Indian Masala Dosa(Rice and Lentil Crepe) - A Challenge I Tackled!

Masala Dosa with 3 different kinds of chutneys.

Making Indian Dosa was a challenge for me.  Challenge?  That's what my Indian co-worker would say.  He said that his wife makes it all the time.  It's easy, he says.  Well, yeah, it's easy if you are an Indian.  It was not for me since it is not my culture and my food.  Dosa is a South Indian rice and lentil crepe served with chutneys such as  mint chutney, tomato chutney, and coconut chutney. The filling is potato masala or aloo masala which is a semi mashed potato spiced with Indian masala spices.  It is vegan, gluten-free, economical, and delicious!  

This blog is meant to be about sharing my experience instead of sharing my recipes since I didn't create a recipe.   There is not much variation of the ancient recipe of making the crepe.  The proportion of rice to lentils is basically 2:1 or 3:1.  According to VahChef, to make a crispy dosa, increase the amount of rice (use 3:1 ratio of rice to lentil) and to make a softer dosa use more lentil (use 2:1 ratio of rice to lentil). Some people use fenugreek seeds and some people don't, depending the kind of lentils or urad dals used.

I am sharing here about the scientific details what will work and what won't work.  Also, this information is for all of you who don't live in India, live in the US, or in other colder climate.  I assure you everyone will have a different experience depending on the surrounding environment.  This is a blog of what I experienced in making dosa at my home.  Also, by the time you finish reading my blog, you will know all about 'wild yeast.'

Out of all the International dishes I tried, making Indian Dosa (the crepe) was the most challenging one.  My challenge was in the fermentation of the batter.  I followed the instructions very carefully and still my batter didn't do anything.  No fermentation after 6 hours of waiting!  Pheeeuwww!  It was very frustrating since I was hoping for a success and the batter went flat.  Usually, we ended up just going to a South Indian restaurant about 1/2 a mile away to satisfy our dosa cravings .  My husband and I love Indian dosas very much and there are plenty of South Indian restaurants in my area.  In Little India, Artesia, California, 30 minutes from where I live,  a restaurant sells a plate of dosa for $4.99.  Cheap!  Why making it at home, right?  Well, it became a challenge for me to make it at home by myself.  It is not about saving money, time, and effort.   It was something I want to tackle and to overcome.  I want to understand WHY it didn't work for me?

I kept harping at it and learned from the Internet.  Isn't Internet wonderful?  What will I do without the Internet?  I learned cooking other cultures' food from the Internet: blogs, youtube, cooking websites, cooking web tvs, and facebook.  If you are a cooking blogger or a presenter in cooking web tv or youtube videos,  read this:  THANK YOU!  Keep up your great work since you are helping and inspiring others to learn and to cook.  Without all of you my knowledge about food and culture would be narrow.  I would not have cooked a variety of International dishes.

I perused  blogs and watched videos for hours in the Internet looking for techniques and tips.  I saw several cooking videos of making dosas and idlis at youtube.  There are lots of them.  It looked so easy to make dosas and idlis in the videos.  However, when I copied it at home, step by step, the result was not the same as it was in the videos.  There were tricks and tips that were not mentioned in recipes and videos.   I compiled what I found and divided them into 4 categories:

1. The Planning.
2. Ingredients.
3. Preparation of the batter.
4. Cooking the dosa.

The blogs that I found useful are these:  one from VeggieBelly's The Perfect Dosa Recipe(Rice and Lentil Crepes) and  one from VegRecipesofIndia.  I summarized the tips from these blogs:

1)The Planning:

• I soaked the ingredients 1 day ahead before I made the Potato Masala filling, Mint Chutney, Tomato Chutney, and Coconut Chutney.
• On the same day I made the filling and chutneys, I processed the ingredients for the crepe in the blender late in the evening and let it ferment overnight.
• I made the dosas the next day and reheat the filling in the microwave. That was Plan A. Hopefully, the batter was not flat.  If the batter was flat, then I went to Plan B, I added a little bit of yeast (see the tip under Preparation of Batter) and let it ferment for another 4-5 hours (breakfast will become lunch or dinner at this point). One day, I may be able to ferment the batter without the additional yeast, hopefully.

