Red Rice Dosai: A Healthier Version to White Rice

Red rice dosai is a dosa with an interesting twist.

Red rice is rice with the husk still on. This makes it a great source of fibre. Remember to make the batter and leave it to ferment overnight.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
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Ingredients

  • 2 cups red rice
  • 1 cup urad dal
  • 1 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi dana)
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 bowls to soak the rice and dal
  • A flat iron pan (tawa) / non stick pan
  • A ladle
  • A metal spatula/ a turner to flip the dosai (pancake)
  • Oil (usually sesame/til oil)

Preparation

Everything except the salt has to be soaked. The rice and dal must be soaked separately. Wash the rice and dal and soak it in water. The fenugreek seeds (methi dana) can be soaked with the urad dal. Soak it for 4 to 6 hours. You might have to add water after a while since the grains soak up the water.

  • The grinding should be done at night because this dough will require fermentation and you can leave it out to ferment all night and have it fresh the next morning.
  • Start by grinding the urad dal and methi seeds. Drain out the excess water and put it in the blender. Keep it on for a while and in intervals, keep cleaning the sides of the blender so it is a uniform paste. You will notice that the urad doubles in quantity. Keep grinding it till it is a fine, fluffy paste.
  • Scoop out the urad-methi paste into a big enough vessel. Preferably an opaque vessel.
  • Next comes the rice. Blend it little bit at a time if 2 cups seems like a lot and again make sure it’s a fine paste. Mix both the pastes and you’re ready to let it ferment. Just stir it enough for it to seem equally blended, cover it and keep it out for the night or for about 8 hours. The salt should only be added the next morning after fermentation, since salt inhibits fermentation.
  • The next morning it should smell different and should seem like it has risen. You can start using it immediately after adding the salt and mixing it a bit, keeping the rest in the refrigerator for future use.
  • To make the dosai, heat a flat iron pan. Make a small dosai using about 2 tsp of dough, mainly to test the dough, the pan and to heat it uniformly. You can splash some oil around this tiny one.
  • Once the dosai can be overturned easily means it has cooked on one side and needs to be flipped over so both sides are cooked.
  • This takes a bit of practise and getting used to, specially if you don’t make dosai often or are doing it for the first time.
  • Once it becomes darker and crisp on both sides it is cooked and ready to be served. Usually it is served with a dry red powder called ‘molaga pudi’ made with a mix of dals, sesame and red chillies dry roasted and ground coarse.
  • The molaga pudi is served mixed with sesame oil to make it into a wet paste. It can also be served with sambar and a coconut chutney which uses raw mature coconut scraped out of the shell (1 cup) and ground with green or red chillies and salt, then garnished with some roasted mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida. A nice addition to the chutney is some raw mango when it is in season.

This recipe comes from Rithika Ramesh at veganontheprowl