Hmm… Well I…Ah…But…O.k let me come straight to the point. I started writing recipes with Dosas because I am a great fan of Dosai. They are very tasty, easy to make and many varieties can be made so that you don’t get bored. To top it all my mother ( Nagaratna ) is always trying to discover ways to make new varieties and improving the quality of dosas. She has been the constant source of my experiments with cooking.

 Ensuring that your batter is proper

      In order to get good dosas that don’t stick around the pan, make sure that you grind the batter nicely. Also on the next day after the batter ferments add sufficient quantity of water and mix well so that you get the correct consistency. Correct consistency here means that the batter must not be very thick. Instead if you take the ladle and drop the batter into your vessel there should a free flow.

 Making your first dosa?

      Take the ready batter in a ladle or a cup and pour it into the centre of the tawa. Spread it by making clock wise circular motion with the help of the same ladle/cup used. If your dosas turn out thick that means you have to increase the speed of spreading and also spread it more. With practice you will be able to increase the speed of spreading the dosa by which you can make good dosas.

 Maintaining you dosa pan

      Making dosahas been made even simpler with the non-stick dosa pans available. We don’t have to bother anymore about greasing the iron tawa used previously and one need not fear about the first dosa made. Just make sure that you have a medium to good quality non-stick dosa pan and grease it only while using it for the first time. And mind you DO NOT sprinkle water over the tawa after every dosa and DO NOT wash your pan every time you use the tawa. Just wipe off the oil after making dosas with a tissue paper. You can wash the tawa after using it 2-3 times. Use a soft material to scrub the pan and a mild soap. This will ensure long life of the dosa pan and at the same time your dosas will not stick hard to the pan. Also if you are adding oil/ghee/butter to your dosas put it on the dosa and not along the sides so that the oil does not harm your non stick pan.

      In case you do not have a non-stick pan and you have an iron tawa, grease it with oil on the previous night. For greasing it use an onion cut into two and spread the oil using the round surface of the onion you have. Also you would have to sacrifice the first dosamade for the next dosas in line.

 For good colour and texture

      If you want your dosato have good colour add 1-2 spoons of sugar in the batter while making dosas. To get crisp dosas make sure that your tawa has been heated properly on the high flame and after pouring the batter on the tawa put the stove in medium flame and give enough time for the dosa to turn crisp. You can even cover the dosa with a lid if you wish.

      You can put oil/ghee/butter/dalda over the dosa for good taste. Dalda/ghee and butter add more colour to the dosas.

 Allowing the batter to Ferment

      If the weather is cold, use Luke warm water while grinding the batter so that it would get fermented properly within 12 hours.

 Adding flavour and taste to the dosas

    Add 1 spoon of methi(fenu greek) seeds and 1 spoon of jeera to the ingredients that you soak for your respective dosa.

 Adding more nutrition to the dosas

     Eating nutritious food has become a fad these days.Green leafy vegetables are rich sources of vitamins, minerals and iron.  They are beneficial to women and children. You can add them finely chopped methi (fenu greek) leaves or sabasgi(dil leaves)  to the batter while making dosas. You can also boil palak (spinach), make a paste out of it and add to the batter while making dosas.

 Tips on storing the batter

      Before grinding the dosaingredients wash them twice so that the brown coloured water and the bad smell get discarded. Sometimes your batter may have a brownish colour. This means that you have to wash your ingredients thoroughly before grinding. If possible wash them 2-3 times in the 10-12 hour interval that you soak. If your ingredients have either rice flakes or sago, soak them separately, else they will get washed out. Also do not add either salt or sugar when you leave the batter to ferment. Add salt and sugar just prior to making dosas to the quantity of batter that you are going to use for that day alone. You can store the remaining batter in the fridge for about a week.

Check out the following recipes on dosas

 http://quazen.com/recreation/food/multi-dal-dosa/