Dosa is the most popular breakfast/all time favorite. It is no longer the humble spread of the south Indian home, but is now quite popular across the world. Stuffed with potato curry, spread with onions, served with chutney's of different colors, it has taken many shapes and forms. Imagination of the chef is the only constraint for dressing up the dosa.
All of us cherish eating it the many avatars, but few know the preparation and planning that goes into it. The urad dal, raw rice and fenugreek seeds have to be soaked for about 6-8 hours. The soaked lentils and rice are grounded into a fine paste and left to ferment overnight. The fenugreek seeds capture the atmospheric yeast and the next day morning a the paste is fermented, bubbly almost double in volume and is ready for spreading on the hot pan or tawa. So it takes at least 18 hours for the entire transformation. Short cuts are abound, but nothing matches the pain staking planning and preparation.
I was always interested in cooking. Initially it was the theory and the steps, later on, the practice on fire. So I knew how the whole dosa batter fermentation worked and was able to make decent dosas too on couple of occasions. Once to show off my culinary skills, I invited my friends for a break fast spread of masala dosa. On the D day minus one, I promptly forget to soak the required ingredients at the appointed time, in time for making dosa for breakfast the next day. Late in the evening I realize that I do not have the requisite time for preparing the batter. My brain went on a overdrive and started searching for short cuts.
I knew of one which speed ed up the process of cooking rice or dal. And that was adding boiling hot water. I thought if I soaked the dal and rice mixture in hot water instead of the cold water, then it will speed up the soaking process and immediately proceeded to do the same. It might have also worked if the water was warm. I boiled the water, added the rice, lentils and fenugreek seeds and closed with a lid.
One hour later, when I peered inside, I saw the mixture half cooked instead of well soaked. I had presence of mind to know that my shortcut fell flat and that my dosa plan went for a toss. This was before the days of instant dosa's and TinyOwl app to order food which could have saved my day. Well, I had to own up my mistake and ended up making delicious urad dal vada, which does not require the fermentation drill. My friends had a good laugh at the goof up and enjoyed the vada.
I learnt a few lessons that day. One that in some situations there are no short cuts you can take, especially when making the dosa batter. Two, own up the mistake and people are more supportive of you. Three, your mistakes can become food for food tales contests like these...:-)
This post is written for the food tales contest sponsored by TinyOwl food ordering app on Android and iOS.
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