Neer Dosa and Coconut Chutney

This is a traditional Mangalorean breakfast dish however it is also served with chicken/prawn/lamb curries for special lunch/dinners. It is great the way it soaks up the gravy so you experience an explosion of flavours in every morsel.

Traditionally to make the Dosa you have to soak the rice overnight, then grind it to a fine paste in the morning, add loads of water to make a very thin batter, Neer means water, so I suppose it gets it name from the near watery consistency. I have written a separate post on the traditional method on blog, incase anyone is a stickler for the right way to do things!! This batter is ladled onto a hot dosa tawa and covered and cooked for about one minute. then folded in half and again in half, so it resembles a delicate lacy handkerchief. My mum has always made it via the traditional method, but I am for ever looking for shortcuts, so experimented with rice powder. The result was spectacular, it took 30 mins to make from start to finish including the chutney so gets my absolute nod of approval. Try it, you will love it too!!

Ingredients:

For Dosa

• 200 gms of rice powder (fine)
• 500 mls of water (or slightly more)
• salt to taste

For Coconut Chutney

• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
• 2 kashmiri chillies
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• marble sized tamarind ball (soak in hot water).
• salt to taste
• Tempering – 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp udad dal, 8-10 curry leaves, 1 clove of garlic crushed, 1 tbsp of cooking oil or ghee

Method:

For Neer Dosa:

Add half the water to the rice powder and mix well, keep adding water a little at a time till you have a thin batter, it should be thinner than a pancake batter. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. I prefer to use a measuring jug to make the batter, that way I just have tip the jug to pour the batter onto the tawa/ frying pan.

Next heat a non-stick frying pan and apply oil/ghee, pour the batter on hot tawa ensuring you cover the full surface of the pan. When the batter hits the hot pan it forms a lovely intricate lacy design. Cover and let it cook for about one minute. Uncover and check whether the dosa is set, if it is, the dosa will leave the sides and you will be able to pass the flipper under the dosa easily. If the dosa is still sticking to the pan, adjust the pan to ensure flame is directly under the uncooked area. Gently fold in half and again fold in half. Set aside.

For Coconut Chutney:

Place all the ingredients except soaked tamarind and the tempering in a mixer jar.

With you fingers squeeze the tamarind to extract the pulp, throw away the skin and other bits once you have extracted the pulp. Add this tamarind pulp water to mixer jar.

Blitz till you have a nice smooth paste, remove to a serving bowl.

Add a little oil to a pan and once hot add the mustard seeds, once it starts spluttering add the udad dal, crushed garlic and curry leaves. Fry till aromatic and add to the coconut chutney.