Mushti Dosai

Few years before and after my marriage, I worked for a Nationalised Bank in India. It took me months to secure a transfer to Mangalore, where my husband was posted. I got a posting in a branch that was labelled "ËXTREMELY LARGE". The business hours will be very busy and crowded that you hardly had time to smile at your colleague sitting in the adjacent chair. But after lunch break, the afternoon session will be relatively relaxed, everyone joking and gossipping as you balanced your ledgers. (we weren't wired then, so your made entries and closed the day balancing them).

Speaking not a word of Kannada, Tulu or Konkani I used ask a colleague to convey to a customer what I had to say. Then, few of my friends at work decided to language tutor me. And coach me they did with lot of fun and fervour, that I was able to read and write Kannada and talk haltingly in all three!!

One such freind, Deepa gave me a womens' magazine and told me to copy a recipe. Her condition was that I take notes down in Kannada, no translations allowed. That is why to date the recipe is noted down in Kannada and saved in my cookbook. However, I'm writing it now from memory, though off and on I fondly recall how well they took me into the fold.

This is a very simple dosai, best had well fermented. Any chutney, sambhar or masal will go well with them.

The following recipe makes 8 to 10 yummy dosais.

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 1 standard cup

Urad dhal - 1 fistfull ( about 1/10th of a cup )

Fenugreek seeds - 2 teaspoons

Dessicated coconut - 2 tablespoons

Poha - 1/4 cup

Salt -to taste

Oil /Ghee - little

Soak fenugreek seeds a few hours early. Wash well and soak the rice and dhal together for about an hour. Wash poha separately and soak just until soft.

Blend in the jar of your mixie the coconut and fenugreek seeds first until fenugreek is frothing. Add on the rice - dhal mix and grind further. When more than half done put in the poha and grind to a smooth batter. Add salt. Rinse the jar and add the adherring batter too to the lot.

Stand the batter overnight to ferment.

Pour ladlefuls on hot pan, cover with lid. Cook for few minutes until done. Not necessary to turn over as the steam would have taken care of the top side. If you still want that side well done turn over for few minutes.

Serve with chutney, masal, idli milagai podi or sambhar.