I’m half Sri-lankan and that half of me tends to have a large influence in my cooking styles. Luckily my husband is a huge fan of this type of cooking and the toddler is quite keen too. In fact we took her to Sri-Lanka and she suprised me by eating nearly everything I ate, spices and all!
We have a local South Indian Restaurant that makes (amongst other amazing dishes) the most awesome Masala Dosa. it literally is comfort food to my soul and one way to cheer me up (take note husband!). My mouth waters just thinking about it. I keep on thinking about having a go at making it, I look at a few recipes and then get drawn to something else. But this weekend a chat on twitter about curry inspired me. So here is my version of an easy to make Masala Dosa. I’ve added in a pile of broccoli to get more vegetables into the meal, it’s not the athentic recipe but trust me, it’s divine.
This also makes fab finger food when sliced up, my toddler had much fun dipping it into some chutney and getting messy fingers 🙂
Recipe:
For the Dosa batter:
100g rice flour
100g chickpea (gram) flour
1/4 sp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp mustard seeds
400ml water
For the Filling:
2 baking potatoes
1 head of broccoli finely chopped
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp ginger
1 fresh chilli finely chopped
Rapeseed oil
- Bake the potatoes in the microwave (about 10 minutes on high) then finish them off in the oven (10-15 minutes Gas Mark 5), or just in the oven if you prefer.
- Slice in half and leave the potatoes to cool a little whilst you make the dosa batter and cook the broccoli.
- Finely slice the broccoli and steam until tender.
- Mix the flours, bicarbonate of soda and mustard seeds together, add enough water to make a thin pancake batter. Set aside.
- Heat a pan and add rapeseed oil, then the mustard seeds, allow the seeds to pop a little. Scoop out the middle of the potatoes and add to the pan along with the spices and stir well. Add the broccoli and chilli. You almost want to create a mash so use a wooden spoon to mash the broccoli into the potato a bit. Add some water to make the mixture pliable and spreadable.
- Heat a non stick frying pan. Wipe some oil around in with some kitchen roll then pour in 1 ladle of the batter.
- Swirl the pan so the batter covers the whole area. Leave it for a few minutes until there are lots of bubbles on the surface and the top is starting to cook a little, so it no longer liquid.
- Now add a spoonful of the filling, spread it over the dosa, covering it.
- When then edges of the dosa start to curl up you can roll it up (watch your fingers it will be hot!).
- Roll into a cigar shape and remove from the pan.
- Serve with chutneys, and perhaps a dhal.