rava dosas and shallot sambhar

inspired by indira's post on shallot sambhar, i decided to make dosas and sambhar last weekend when my friend darshini and her husband came over for dinner. i really miss the homemade tubs of dosa batter that were available at the indian stores in redwood city and mountain view. but i've found a great recipe for rava dosa from viji varadarajan's "samayal" that is super easy to make (if you have all the ingredients on hand) and has a texture similar to a regular dosa.

prep time: 15 min
cooking time: 20 mins
makes: 10 to 12

1 tbsp wheat flour
1 1/2 cups semolina
1 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp jeera
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
a few curry leaves
3 to 4 chillies
1 inch piece of ginger
1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 tsp hing powder (asoeftedia)
oil for preparing dosa
salt to taste
5 1/2 cups water

preparation
chop the chillies and ginger finely. you may blend the ginger into a paste.

method
mix yogurt, water, salt, hing and curry leaves with wheat flour, semolina and rice flour. the batter should be a very thin consistency.

in a deep pan heat the oil and pop the mustard seeds, and then add the jeera and the chillies in oil. stir in the ginger to the batter. add the curry leaves, yogurt and hing powder into the batter and mix well.



heat a tava or a flat griddle iron like the one in the picture above, spray a little bit of oil and wait till it is very hot. prepare dosa by pouring with a ladle and spread using the bottom of the ladle. using a small spoon, sprinkle a little bit of oil all over the perimeter of the dosa. since my pan is so rectangular, i usually make two dosas at a time. after a minute or two, turn over and let the other side cook.



serve hot with onion sambhar or coriander chutney. as you can see from the picture, my dosas aren't perfectly shaped but they were pretty delicious thanks to the easy recipe. my only regret was that i didn't have fresh curry leaves on hand - they add a lovely flavour to rava dosas that is very hard to substitute.