, even layer.
13. After 1 to 2 minutes, when the underside browns, drizzle ghee around the edges, sprinkle on the gunpowder, place potato masala in the centre and fold three edges over to form a triangle.
14. Flip the dosa onto a plate and serve hot with the tomato and coconut chutneys.

Summarized from Andy Cooks's video. Watch it for the details.

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