Onion Uttapam

Uttapam is one of the popular dishes of South India in which a batter prepared using Urad dal and common rice is made into a thick dosa and topped with vegetables of one’s choice. The batter is similar to that made for dosa and idli. However unlike dosa which is crispy and thin when prepared, the uttapam is little thicker and topped with different types of veggies like onion, tomatoes, capsicum, carrot, sweet corn and green chillies. One can use the same dosa and idli batter for preparing uttapam. Uttapam is eaten with sambar and coconut chutney.

Here I have shown step by step the process of preparing a batter of uttapam and then the uttapam itself with vegetable toppings. 

INGREDIENTS :

For dosa batter :

(1) Idli rice - 250 gms

(2) Urad dal / Split black gram - 125 gms

(3) Methi dana (Fenugreek seeds) - 25 to 30 seeds

(4) Salt

Below are the pictures of the ingredients for dosa batter.

Rice - 250 gms

Urad dal / Split black gram - 125 gms

Methi dana / Fenugreek seeds - about 30 seeds

PREPARATION :

SOAKING AND GRINDING THE BATTER :

(1) First take all the ingredients like 250 gms of rice, 125 gms of urad dal and 25 - 30 methi dana / fenugreek seeds.

(2) Put them in a utensil. 

(3) Rinse them under running tap water a couple of times.

(4) Pour 2 glasses of water, stir and allow them to soak together for 2 hours.

(5) After 2 hours, strain the water from the soaked rice with lentils.

(6) Put them in a grinding jar.

(7) Pour 150 ml of water and grind well till you get a light, smooth and fluffy batter.

(8) Add half teaspoon of salt or as per taste required. 

(9) Add 100 ml of more water and grind for 10 seconds to allow the salt to mix well.

(10) You can grind the rice with lentils in one batch or in two batches. This will depend on the size of the grinding jar.

(11) I ground them in one batch and added 250 ml of water for grinding.

(12) Remove the batter using a spatula and pour in a utensil.

(13) Cover and keep aside to ferment for 8-12 hours. You can keep the batter for less or more time to ferment and this will depend on the temperature conditions in your city.

(14) After 12 hours, I got the batter ready.

CHOPPED VEGGIES FOR TOPPINGS :

Chop one onion, 1 inch sized ginger, two green chillies, a bowl of coriander leaves and 2 sprigs of curry leaves and mix well along with little amount of salt as shown. Remember the dosa batter has salt in it already. Keep the chopped veggies ready before heating the pan.

An Onion, green chilli, ginger, curry leaves

Chopped Onion

Coriander leaves, chopped

Finely chopped ginger

Minced green chillies

Chopped Curry leaves

MAKING ONION UTTAPAM :

(1) Before you begin to make Uttapam, lightly stir the batter. You will also see tiny air pockets in the batter.

(2) Heat a cast iron pan or a non stick pan to medium hot.

(3) Mix little oil and little water in a cup. We will use this to smear the pan with it. Oil and water when mixed and smeared on the pan let the dosa batter to spread well on the pan. However when you do that, be careful as it will splutter, so stay away from the pan for a while.

(4) Keep the flame to low while spreading the dosa batter.

(5) Pour two ladleful of the batter on the pan, spread in a circular motion to make a 6” round and 3 mm thick uttapam. 

(6) Sprinkle the Onion mixture over it and press lightly using a flat ladle.

(7) Cover it with the lid for a minute to speed up the cooking process and allow them to cook.

(8) Open the lid. Drizzle one table spoon of oil around the edges and over the dosa.

(9) Flip the dosa and cover with the lid again. Keep for a minute.

(10) Open the lid and once the dosa is light brown in colour from both sides, remove it from the pan and take it on a plate.

(11) Repeat the steps 3 to 10 for preparing more dosas with remaining batter.

(12) It takes about 5 minutes to cook each onion uttapam.

(13) Serve the dosa with coconut chutney and sambar.

Here are the videos in two parts about how to make an Onion Uttapam on a pan.