Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Rava dosa (cream of wheat/farina/semolina pancakes)

When you have a craving for dosas but no regular dosa batter with which to indulge that craving, there's a quick way of getting your fix. Granted they wont taste like "proper" dosas, but pancakes can be made with any flour and still taste pretty good.

Yesterday I opted to make rava dosas (with the addition of a little rice flour and some wheat flour). The seasoning (or tempering) for the dosas is absolutely essential, because the batter is bland and unfermented.

The rava dosas you get in hotels in India are usually wonderfully crisp and thin, an effect very likely achieved with generous slatherings of ghee or oil. But since I wasnt about to drown my dosas in oil, they turned out mostly soft, but crisp in places - absolutely yummy with coconut chutney and sambar.

Oh, by the way - you can add finely chopped onions or other quick-cooking vegetables to the batter to make the dosas more nutritious.

Recipe for:
Rava dosas (cream of wheat/farina/semolina pancakes)



2 cups rava
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
Salt to taste
Water as required

For tempering:

2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
8-10 curry leaves
3-4 fresh green chillies, finely minced (according to taste)
2 tsp oil
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder (optional)

Method:

1. Use only as much water as required to make a pouring batter from the flours and salt. Set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a small pan and add the ingredients for tempering. Cover the pan and let the mustard seeds pop.

3. Pour the tempering on the batter and stir well.

4. To make the dosas, heat a non-stick tava and spread a couple of ladlefuls of batter in a swirling motion, trying to keep the dosa as thin as possible.



5. Cook on medium heat till the top dries out and the bottom part is golden, then carefully lift with a spatula and turn it over.



Let this side cook till the dosa becomes stiff. (It will soften as it cools.)

6. Serve hot with chutney and sambar.

11 comments:

Krithika said...

Looking at this picture at work is a torture. Your dosa and chutney look so good. As a kid I used to call this "Ottai dosai" (dosa with holes). Yum !

GourmayMasala said...

Shammi -

I don't add wheat flour when I make rava dosa. Does it help to make the dosa crispier? I make the batter watery, so that the dosas are thin and crispy with less oil. Also only one side needs to be cooked in that case.
The dosas look yumm!

Priyamvada_K said...

Shammi,
The chutney and dosai look mouth-watering.

I agree with GM - my mom makes wheat/rava dosai batter watery, so that the bubbles dry out, leaving holes and making the dosai crisp. She also adds a little buttermilk along with water, for the slightly sour taste.

Have never made rava dosai before as I wasn't sure of the proportions. Will try it out this weekend, now that I have them from you :)

Btw, I posted a sweet potato recipe for you - did you see it?

Cheers,
Priya.

Anonymous said...

Garam Masala - i added the wheat flour just like that. Can leave it out too. I try to strike the right balance with the batter so that it's thin enough to make dosas but not so watery that the dosas curl up when you try to spread the batter on the tava! :)

Priyamvada - I didnt have buttermilk... although sometimes I mix in a little tamarind paste (about 1/8th tsp) to add a little sourness to the batter.

BDSN said...

Wow !! This is such a simple recipe.I have all the flours.Now i just gotta try it...I will surely try and let you know..

Anonymous said...

Shammi, It takes a minute to start craving for this delicious dosa, perhaps ,an hour to get set to make one. but it takes a lifetime to forget this dosa.Just love them with aloo saagu.

Kay said...

Shammi, I too make rava dosa once in a while. I agree with GM and priya. I learnt the same tip when watching a 'Mallika Badrinath' cooking show in TV.

She suggested keeping it watery and also pouring the batter from around to inside. Say, for dosa, we pour the batter in and make the batter spread to outside, using the ladle. For rava dosa, it should be opposite. Pour the bater from outer circle to inner circle. It spreads well when it is watery and also makes nice tiny holes all throughout the dosa. I find that I can get away with very less oil if I use this method. HTH!

sailu said...

Rava Dosa is my all time favourite dosa and can eat for bfast,lunch and dinner..:)

Unknown said...

instead of using wheat flour use basen. it tastes better
jalaja

jalaja said...

if you can use basen or maida in the place of wheat flour the rava dosai will be yammy

jalaja said...

if you can use basen or maida in the place of wheat flour the rava dosai will be yammy