Recipe

Serves 6

2 cups raw rice

1/4 cup cooked rice

1/2 cup urad dal

2 tablespoons chana dal

Pinch of sea salt

Filtered water for soaking (chlorine leaves a taste)

1 tablespoon ghee

Place raw rice and dal ingredients in a pot and wash. Cover with filtered water and soak overnight. Reserve 1 cup of the soaking water. Sieve the soaked ingredients and place into a blender. The traditional grinding method is using a granite wet grinder. Add the 1 cup of reserved soaking water into the blender and blend. Add the cooked rice and blend to a light batter consistency. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the salt. Fermentation: Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and leave in a warm place to ferment for 10 hours – inside an ‘off’ oven is ideal. After fermentation your batter has now doubled in size to a thick bubbly pancake batter that smells like beer.

Heat a tawa (griddle) or frying pan over medium low heat, brush on a little ghee and pour in 1-flat ladle full (or small coffee mug) of the batter. Using the back of the flat ladle spread the batter out evenly from the centre in concentric circles. When the batter has turned golden brown to nutty brown underneath, drizzle a little more ghee on top and fold in half. There is no need to flip the dosai. Transfer to a serving plate lined with banana leaf. Serve with coconut chutney, chilli chutney, tomato-nut chutney and tamarind sambar.