Adai Dosa

For years, dosa to me only meant sada dosa, paper dosa, mysore dosa and rava dosa. The ones that are available in every Udipi restaurant. The ones that my mom made.
Till I got married, that is. Which is when I realised that there were many other types of dosas that I hadn't even heard of.

Adai quickly went on to become my favourite. For starters, it is a very non - fussy dosa: it doesn't involve a very long soaking period or any elaborate grinding. And most importantly, it is a very wholesome dosa - a lovely combination of carbs and protein.

But I fell in love with adai because of its versatility. Very easy to make and filling, it can be served as lunch or dinner or breakfast or even as an in between meals snack. To me, it is the perfect meal answer for those times when I don't feel like cooking up an elaborate meal and yet want something wholesome made at home.

Ingredients:

Rice (any short grained variety will do) : 2 cups

Black urad dal: 1/2 cup

Toor dal: 1/2 cup

Curry leaves: a handful

Peppercorn: 1/2 tsp

Green chillies: 2

Dried red chillies: 2
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp

Asafoetida: 3/4 tsp (this is the one thing that adds a unique taste to the adai, don't skip it!)

Salt

I make my adais spicy, so adjust the peppercorns and chillies to suit your taste.

optional:

grated coconut: 2 tbsps

grated ginger: 1 tsp

Method:

Soak the rice and lentils for about 4 hours.

Then drain the water, and put the rice and soaked lentils into a blender along with all the other ingredients listed above (till cumin seeds). Add just enough water to get your blades moving and gradually add as much more water as needed to grind to a coarse batter. I normally need just under 1/2 cup of water.

Add salt and asafoetida; also add the grated coconut and ginger to the batter, if using, and mix well.

Heat a frying pan (tava) and smear it with some oil. Then, scoop out the batter in a ladle and pour it into the centre of the pan. Working quickly, spread the batter outwards into concentric circles with the bottom of the ladle. Don't worry about making it thin; adai is slightly thicker than the normal dosa.

Add some oil on the outer edges and cook on medium high heat till the underside turns a deep golden brown. Flip over and cook for half a minute.

Serve hot with some green chutney; Personally, I love to melt a blob of butter on the hot adai and sprinkle some gunpowder on it. Spicy and delicious!!

Adais are making their way to MLLA - 19 hosted by EC, event started by Susan.