Ada Dosa, with love :-)

I have been thinking of posting something since morning, but I have this weird issue in opening my laptop on a weekend (some might call it laziness ;)). In the evening, my son asked me to open the laptop – I thought it must be for him and that he would want me to put a cartoon for him – but when I opened the laptop, he switched it on and left to play with his toys. And that’s when I actually started scribbling – thanks to him :-)

Though I felt like jotting down something, with the myriad of recipes out there, I was at sea when it came to writing about one. There are a lot of memories associated with the traditional recipes that mom and grandmom prepared at home. Finalizing on one of those was a daunting task. My thoughts then wandered to what my family would love to eat – especially my two and a half year old. As I said in my first post, it is a challenge keeping him motivated to eat and not be bored with his snack boxes. A mom has to be creative while being conscious of her kid’s health. It was then that my mind reeled back to my school/college days. My mom used to prepare this Ada dosa when I returned from a tiring day (to be read as lazy day) at school/college. It used to keep me going energetically for the rest of the evening activities (well, mainly playing or should I say only playing) and up until dinner time (our dinner time then being 0930 pm). And that’s what I wanted to prepare as an evening snack for my son – something that will tickle his interest when he opens the snack box (against the usual chapathi and peanut butter roll) along with keeping him full till he reaches home at 7pm.

When someone says just Ada, people might confuse it with the sweet dish Ada (made with jiggery, coconut and cardamom inside a thick layer of rice paste and steamed). This is the famous South Indian tiffin that I am talking about, made from a variety of lentils and rice.

Ingredients

• Raw rice – ½ cup
• Boiled rice (I used the Palakkadan matta rice)  – ½ cup
• Urad Dal (Black Gram) – little less than ¼ cup
• Toor Dal (Pigeon Peas Split) – ¼ cup
• Moong Dal  (Green Gram split) – ¼ cup
• Channa Dal (Bengal Gram) – ¼ cup
• Green Gram whole – ¼ cup
• Fenugreek seeds – little less than ¼ tea spoon
• Cumin seeds – ¼ tea spoon
• Red Chilli – 3 nos.
• Asafoetida – a pinch
• Curry leaves – 5-6 leaves (optional)
• Coriander leaves – few (optional)
• Salt to taste
• Onion – 2 medium sized ones. 

Tips: Lot of people grinds onion along with rice and lentils. If the batter is not completely used in one go, there would be a pungent smell from the onion by the next day. Hence I prefer to finely chop them and add them every time to a little quantity of batter taken separately in a bowl. If you prefer it to be mixed with the batter, you can grind onions before making the dosa and mix it with the batter.

Preparation

Soak all the above overnight.

   

Tips: a) Especially if it is red matta rice that you are using, you would need to soak it for a few extra hours than normal raw rice. 

b) Good to soak rice and rest of the lentils separately.

Grind them into a coarse batter. You should be able to feel the grains’ rough texture in your hands. Ada Dosa is also called karu muru dosa in Malayalam due to its texture.

Tips: a) My mom and mom-in-law always remind me to grind rice and lentils separately due to the different time both takes to grind. Red rice will take some extra time to grind. 

 b) Good to leave the batter overnight in winter (not in the refrigerator) for those who like it fermented.   During summer, it is enough if the batter is kept outside for about 4 – 5 hours for it to be fermented.  

Recipe

• Heat a pan. 
• Put a little oil (about ½ a tea spoon) and spread it all through the pan. 
• Pour a scoop of batter and spread it in a circle (like a dosa/pancake). Scoop quantity depends on your preference of the thickness of dosa. 
• Pour a little ghee at this stage (optional).
• Once the dosa is crisp, you can flip it to the other side and keep it till that side is crisp. (Instead of flipping, you can also keep a lid and cover the dosa if you don’t want it to be too crisp). 

For my son, I packed the Ada dosa with a little ghee and sugar mix. Traditionally it is served with Avial (a dish made of vegetables, coconut, curd). Those who like a chutney alongside, here is a simple, quick coconut chutney recipe:

Ingredients for grinding

• Coconut (grated) – ½ kernel 
• Green Chilli – 3 nos.
• Coriander leaves – few
• Roasted Gram – 2 tea spoons (optional)
• Salt to taste

Ingredients for tempering

• Oil – 1 tea spoon
• Mustard seed – ½ tea spoon
• Curry leaves – 5-6 leaves
• Cumin Seeds – ¼ tea spoon
• Urad dal – ¼ tea spoon
• Red Chilli - 1 no

Recipe – Grind all the ingredients mentioned above ‘For Grinding’ to a fine paste. Heat a pan. Pour the oil. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add the rest of the ingredients in that order. Pour this onto the chutney paste. Serve with hot Ada dosa.

Garnishing note – A healthy tiffin – Ada dosa with love - this one is for you, Aryan :-)