Hillary's Platter ...Item No 1. Dosai

Dosai with chilli powder and lasoon ki chutney

Hillary’s Platter

The breakfast given to American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she visited New Delhi  recently  was  what  is made in most South Indian homes almost on a daily basis . Perhaps what they make on two successive days, or occasionally, at breakfast, and at “tiffin” time in the evening.

Hillary’s breakfast comprised, hold your breadth, the perennial, universal favourite-- the dosai, and the health freak’s best bet, idlis, in thali style.

 Both are made of fermented batter of rice –preferably parboiled—and lentils, in this case,  ulutta paruppu in south, and dhuli urad in the north. Dosais are our own version of crepe or pancake—I like to think that the dosai  was where the seed of crepes and pancakes germinated as an idea.

Both were served with sambar, of course. And three varieties of chutney—white, green and a bit off the saffron colours that form the Indian flag. One made of pure coconut, the other had coriander, and the third, some tomatoes.

She enjoyed the breakfast, which has since become part of the Taj Palace Hotel’s menu, and the fare goes by the name of Hillary’s Platter.

The plain white coconunt chutney is  generally made and served at home, but the preferred “on the side” is chilli powder.Mulagai podi in Tamil, gunpowder to many elsewhere in India. But no, it  will not make you call the fire brigade, for as a per centage, lentils—chana dal, urad dal, together—make up the larger part of this powder. It is handmixed with gingley oil, on the plate, and you touch the piece of dosai or idli,  to this, and pop it right into your  mouth—if the idli is made well, it should melt in your mouth  in a few seconds!

I will  share the recipe and upload pictures of a few types of idlis the day I make them. But here goes the recipe and step by step processes involved in making a plain  dosai, homestyle, our breakfast earlier today.

Dosai ingredients

Parboiled or plain rice-4 cups

Urad-1 cup.

Salt to taste.

Oil (any)

Separately grind the soaked rice and soaked dal, and mix, add salt, and let stand to ferment overnight.

Put a tawa on the gas, grease it, sprinkle some water to temper it.

Spread the batter with swift, circular moves

Flip it over when golden

                                         

Fold it in two, to serve

  

Pour a ladel full of batter in the centre, and with quick circular moves of the ladel, spread it across the tawa. Using a spoon, drizzle oil along the circumference and across the dosai—not more than half to three fourths of a spoon per dosai.

A minute later, on when you see the dosai edge coming off clean, flip it over. A minute later, take it off gently, folding it as you go.

Serve hot, with chilli powder and/or chutney and/or sambar

We usually start off with a very tiny dosai—both as an offering(for it is not eaten) to God, and a way of testing  the tawa  without wasting precious batter. If the dosai sticks to the tawa, take it off, wash it , wipe with greased butterpaper, sprinkly a bit of water, and start all over again!

Dosai, incidentally, need not be crispy and crumbly as served in many places.

A good home made dosai, is often soft. And yes, a person with average appetite can eat three or four of them!

Is it the size of the restaurant dosai, or is it something that goes into it, that makes one feel full, with just one dosai?

I  have yet to figure that out.

But go ahead, and make your  dosais. 

Serve with chill powder and til ka tel(sesame seed  oil)

My batter comes off the fridge. And there is always the old faithful--chilli powder in a bottle. A good breakfast ready in a jiffy!The bright red thing you see on my plate is the “lasun ki chutney” from Mumbai—Bedekar’s. Tastes  as great with dosai as it does in a Maharashtrian thali.