Plain dosa & other dosas

ORU SADA-ONE ORDINARY DOSAI

Dear friends

I actually never thought to make a series posting after Iddali vada sambar. But the number of responses asking me to write on such topics and waiting to read them, compels me to write today about Dosai. I am trying to present a nostalgic and humorous reading leaving serious discussions of the various groups. I once again thank for patronising me by reading my postings. I also thank the moderators for earliest publishing these postings.

Sincerely
Gopala Krishnan 15-8-2010

1. Dosa mavu-Dosa batter

There is not much difference between dosa mavu and Iddali mavu. Some people add a little bit of water for making dosai mavu from iddali mavu. For orikkal some prefer dosa to iddali. After wards many take a cup of buttermilk.

My note on 8-1-2020-Now a day we get only Idli dosa batter. Earlier we used to get separate batters

2. Karandi appam

Before going to varieties of dosai let me go to my favourite Karandi appam variety. On occasions when I have to enter the kitchen, I prefer to make karandi appam. This is made using cheena chatti instead of dosakkal or using non-stick ware now. On the burner stand cheenachatti is kept and while getting heated 3-5 spoons of oil is poured and when getting heated Iddalimavu/ dosai mavu is poured. The quantity of batter poured will be equal to the one for making three iddalies. After slightly spreading, it is covered with a suitable cover mostly iddali vessel cover. Now a day we get separate pan cover of different sizes. Non sticks come with covers. Put on medium flame.

When cooked half way and edge frying oil smell is felt, the cover is taken , the karandi appam is taken on a chatttukam(Some what flat thava), and again oil is added and the appam is placed on it , now the fried side up (The reverse). After a few minutes again edge-frying smell will come and the karandi appam is taken out of pan and put on a plate.

Unlike iddali people could take maximum two-karandi appam. For me one is sufficient. However frying on the one side will not match with the reverse side. For karandi appam, the side dish can be iddali mulaka podi or chtutni. Most first eat 50% of edge, the centre top and bottom fried which can be peeled and finally the remaining 50% of edge . The not fried area is not so tasty – it is only batter boiled and many discard it. Many actually not prefer sambar. Karandi appam has to be served hot after preparation to enjoy real taste of fried edge.

Some prefer to take it along with jam or ketchup. Both give different tastes. Along with jam middle portion boiled is consumed. It is consumed for Jam's taste.

While I told of normal preparation, karandi appam will have special aroma if the batter is added with a few cut chillies, ginger, and pepper and curry leaves. Another combination is chillies, onion and cut tomato.

The draw back about karandi appam is if taken continuously we get bored in two or three days.

3. Plain dosai

Our women folk like to prepare on dosaikkal or non-stick pan plain dosai. A very small quantity of oil is applied. One Thavi (measure) mavu is poured and spread in circular form and made medium thick. While 50% cooked, with thava it is reversed and when 100% cooked it is taken out and kept in hot packs or directly served.

Normally the batter required for the dosai is the same for an iddali. Hence a person may require three or four dosas. Here no covering of the dosa is made. On account of this the taste is different from iddali as well as karandi appam.

Normal side dish will be mulakaipodi and chuttennai. Some people prefer gingili oil. How ever with the coming of magi coconut powder etc, chutni is becoming common in homes. Earlier thengai/ kadali chutni was slightly pain taking even with mixer and coconut grinder. Chutni was an item on special occasions like guests coming or birth day etc or for variety.

These types of dosai are available in ordinary teashops or star hotels on order. In teashops normally dosai is given with sammanthi in Kerala. There too the quantity of sammanthi is restricted- If one require more – sambar is given as side dish.

There is a dish normally prepared in Kerala houses. It is called Uppum mulagum udachathu (Crushed with hand- chillies, small onion added with coriander and curry leaves and a small quantity of oil added). This used to be a common side dish with plain dosai. This side dish is not uncommon in Tamilnadu also.

3.1 Special plain dosai

Some time the plain dosai served will be thicker, nothing to think, batter is more fermented, not to throw away chilli and onions sliced added to it and dosai is prepared thick so that it will not stick in homes. The more fermented batter is sourer, and has special effect . In my house there will be special invitation to come for Tiffin, sometimes even before bathing, I could well gather it is either Tiffin is Uppuma, Usili or thick dosai. With hotness only they can be consumed.

3.2 Oothappam

Oothappam is another brother of dosai. Here definitely additional ingredients are there like ginger, pepper, coconut pieces, and chillies, curry leaves, onion etc. Normally we cannot consume more than one oothappam. It is thicker to the size of adai, which I will be detailing later. While dosai described above are not available in restaurants Oothappam is available in restaurants.

Oothappam though with chutni, sambar is available bigger restaurants serve with Aviyal also. The intake of Oothappam with aviyal has special taste.

4. Oru sada

A funny legend about ordinary dosai. Once a gentle man went to a restaurant.. He called the server. He patiently described how his dosa should be taking two minutes for its boiling condition, quantity of oil, size etc etc. After hearing all, the server gone to the ordering area and told the dosa maker- Oru sada. (One plain dosai). He could cut down all the description to two words – Oru sada.

Plain dosas have practically not common in restaurants now. A person ordering side dosa will be told, it will take time. For making special sada oil is already applied on hot plate. Hence sada has to be prepared with very least application of oil after making many special dosai. The sada ordering person has sometimes to wait for 15 minutes, while the later coming people would have finished their special and coffee and washed hands!!!

