Brown Rice Dosa – Indian Savory Crepes #BreadBakers

Pancake is possibly a very ancient form of food. There is really no evidence where they were made first, but it seems that every culture around the world has some form of pancake in their culinary arsenal. This month, the bread baking group that I am part of embarked on a mission to serve you pancakes, crepes, blinis, dosas and what not!

I chose to introduce our favorite breakfast menu – The brown rice dosa. It’s a breeze to make a week’s worth of batter in one go. Yes there is some waiting for the batter to ferment. But it’s not like you have sit and watch TV with the batter and chant “ferment”. It sorta does its own thing and leaves you alone if you leave it alone. So the deal is that you do have to soak some rice and lentils. And the deal is that you also must grind the said rice and lentils and then let the batter ferment. I have also heard from so many people who say that they love dosa but do not have time to make it.

Oookay! Did I mention this is the my family’s favorite brekky ? Yes? Well I am repeating it. This is my families favorite breakfast! Which means, I make it more times than I count on my manual calculator. So here is how I go about it :- Day before I want to make dosa – just before leaving for work – soak rice and Dal ( ze lentils) and fenugreek seeds After I come back from work on the said day and before I doze off because I can’t feel my feet anymore , grind the said rice, fenugreek and dal. Leave it in a warm spot, covered and wake up to smell of fresh fermented batter ready to go.

You can make Idli with it on day 1 since the batter is just fresh, but my family likes to go for dosa pronto. Still with me? See it didn’t that long! Only takes planning and if I can do it, so can you. Now usually the dosa or idli is made with parboiled rice. In my effort to make my meals nutrient dense, I switched from parboiled rice to brown rice. So here is my Brown rice Dosa and do check out the pancakes from around the world that our fellow Bread Bakers have baked this month:

• Alagar Kovil Dosai from Sara’s Tasty Buds
• Blueberry Dutch Baby from Hostess At Heart
• Brown Rice Dosa (Indian Savory Crepes) from Spiceroots
• Buckwheat, Blackberry and Saffron Drop Scones from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Chinese Scallion Pancakes from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Corn Pancakes from Kids and Chic
• Crepes from A Baker’s House
• Dutch Baby from Herbivore Cucina
• Galettes de Sarrasin from The Bread She Bakes
• Greek Tiganites from Gayathri’s Cook Spot
• Hotteok (Korean Pancakes) from Cook’s Hideout
• Hotteok (Korean Stuffed Pancakes) from Passion Kneaded
• Kabalagala (Ugandan Pancakes) from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Keralan Yeast Appam from Food Lust People Love
• Malpua (Sweet Indian Crepes) from SimplyVeggies
• Oven Baked Tropical Pancakes from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pannukkau (Finish Pancakes) from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Potato Latkes (Jewish Pancakes) from Sneha’s Recipes
• Savory Finnish Baked Pancakes(Pannukakku) with Smoked Salmon from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Srilankan Hoppers from I camp in my Kitchen
• Strawberry Nutella Crepes from Spill the Spices
• Swedish Pancakes from Palatable Pastime
• Sweet Potato Pancakes with Brown Sugar and Pecan Sauce from A Salad For All Seasons
• Wholegrain Yeast Pancakes from Ambrosia

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

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Brown Rice Dosa

Ingredients

• 1 c urad dal, whole dehusked black gram dal
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 3 c brown rice any kind, short or long grain
• salt to taste
• ghee for cooking

Instructions

1. Wash and soak the brown rice and fenugreek seeds in water. The water should be at least an inch above the rice.

   

2. Wash and soak the urad dal. 

3. The soaking time can be between 6 to 8 hours. 

4. Remove any extra water from the dal and reserve. Grind the soaked urad in a blender, until  it gets a smooth and fluffy and velvety texture. Add in Ice chips a couple of times during grinding so that the blender heating up doesn't heat the dal. If you need to add some water to make a nice batter, add the reserved water.

5. Take a large container or a big bowl ( at least 6 qt capacity), and place the urad dal batter in it.

6. Remove any extra water from the rice and fenugreek mix. Reserve the water in case you need it during grinding. Grind the rice and fenugreek mix in two or three batches based on your blenders capabilities. This batter will not be as smooth as the urad one and will have a very fine grainy texture.

7. Add this batter to the urad dal container and mix well

8. Place a lid on the container holding the batter and secure it in a warm place in the house and let it ferment. * SEE Notes

9. Once the batter is fermented, it will have a tangy aroma, will be slightly risen and have bubbles

   

10. At this stage you can keep it in the refrigerator to use later or go ahead and make some dosa.

11. Heat a non stick round griddle on medium heat. The griddle is ready when you sprinkle a few drops of water on it and they sizzle and evaporate instantly. Thin out the batter with some water. Just like a crepe consistency.

12. Pour a ladle full of batter in the center of the pan and making concentric circles spread the batter out to make one big circle.

13. Add a few drops of ghee in the center and on the edges and cook until browned .

14. If your dosa is  spread thin enough, you don't need to cook it on the other side. Remove from the heat and roll up to serve with chutney.

Recipe Notes

Traditionally a cast iron griddle is used to make dosa. But a non stick works really well if you are just starting. 

If you dosa is thicker, you may need to cook it on both the sides.

** Fermentation :- can take anywhere between 4 hours to 14 hours. If you live in a warm place where winter means 70*F weather, then your batter will not need much time to ferment. However in colder places like Colorado, in winters the batter takes about 12 hours to ferment. In such cases, either use your oven ( switched off with light on) or an instant pot with yogurt setting, a large warm blanket or the warmest place in your home to help with the fermentation. 

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