Since I’m on a gentle stomach diet these days, rice, jowar(great millet) and nachni(ragi)are my best friends. Consequently, idlies are the best of my best friends. Too tired to wait for the idlies to steam and trying to avoid the oilier crispy dosas that I go for every time I have some batter handy, I decided to give soft dosas a try. Today, a colleague in office mentioned that they enjoy crispy and soft dosas, both equally. That did not sit well with me and I thought this might be my chance to see it for myself. The closest I have come to liking soft dosas, were the Loni (unslated white butter) Sponge Dosas that an uncle used to make outside Fergusson in Pune. I went back for those a couple of months ago, and a Chole Bhature stall stands where the Dosa stand used to.
After a working day, I did not want to make 2 dosas and eat one while the other is being cooked fully, so I decided to go with one big Dosa. 5 teaspoonfuls of batter and some more, the same amount that went in my tatte idli (an idli made in a palm sized plate) yesterday. The tatte idli was made because my cooker is too small for the idli moulds.
I poured the batter on the pan, and poured some more over the air bubbles erupting on the surface (mistake number 1).
To ensure that the batter cooks through and through, I flipped another pan over it so that the heat could go right back to the dosa. I did not have fresh (or stale) grated coconut and am currently skipping green chillies so I decided to cook half a chopped onion and another half of a tomato to go with it. The credits for the red on the plate fully go to the tomato, chilli powder was off limits. The turmeric might have helped. Winning secret ingredients were Hing (asafoetida) and very little Ova (Carom Seeds).
Meanwhile, I was worried that in the time the dosa would be cooked, it would also turn dry. So I decided to sprinkle(read- pour) water around the dosa so that the steam could help with the dryness. (This could have very well been mistake 2. It didn’t). Thanks to the non stick pan, my dosa flipped. Soft dosas, from what I know (most dosas, actually) are supposed to be cooked just from one side. And while I was afraid that was not going to be enough today (eating raw batter was a bigger risk), I decided to go ahead with the flipping anyway. Ghee helped. The flipped pan over the dosa pan also helped. To add some spice, I put ‘metkut’ which is Maharashtrian pudi(powdered chutney) over what was the original face of the dosa and decided to use butter this time to spread it evenly. The reason I didn’t go for authentic pudi was that I thought the familiarity of the metkut from when the days were younger would be more welcomed by my stomach.
With the tomato curry that acted like a chutney, the dosa tasted like what could have been an excellent onion tomato Uthappa. The dosa could have been way fluffier, softer too. My skill of making crispy dosas and my wish to eat a soft dosa clashed on my dinner plate today.
It took me longer to write this than it took me to make the dosa. The writing doubled as an enzyme today- it made the long day and the food on my plate- lighter for my digestive system today. I love talking about food while eating food. I tried my hand at typing with one greasy hand while eating tonight. Didn’t beat the talking but still worked better than not expressing.
Food truly is a blessing. Dosas– the best of the blessings. Learning to make the kind of dosas that you like to eat- it doesn’t get better than this.
Time to learn the science of batters now, I think!
Vee Documents 
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