How to prepare Dosa Batter?

Ingredients for dosa batter:

• Rice - 3 cups
• Uddina bele (Urad dal) - 1 cup
• Soyabeans - ½ cup
• Menthe kalu (Fenugreek seeds) - 2 tsps
• Kadli bele (split chickpeas) - 2 tsps
• Togari bele (Toor dal) - 2 tsps
• Gatti Avalakki (hard pounded rice) - 2 cups
• Cooked rice - 3 cups (as an alternate for Gatti Avalakki)

Soaking:

• Soak rice, urad dal, soyabeans, fenugreek seeds, split chickpeas and toor-dal in one vessel for a day (8 to 10 hours).
• Soak avalakki separately for an hour.

Steps:

• The ingredients can be ground in a mixer. Grind in small portions that fit into your mixer jar.
• Add water in small quantities, if necessary, to liquify the mixture. Do not add more than necessary, excess water can render the batter useless. The batter has to be thick enough to hold itself and liquid enough to flow. Compared to idli batter, dosa batter is more liquidy i.e. free flowing.
• Once the grinding is done, put the batter into a larger vessel so that its only half full. Add cooking soda to the batter and mix well. Leave batter overnight to rise.
• The following morning batter should've risen such that the vessel should be almost full. The risen batter is ready. Now you can either prepare dosa and/or store batter for later use.

Note:

• While soaking remember to use a vessel that would be half full. Add sufficient water so that the grains remain submerged when they expand. 
• Add a teaspoon salt to the batter just before preparing dosa.
• Dosa batter can be stored in a fridge up to 3 days. 

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How to prepare Idli Batter?

Ingredients for idli batter:

• Rice (Idli rice) - 3 cups
• Urad dal - 1½ cup
• Cooked rice - 2 cups (freshly cooked rice at room temperature)
• Cooking soda - ½ tsp

Soaking:

• Soak rice in water for a day (8 to 10 hours)
• Soak urad dal separately for 3 to 4 hours

Steps:

• The ingredients can be ground in a mixer. Divide rice, dal and cooked rice into equal portions that fit into your mixer jar.
• Add water in small quantities, if necessary, to liquify the mixture. Do not add more than necessary, excess water can render the batter useless. The batter has to be thick enough to hold itself and liquid enough to flow from a ladle to a idli plate.
• Once the grinding is done, put the batter into a larger vessel so that its only half full. Add cooking soda to the batter and mix well. Leave batter overnight to rise.
• The following morning batter should've risen such that the vessel should be almost full. The risen batter is ready. Now you can either prepare idli and/or store batter for later use.

Note:

• While soaking remember to use a vessel that would be half full. Add sufficient water so that the grains remain submerged when they expand. 
• Add a teaspoon salt to the batter just before pouring the batter into idli plates. 
• Idli batter can be stored in a fridge up to 3 days.

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Simple method to prepare 'Set Dosa' (Uttappa)

Recently I had been to Dharwad, my aunt told me this very simple way of preparing set dosa. Usually we use boiled rice (2 & 1/2 cup), raw rice(1 & 1/2 cup), puffed rice (1 & 1/2 cup), (churmari/kadle puri) black gram (1/2 cup) & fenugreek seeds (3 tea spoons). But in this simple method only raw rice and flattened rice (avalakki) are sufficient.

Simple method :

Ingrediants :
1. raw rice : 4 cups
2. flattened rice (avalakki) : 1 cup
3. butter milk (for soaking raw rice) &
4. salt to taste.

Procedure :
1. Raw rice (4 cups) soaked in butter milk (freshly prepared);
2. flattened rice (1 cup) soaked in water
and both kept for 6-8 hrs.

Grind both together and keep overnight. Next day, add salt to taste and prepare set dosa (plain uttappa). I think, buttermilk induces fermentation. And that is why the dosa is very spongy and soft too.