Avantika's Kitchen Delights: Neer Dosa

Neer dosa is a soft, thin, lacy crepes made with rice batter. It is a popular and most loved variety of dosa from the Karnataka Cuisine. Neer means water in Kannada and the word Neer Dosa translates to Water Dosa. These dosas are called water dosa as the batter is watery and not thick like the usual dosa batter.

While preparing Neer Dosa, fermentation is not required and therefore it is less time consuming.

Neer Dosa can be served with coconut chutney and sambar. It can also be served with any veg sagu or veg korma.

INGREDIENTS :

(1) 250 gms of regular rice

(2) 3 pinch of Fenugreek seeds (Methi dana)

(3) 2-3 tablespoons of grated coconut

(4) 450 ml of water for the batter.

(5) Water for soaking

(6) Oil for making dosas

(7) Salt as required

Below are the pictures of ingredients taken.

250 gms of rice

3 pinch of fenugreek seeds

Cuisine : South Indian
Serves : 3-4 persons
Time required : 3-4 hours for soaking rice, 5-10 minutes for grinding soaked rice, then can be made into dosas immediately.

TIPS TO GET THE DOSA RIGHT

(1) The batter should be of watery consistency, thin and flowing and not too thick. When the batter is of this watery consistency, then you will get thin and lacy dosas. If not it means that the batter is thick and you will have to thin it by adding more water.

(2) Thick batter will give rise to cracks in the dosas, so make sure that the batter is not too thick.

(3) The batter should not be too thin as that will cause the dosas to break while lifting. In this case, add some rice flour to thicken the batter.

(4) Heat the pan or tawa very well, grease with oil (so that the dosa doesn’t stick to the pan) before you pour the batter to make the dosas.

(5) Stir the batter very well with the ladle before pouring the batter on the pan.

(6) Add 2-3 tablespoon of freshly grated coconut while grinding the batter.

METHOD :

MAKING NEER DOSA BATTER:

(1) Rinse and soak 250 gms of rice and 3 pinch of Fenugreek seeds (Methi dana) in water for 3 -4 hours.

(2) Drain the soaked rice and Fenugreek seeds and put them in a mixer grinder jar.

(3) Add 2-3 tablespoons of grated coconut to it.

(4) Add 150 ml of water and grind the rice with coconut to get a smooth batter. If you add all the water at once, you will not be able to grind the rice well, so we added only 150 ml of water.

(5) Add 100 ml of water again and salt to taste. Then grind again. Once a smooth batter is formed, transfer it to another large utensil.

(6) Add 200 ml of water again to the batter and mix well.

I added a total of 450 ml of water to 250 gms of rice taken to form a batter. The amount of water depends on the quality and kind of rice.

(7) Once the batter is ready, you can start preparing the dosas and fermentation is not required.

(8) Batter for neer dosa is ready.

MAKING NEER DOSA ON A PAN

(1) Heat a cast iron pan or a non stick pan. Drizzle half table spoon of oil. Spread the oil using a brush.

(2) Stir the batter in the utensil very well and take a ladleful of batter and pour the batter on the pan moving from outwards to inside as shown in the video. Fill all the gaps with the batter.

(3) Cover the pan with a lid and cook the need dosa till it is done. Make sure it does not turn brown. Do not flip the dosa.

(4) Make a triangular fold on the tawa itself as shown in the pictures and video.

(5) Then remove the dosa and place it on a plate. Make more neer dosas and place them separately and not sticking to each other on a plate.

(6) Once they are cold, they can be stacked but not when they are hot as if stacked with hot, the dosas with stick to each other and tear while taking.