Neer Dosa
This is a simple & unique dosa of dakshina kannada and udupi district of Karnataka. The word "neer" means water in kannada, the dosa geting it name due to its watery batter. This dosa is traditionally served with a thick sauce made out of jaggery. In many restaurants which serve meat dishes, neer dosa is a popular choice over paratha or rice.
Unlike the usual dosas, this one is not fermented. The batter is usually prepared with soaked rice and grated coconut, but today there is no soaking and grinding, rice flour and coconut milk is all I need. Here is the traditional as well as the shortcut recipe and just to give a twist I have added unconventional ingredients.
What you'll need :
For the traditional recipe
1 cup rice 1 cup grated fresh coconut 1 tsp salt 2 cups water
For the short cut recipe
1 cup rice flour 3/4 cup coconut milk 1 tbsp semolina(rava) 1/2 cup water 1 tsp salt
How to:
Traditional method
Soak the rice in water for around 2 hours. Drain the water and blend it in a mixer with fresh grated coconut and water until smooth. The mixture should be of pouring consistency and not very thick like idli/dosa batter. Add salt to taste and allow the mixture to rest for 15 minutes.
The dosa has a brownish tinge as I added a few flax seeds while grinding (just another obsession of mine to make sure I am eathing healthy food ;) )
Shortcut method
Mix all the above ingredients mentioned above in a big bowl, stir well and allow to rest for 15 minutes. If the batter is very thick, add more water as needed.
(I had a left over carrot and simply grated it in the batter ;) )
Heat the nonstick dosa pan. Sprinkle some water and wipe clean the pan with a paper towel. Pour in couple of ladle full of batter onto the pan and spread it in a thin, even layer. Add few drops of oil on the sides. Cover and cook in its own steam for two minutes. Do not flip the dosa. Fold the dosa at the center, and fold again into a triangle and serve immediately.
PS : Make sure the pan is really hot before pouring the batter. If the pan is not hot enough, then you won't get the big nice holes on the dosa as you see here. Also ensure the dosa is cooked well before you try to remove it, else you will end up with bits and pieces instead of a nice single dosa.
You will notice that there is a slight difference in the texture of dosa done by the two different ways. The traditional method gives a silky smooth texture and the shortcut method yields a crisp one.