2) Tips on ingredients:
Below are the tips from VegRecipesofIndia (in Italics). My notes are in normal font.
.

Short Grain Rice called Idli Rice or Sona Masuri rice in Indian markets.

Rice:

• Generally, there are two types of starch in rice:- Amylose and Amylopectin
• Long grain rice has 22 % Amylose and 78 % Amylopectin,
• Medium to short grain rice has 18 % Amylose and 82 % Amylopectin.
• So its better to use short to medium grain sized rice. If you don’t have access to parboiled rice, you may use a good quality rice.

A few tips for making soft idlis and crisp dosa.

• Basmati or Sona Masoori rice also work well. I have made idlis and dosas both with Basmati rice and Sona Masoori rice.
• You could also use a combination of parboiled rice and regular rice.
• To get a crispier and brown dosa, add some chana dal.
• Please do not use rice flour as it gives a poor texture.

Note: I read in this blog by Alternative Vegan that short grain brown rice was use. I haven't tried that yet. It improved the taste. That's what was said.

Split Urad Dal or Black Lentils

Urad Dal or Black Lentils:
I have seen people using skinned, spilt urad dal. I myself use these. But you can use whole urad with the black skin. The only problem will be that the black fragments of the skin will be seen in the batter once the dal is ground. You also won’t get white colour in the idlis.
Skinned whole urad lentil is better to use. If you are using spilt and skinned urad dal, then add fenugreek seeds.
In the spilt urad dal much of the wild yeast is destroyed in the splitting process. So you have to add fenugreek seeds to help in the fermentation process.
You can use Urad Dal flour. The only problem you have is that some of the wild yeast is destroyed by heat during the milling process. So you will need to add fenugreek seeds.
Fenugreek Seeds


Fenugreek seeds are also called Methi seeds in Indian markets.

Fenugreek seeds catch the same type of wild yeast as the Urad Dal. So, using fenugreek seeds just adds more yeast to the batter.


Adding Yellow Split Peas, also called Chana Dal in Indian markets, improved the color and crispiness of dosas.

3) Tips on Preparation of the batter:

• After ingredients are soaked for 6-8 hours.  Do not throw away the soaking water.  The water may contain 'wild yeast'  that was floating in the air and then resided in the soaking water after 6-8 hours soaking.  Therefore,  the ingredients need to be soaked in open bowls (no lids).  There is a proof to this science. Read this article about how 'wild yeast' is floating in the air can be used to ferment batter.  Remember,  dosa was invented thousands years ago (6th century AD) before the invention of packaged yeast.
    
• Use a powerful blender like Vitamix (that's what I have) or a powerful food processor.  Just a regular small blender you used to mix margaritas won't work well.  Your small blender may be overworked, jammed, and the motor may burned out.  The Indians seem to use this type of wet grinder.  I tried it with my powerful  Vitamix blender and it works just fine.  A powerful food processor like Kitchen Aid may also work well.
• Use your clean hands.  Even after the ingredients were grounded, with a powerful modern machine, use your hands for several minutes to mix the ingredients, stir up and down, round and round.  This is important to start the fermentation which is from the warm of your hands.  Remember, I told you above about the 'wild yeast'?  This yeast needs to be started with warm hands.
• Since we rely on 'wild yeast' floating in the air,  do not cover the bowl during the fermentation process.
• Even after using your hands, the fermentation only works if your kitchen environment is warm.  Using your hands just helped to start it.  To continue the fermentation, the batter needs to be stored in a warm oven with the light on.  Turn the oven on for 180F, turn it off, turn the light on, open the oven door, put a bowl of batter in, close the oven door.
  Note:  Indians make dosa in 30-32C or 80-90F which is probably a normal temperature in India. I live in an area in Southern California where the temp is mostly between 65-75F almost all year long.  Well. sometimes it goes up to 85F but it is not very often.  I do need to create a warm environment between 80-90F or 32C as suggested by VeggieBelly. 
• Now, I like this tip from Chef Vinod because I needed this help after all.  I read this tip at VeggieBelly blog.  After all those tips above, my batter was still flat at the end of 6 hours.  I guess I live in a sterile air due to air filter in our house.  There was no 'wild yeast' in our air or oven.  Southern California air tends to have less moisture.  Maybe in India, where it is warm and humid, wild yeast exists.  After I applied a little bit of yeast, after 6 hours of nothing, my batter started to ferment.  I let it go for another 4 hours.
  
