Vendhaya Dosai | Methi Dosa

Soaking rice, lentils and fenugreek seeds

1. Take the idli rice or parboiled rice, whole or split urad dal and tuvar dal in a bowl or pan.
2. Rinse for a couple of times with water and then soak in 1.5 cups water for 5 hours. If you want, you can soak the rice and dals separately.
3. In a small bowl take the fenugreek seeds.
4. Rinse once or twice and soak in ¼ cup water for 5 hours.

Grinding and fermenting batter

1. Before grinding, drain all the water from the rice and lentils and then add half of the rice and lentils in a grinder jar. Add all the fenugreek seeds along with the soaked water. Do not discard the water in which the fenugreek seeds were soaking. Also add ½ cup fresh water.
2. Grind to a fine and smooth batter. The fenugreek seeds will be sticky, while grinding, but continue to grind till you get a smooth fluffy batter.
3. You can grind in batches or all at once. I ground in two batches and added a total of ¾ cup fresh water. If you have soaked the lentils and rice separately, then you can grind the lentils and fenugreek seeds first and then the rice.
4. Now pour the batter in a bowl and pan.
5. Add ¼ to ⅓ teaspoon rock salt.
6. Mix very well. Cover and keep aside the batter to ferment for 8 to 9 hours. Depending on the temperature conditions in your city you can keep for less or more time.

Making vendhaya dosai

1. After fermentation, the dosa should have a faint sour aroma with tiny air pockets in it.
2. Before preparing the dosas, just lightly mix or stir the batter.
3. Now heat a cast iron griddle or nonstick pan. The pan should be medium hot. You can keep the heat to a low or medium while making dosas.
4. If using an iron pan, then spread ¼ to ½ teaspoon oil all over the pan. Use a silicon brush or spoon or kitchen towel or an onion halve to spread the oil. Do not spread oil on a non stick pan.
5. Do keep the heat on low to low-medium, so that you are easily able to spread the batter. If the pan base is very thick, then keep the flame to medium. If the pan is very hot, you won’t be able to spread the batter in a round circle.
6. Pour a ladle of the batter in the center and with the ladle itself, gently spread the batter to a neat round circle and a slightly thick dosa.
7. These dosas are not thin and slightly thick. You can even make uttapams with the vendhaya dosa batter.
8. Cover the dosa with a lid and cook it for some minutes.
9. When the top looks cooked, you can spread some oil on it. You need to cook these dosas on one side only.
10. When the base has turned golden, remove and serve. Prepare all methi dosas this way. The leftover batter can be refrigerated and you can make uttapams the next day or day after.
11. Serve Vendhaya Dosa hot or warm with kara chutney, tomato chutney or onion chutney.