Black gram dosa/ Azhagar kovil dosa

Black urad dal is a very nutritious and tasty lentil. Dosa with black urad dal tastes really fabulous. Its a much healthier variant to your regular dosa.

Black urad dal dosa aka Azhagar Kovil dosa is a tasty prasadam from Azhagar Kovil, a temple located few km's away from Madurai. Apart from the other prasadams sold there, this dosa is one unique and very own to Azhagar Kovil! On every visit to the temple, we never fail to get a few of those dosa and distribute them to relatives, neighbours and friends. The dosa sold there is very thick, crispy all over and made with ghee. Oh, i am salivating now! Even a little piece from the dosa is so filling and hearty! The dosa is had as such without any chutney. I have no idea how its made so crispy but its healthier variant with less oil/ ghee can be made in home without much ado. Much to my surprise, it tasted the same as those from the temple. 

I was all delighted to recreate this dosa in my very own kitchen and we had a hearty dinner with badam chutney and idli podi. Dosa with badam chutney is my new found craze. Even my husband goes gaga over this combo.

Ingredients

For dosa batter

1/2 cup raw rice

1/2 cup par boiled rice

3/4 cup black urad dal

1/2 cup cooked rice (optional)

To spice up the batter

Small piece of dry ginger

1 ts cumin seed

1 ts pepper corn (or even more)

Few curry leaves

Preparation

- Soak the rice and urad dal seperately for a minimum of 3 hours or even overnight.

- Since its a small amount of rice and dal, they can be easily ground in a normal mixer. The amount of water determines the smoothness of batter. Its ok if the batter becomes a little thin, since its for the preparation of dosa and not idli. But the batter shouldn't be too runny. And its also fine if the batter has a little coarser texture. 

- First grind the rice to a smooth consistency with enough amount of water. Grind them in small batches. Grind them in high speed for 30 sec to a minute. Open the mixer and rest it for a while, lest the mixer shouldn't turn hot and stop becoming functional. Grind them again until it gets a smooth consistency. Repeat the same for the rest of the batch. Take out in a container.

- Grind the cooked rice the same way and add to the rice batter. Adding cooked rice enables fermentation of the batter. So this is optional if the place where you live in has a warmer temperature. 

- Grind the black urad dal in the same procedure until it gets a creamy texture. Add them to the rice batter.

- Add little salt and give everything a good mix with your hands. Close the container.

- Keep the container on the kitchen top or in any warm place for a minimum of 3 hours. It can be kept outside even for a longer time if you prefer extra fermentation. This dosa can also be prepared with the unfermented batter! But I prefer a little sourness in the dosa and hence ferment it. 

- After fermentation keep the container in the refrigerator.

- Half an hour before preparation of your dosa, take the batter out and keep in room temperature. Grind dry ginger, cumin seed, peppercorn and curry leaves to a fine powder. Mix them with the batter and let it rest for a while  for the flavors to set in.

Your dosa is now ready to prepare!