  Chef Vinod: Fermentation is always a problem in colder places. Our modern living with air filters etc. also inhibits the capture of wild yeast from the air. Sometimes indoor air, particularly in winter with all the doors and windows shut will be low in air borne yeast cells. When all else fails, I would recommend using some yeast. Use half teaspoon in half cup water and a teaspoon of sugar to kick start yeast growth. Add to a gallon of batter.
  
  From now on, I will just add yeast to my batter to prevent failures.  I think Dosa restaurants are using the previous batter as a 'starter' for the next batter.
   
• Keep leftover batter in the fridge.  If it is left outside, the fermentation continues.  This is actually great if you want to make dosa or uttapam or Indian thick pancake/pizza the next day.  However, you will need to take the batter out of the fridge about 1 hour before you start making dosas or uttapams since the batter needs to be in a room temperature.  I read that the batter cannot be kept more than 3 days but some said that the batter can be kept for 1 month.  I am not sure what's correct yet.  Then, I saw dosa idly batter is sold in the fridge in the Indian store near me.  I have to give this a test too.
• Keep the batter thick if it is to be stored in the fridge. To make dosas, add water to a consistency of crepe batter.  To make uttapams, the batter needs to be as thick as American pancake batter. See the VahChef's tips on consistency in his Dosa or Dosai video.

I was so happy to see my dosa batter fermented to the rim.  Success!

4)Tips on cooking the dosa:
The one video that I like the most is  the VahChef.  I watched his video:  Dosa or Dosai.  His recipes are located in this site: http://www.vahrehvah.com/  

• VahChef uses a large non-stick pancake griddle.  I like this one and I have a large griddle like that, similar to what he used.  It's Presto Cool Touch Tilt and Drain Griddle  I bought from WalMart for about $40.  This works perfectly for dosas and really great for making a large dosa.  I never cook meat(even soy meat) or eggs on it and only use this griddle for vegan pancakes and dosas.  Or, a tava can be used, too.
• The griddle was heated up to 375F. To test, sprinkle water on it and it should dance and disappear quickly.  This means that it is hot enough.
• I don't use oil on it except after I already spread the dosa batter on it.  I sprinkled oil with a teflon brush just as was done on the video(not brush but sprinkle).  My co-worker told me to never put oil first when pouring dosa batter on a hot griddle or tava.  The batter will slide and will not spread thinly.
• Spread the batter using the back of a ladle or a small glass bowl (as seen in the video) from center outward in circle motions.
• Clean the griddle or tava with a damp paper towel after dosas are made and griddle/tava is cool to the touch.
• At times the griddle or tava may become sticky due to oil that was sprinkled on it while making the dosa.  To get rid of the stickiness, follow this instructions How to fix a Sticky Dosa Tava from ShowMeTheCurry.  It really WORKS!

Recipes I tried successfully are:

Note: The only thing I did different with the recipes of potato masala and chutneys was reducing the amount of vegetable oil I used.  I used only about 1-2 Tbsp. oil. 

Dosa or Dosai from VahChef:  Video and Recipe

Potato Masala from VahChef:  Video and Recipe

Mint Chutney

Mint Chutney from VahChef:  Video and Recipe

Tomato Chutney

Tomato Chutney from VahChef:  Video and Recipe

Coconut Chutney

Coconut Chutney from VahChef:  Video and Recipe

I am so proud that I was able to overcome making dosas at home.  I am still learning and will update this blog in the future when I learn new tricks and tips.