Railway restaurants have mostly dosai sold by sellers coming to this group. They don't say special dosai though with in restaurants they give special dosai.

4.1 Special dosai

In hotels the basic difference is dosa is not fried on both sides as in house. In houses also with non stick ware now a day one side dosa have become common. But in restaurants the batter is poured with karandi on the heated rectangular sized big plate on which oil is applied at regular intervals.. The method of application is mostly with dipped in oil small coconut broom specially used for dosa making in restaurants. I am not sure any other method is available now. Normally we can only peep. We are not permitted to enter kitchens of restaurants. By the time the batter poured for the last dosa, the first dosa would have been ready to take out from the plate.

At a time batter for 10-12 special dosas are poured and spread with a cup mostly . By the time he finishes the15th batter spreading, he can take the first dosa from the plate. The application of oil more makes it special. There will be good frying specially in the edges and always served hot only.

Normally special dosai will be larger in size. Now a day it has become a practice to serve dosai in leaves kept on plates.

The special dosai is also called roast. Nei roast is the one prepared using ghee instead of oil. But it will be actually prepared on a mixture of oil and ghee, since the cook cannot take completely the oil from the hotplate and apply ghee alone. The lucky persons as such get a ghee roast though not ordered on account of this.

Normally these types of dosais are rolled and given. Some make it in a conical form and serve depend on expertness of cook.

My note on 8-1-2020- In Bangalore there is no ghee roast but only a butter roast. A small piece of butter is kept over the hot dosai which will be melting when serving hot.

4.2 Masal dosai

Masal dosai is a co- brother of special dosai. Here masal is placed in centre and folded and supplied. There is no special masal. It is the same masal served along with Poori.

In many hotels we can see the servers say no masal dosai, but poori is available. Simple reason being Poori cannot be served with out masala but dosai can be served with out masal.

Our women folk specially like masal dosai while coming to restaurants. For them special dosai is not an item I am put to think.

5. Adai dosai

Adai dosai is available in restaurants as well as made in the house. Here batter is not grinded more, Both black gram and thourgram batter also prepared and added with rice batter, mainly red chilli is added while grinding. Other ingredients like ginger, curry leaves, etc are added after batter preparation. The final batter will have to say a light kavi colour due to grinded red chilli.

This actually is an emergency preparation in homes also. Some people fry both sides, some use non stick ware and make thin adai and fry one side.

Hotels prepare as thick adai. Normally served with aviyal. In the display board out side today's special- they display as Adai- Aviyal. The batter is not fermented for adaithosai. Chutni too served along with in hotels.

6. Set dosai

The set dosai is the ordinary thick dosai made in our houses, but will have a slight yellow colour. I am not sure whether it is by the addition of small quantity of turmeric powder. However it is available in hotels normally. Aviyal as well as Vada Kari are served along with.

Set dosai is not freely available item in Kerala Hotels, but in Tamilnadu medium hotels it is available normally in the afternoon.

Once I was in a restaurant in Chennai I had to wait for Vadai Kari being prepared to serve in an afternoon. I could understand from the server the ingredients are also getting prepared. I was special to have set dosai vadakari- I like the taste of the dish vadaikari.

Vadaikari is served limited and as such chutni is also served with set dosai in addition. So far additional chutni and sambar is not charged by hotels!!

7. Puliya dosai (Not fermented batter dosai)

Unless batter is not fermented the quantity too will be less. On fermenting the quantity too increase along with quantity. Puliya dosai is prepared as such with reluctance in the house. With non-stick ware Puliya dosai prepared taste good. Some times slight curd is added to give the fermented taste.

8. Mysore dosai

Though called Mysore dosai, it is freely available through out Karnataka. I have taken it in Bangalore. Though Mysore bonda is there in all hotels of Chennai, Mysore dosai is rare. Some udupi hotels serve Mysore dosai. In Trivandrum also I have taken it from a small udupi shop.

Here a small quantity of red chilli sammanthi (?) is applied directly over our normal ghee roast while preparing. This item is brownish. It is not given as side dish. Side dishes are chutni and sambar. While chutni is similar to what is available in Chennai, sambar from Karnataka has special taste.

The dosai is either supplied as plain roast or as Masalai roast. I am not sure about the inner coating ingredients. Whether in Karnataka people make such dosai in houses is also not known to me.

In Trivandrum I could get it served with Vadaikari also in a small udupi hotel.

9. Mini dosai

Mini dosai is a special item served in star hotels. It is served with meals also. The size of the dosai is so small that it is less than the size of our palm.

10 Thattukadai dosai

Thattukadai is wayside temporary stalls. Here dosai is the main item, other being chapathi and parota. Dosai is thicker, similar to house made dosai and fried on both sides. Mainly for bachelors they serve best to have some food at late night time. Normally they start function after 8 PM.

Being wayside they select a busy but better location to start the wheel restaurant. We cannot say the quality is very good but good. Normally in Kerala they are run by people from Tamilnadu. In Tamlnadu too they appear in industrial and soft ware areas.

11. Kuzhi paniyaram

I taste kuzhipaniyaram nothing but made of dosai/iddali mavu, added with pepper, ginger chillies etc and fried in oil pouring it in Appakkarai and taken out in time. In Chennai Grand snakes it is available. I have not seen kuzhipaniyaram in hotels commonly.

I am not sure whether I have missed any dosa item. Surplus dosa are usually thrown to dustbin or given to cows, dogs etc.

Reposted on 8-1-2020 after spell check, correction to language and style. R.. Gopala krishnan

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