Saturday, April 04, 2009

Food notes

Dosa is a staple breafast food in India's four southern states. My mother-in-law makes a crispy light dosa with a batter that is not over-fermented so it is nicely tangy without being too sour. My dosa batter is tangy too, but while my husband eats his Saturday morning dosas with 'gunpowder' (a fiery mix of coarsely blended dry red chillies, Bengal gram dhal, whole pepper corns, salt and 'hing') yogurt and unsalted butter; I make more adventurous dosas for myself (my toddler daughter loves these!)

A favorite is adding a spoonful of batter on the very hot 'tawa' and then breaking an egg into the bubbling batter and adding a pinch of salt. Cover with a tight fitting lid and cook for a couple of minutes on a low flame (the lid traps the steam helping to firm the egg yolk) then add a little more oil and flip over and cook on the other side. The end result is a crisp fried egg buried into a fluffy dosa. Yummy!