Vegan Coconut and Lilikoi Scones

I haven't blogged for 2 months! I've been very busy with a project at work and at home. To relieve stress we decided to go for a Hawaiian vacation for 2 weeks. That trip inspired my blog and recipe for this blog: Coconut and Lilikoi(Passion Fruit) Scones, an inspiration from our trip to the Big Island and Kauai.

This recipe below is an adaptation of 'Classic Currant Scones' from the by Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. I wanted rich and tasty scones resembling what I ate in the Big Island. There is no fresh passion fruit or Lilikoi where I live so I used Passion Fruit Jam that I brought home from Hawaii.

Coconut and Lilikoi(passion fruit) Scones

Ingredients:
1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G Egg replacer
2 tablespoons water
1 1/4 cup unbleached flour
1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup vegan sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup non-hydrogenated, nondairy butter, cold (like Earth Balance)
1/2 cup shredded dry coconut (not sweetened)
1/2 cup soymilk creamer (or any other non-dairy milk)
Extra soy milk and flour for kneading
2 tablespoons Lilikoi (Passion Fruit) jam
2 tablespoons soy milk for brushing on top
Sucanat or vegan sugar for sprinkling on top

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Lightly oil a cookie baking pan or use a parchment paper to line it.
2. In a food processor, whip the egg replacer and water together until creamy and white.
3. Meanwhile, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
4. Cut the cold vegan butter into small pieces or chunks.
5. Add the cut butter into the flour mixture and combine lightly.
6. Add the butter and flour mixture into the egg replacer mixture in the food processor.
7. Pulse the food processor while adding the soymilk creamer for about 30 seconds to 1 minute until a dough formed and mixed together.
8. Add the 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened dry coconut and continue to mix for another 30 seconds. The dough will not be smooth like a bread dough but it should not stick to your fingers too much.
9. Move the dough onto a floured cutting board and form a ball. Then flatten the ball with your hand. Add 1 tablespoon of lilikoi jam and fold over and mix. Then, add another 1 tablespoon jam and repeat. The dough may be soften. If it becomes sticky add extra flour until it is not sticky anymore(you may want to lightly flour your hands, as well). Then, flatten with your hand to form a 8 or 9-inch circle, 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 8 pieces (like cutting pizza) so that you'll have 8 triangle pieces.
10. Place them 1/2 inch apart on the baking sheet, brush the tops with soymilk creamer or non-dairy milk, and sprinkle with sucanat or vegan sugar.
11. Bake until the tops are brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool on a rack and serve warm with more lilikoi jam.

This scone is different than the lilikoi scone we ate at the Island Naturals market in Pahoa. We visited this market almost everyday while we were at the Big Island, staying in the Puna District. In Hawaii, they used fresh lilikoi. You can also use crushed pineapple and folded them in the scones, instead. This is a tropical vegan scone that is so delicious.

I am going to talk about our vegan experience in both islands: Kauai and Big Island with some pictures.

We were disappointed that Blossoming Lotus Cafe in Kauai closed down. We stayed in Kapa'a, Kauai and was hoping to visit this vegan restaurant. Alas, there were a few vegan establishments in Kauai. One market that we visited was the Papaya's Natural Foods in Kapa'a. They provide all kinds of vegan sandwiches and warm deli dishes. We loaded our cooler with vegan sandwiches and goodies before we headed for the beaches.

This is the view from the condo we stayed at. Every morning we had a vegan breakfast on our lanai(balcony) consisted of a bowl of tropical Hawaiian granola, soy milk, kona coffee, and tropical fruits, facing the beach. The sound of waves, birds, monk seals, and rooster were the background noise of our breakfast. Life is good!














We also went to farmers market in Lihue, Kauai and bought lots of fruits. The scene of their farmers market is different than home. They have lots of tropical flowers and fruits. We bought Hawaiian papaya, Mountain Apples, Apple and Baby Banana, and Longans.








I was so happy there since the weather and tropical fruits remind me of Indonesia. The landscape is so beautiful and green. The air is so clean and fresh and the sound of waves could be heard all night long from our bedroom. Unfortunately, we didn't find any Indian or Vietnamese restaurants. Their popular ethnic restaurants are Thai. There were several Thai restaurants that we visited. They provide vegan and vegetarian dishes with tofu. After 2 or 3 visits to the Thai restaurants; however, we were ready to try other ethnic restaurant that provides vegetarian food but there was none.

During our visit in Kauai, we did try Jojo's Shave Ice which according to our guide book: "The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook" by Andrew Doughty (the best guide book for Hawaiian islands, btw. We bought one for the Big Island, too.) it is the BEST shave ice in the island. We didn't try other shave ice joint and trusted this book. I can say that it was the BEST because the ice was shaved very finely. You can get 60 different flavors from this place. I notice that coconut and lilikoi combination flavor is very popular in Hawaii. Their coconut pudding or jello called Haupia is a popular dessert. Haupia is made of coconut cream and sometimes it is mixed with coconut meat and/or other tropical fruit like mango or passion fruit. You can get a recipe of a Tropical Haupia in Everyday Dish TV from a Hawaiian Chef: Brian Igarta, the Maui Vegetarian. I had a vegan haupia and lilikoi dessert from Island Naturals while I was there and it was yummy. This combination inspired my recipe for the scone above.











I chose Haupia Cream flavor shaved ice: coconut cream with coconut meat and DH chose the Coconut and Lilikoi combination shaved ice (the lilikoi syrup was the yellow one).

A trip to the beach was our schedule almost everyday. We managed to find a beach for snorkeling and swimming with calm waves and clean/clear water such as this one: the Ke'e Beach (the best beach in Kauai), thanks to the wonderful guidebook.

The highlight of Kauai was our visit to this beach and watching the Sunset:


Then, it was followed by a nice vegan dinner at a gourmet restaurant with vegan options: Postcards Cafe, at the town of Hanalei. It is a fancy restaurant where we celebrated our 20th anniversary with a nice vegan dinner. The Postcards Cafe has a postcard to take home:













What I enjoyed the most at that restaurant was their Hisbiscus cooler and their vegan Hanalei Taro Fritters with pineapple chutney(pictured).

It is not over yet, folks! We moved to the Big Island and stayed at the Puna District area. Our highlight of this trip was to see the active lava going into the ocean with an ocean adventure tour: Lavakai. We woke up at 3 am to catch a boat tour at 4 am. Are we crazy? No, we are not! Lava is best to be seen during the dark since it competes with the sun. I really recommend this tour. It is a safe adventure and it is once in a lifetime experience (the lava may stop at anytime). We visited this area 10 years ago and wanted to see the lava going into the ocean, booked the trip, but the lava stopped just before our tour day. So imagine our disappointment at that time. After waiting for another chance (another 10 years), we got our wish. It was well worth it to wake up at 3 am for this:

This is a lava explosion we saw from the boat at 4:30 am. Steam covered my lense so many times that I had to wipe it often. The boat was also rocking and rolling. It was very hard to get good pictures in such situation. Bonine or other motion sickness pill is a must for this trip.

Active lava represents Madame Pele (goddess of fire in Hawaii). She was nice to us this time and revealed herself with no disappointment anymore. We were awarded by this view and the sunrise view over a steamy ocean water at 5:45 am:


The selection of vegan meals in the Big Island was similar to Kauai (many Thai restaurants). We were lucky to find this natural market: Island Naturals (has a sister market in Hilo) which serves lots of vegan pastries, breakfast burrito, warm deli (chana masala, thai tofu, tofu and spinach curry, brown rice, etc.), cold sandwiches, vegan vegetable/tofu sushi, and tofu pad thai. They also have lots of vegan desserts such as haupia and lilikoi, carrot cakes, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, etc. They have great organic coffee with organic soy creamer, too. The one in Pahoa opens at 7 am with warm, yummy vegan morsels and organic coffee. We visited this store several times during our visit and I really recommend this store to vegan tourists. Aloha!

Vegan Sweet Potato/Yam Waffle with Toasted Pecan

Fall weather is here: cold in the morning and night, warm 77 F during the day, a typical Southern California fall weather. This kind of weather makes me want to eat pumpkin something. I just received the new Vegan Feast newsletter from Bryanna and saw her recipe of Vegan Pumpkin Tunnel Cake. Looks yummy! I really wanted to make it but my body was not up to it. I just came back from a business trip to Las Vegas for 3 days and didn't have time to go to the market to buy all the ingredients for it. I thought I had enough pumpkin in the freezer (left over from making pumpkin something in the past) but it turned out that it was not enough to make the cake.

This morning I thought about making Pumpkin Waffle to use that little bit pumpkin I defrosted. I made this waffle from a recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance cookbook before and it was really good. It turned out that the recipe asked for a whole can (15 oz.) pureed pumpkin. Yaik! No pumpkin waffle either. What to do? What to do? Then, I saw my kitchen basket full of sweet potatoes/yam (you know, the orange kind). This will do! I saw Rachel Ray's $40 A Day show last night and she was eating Sweet Potato Pancake with Toasted Pecan butter in Charleston. I surely could make waffles out of those potatoes I thought.

I microwaved 3 small sweet potatoes (about 15 oz) until they were soft (pierce with forks first otherwise they may explode). I changed the Pumpkin Waffle recipe (less oil and use whole wheat pastry flour, etc.) ...and.... Voila! Sweet potato Waffle was born. DH was surprised that I didn't make Pumpkin Tunnel Cake as I said, nor Pumpkin Waffle as planned, and was served Sweet Potato Waffles. He will never know what he is going to get, will he?



No pumpkin after all but this waffle turned out to be very very good. It was spiced with pumpkin pie spices (I love those spices) and sweetened a little bit with brown sugar. My kitchen smelled wonderful and spicy while the waffle was cooking and the smell lasted the whole day (didn't need to light a pumpkin spice candle). I also prepared the Toasted Pecan 'Butter' (Earth Balance) and served the waffle with this yummy 'butter', pure maple syrup and Soyatoo! (from last blog). It was soooo good I had 2 large waffles (a no no according my WW leader), I couldn't help it. :-)



Vegan Sweet Potato/Yam Waffle with Toasted Pecans
Makes 6 large waffles (my waffle maker is the 7-inches Villaware, round)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour or unbleached flour
Note: you may use 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour instead of part pastry flour and part all purpose
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cup soy milk (depending how thick your pureed sweet potatoes)
15 oz pureed cooked sweet potato/yam or 3 small sweet potato (about 15 oz)
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
15 pecan halves

1/4 cup Earth Balance

Pure maple syrup

1. If using fresh sweet potatoes: Pierce potatoes with a fork, microwave for 6-7 minutes or until soft. Let it cool. Peel and puree with a potato masher. Otherwise, the easy way is open the can.
2. Toast pecan halves on a dry frying pan, turning them and watch them until they are very toasty and brown. Chop them with a knife. Mix 2 tablespoons of chopped pecan with the 1/4 cup Earth Balance.
3. Preheat your electric waffle maker.
4. Measure and sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Add the remaining chopped pecan to the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Mix 2 cups soy milk, mashed sweet potatoes or canned sweet potatoes, oil, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Use an immersion blender or a hand mixer, beat or mix the liquid ingredients and mashed potato until smooth.
6. Combine the liquid mixture and dry ingredients together until well mix. The batter should be thick like muffin butter. If it is too thick add more soy milk.
7. Spray the hot waffle iron with canola oil spray bottle, Pour about 2/3 cup of waffle batter and set a timer for 6 minutes for each waffle or following the instructions of your waffle maker. You may need to use the oil spray for each waffle. For a very crispy waflle set the timer to 8 minutes. Serve it warm with toasted pecan 'butter' and pure maple syrup. Top with Soyatoo, if desired.

Enjoy!

Note to Gaia:

About Soyatoo!, I didn't have a problem with the can as you said. Did you turn the can totally upside down when using it? DH told me that if using the can in an angle it may not work as properly as if it is vertically upside down.