Ragi Dosai --easy and healthy pancakes

Ragi dosai with chill powder and chutney

Ragi  or finger millet is said to have a range of qualities extremely beneficial for health. But what I  could not miss was the high fibre in the hard , mustard like grains. Hard because even after almost ten hours of soaking, the ragi grains did not absorb the water, puff up or get soft. Perhaps for this reason one hears people in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka talk of roasting and grinding the ragi grains into flour, at chakkis or flour mills.

Soaked ragi grains are not difficult to grind at home!

I used an ordinary  blender, and  ground the ragi , along with soaked rice into a  near fine batter. 

Ragi-rice batter

The stubborn skin, provding the fibre, came pretty much under my attack, but no amount of blender-power could finish off its identity! And I am glad for that, because the ragi dosai turns out exactly the rich color of ragi grain, in spite of the rice trying to dilute that.

Here goes the recipe for Ragi Dosai, tried and tested to satisfaction by me, and enjoyed by us.

Soaking and grinding time: 8 hours

Preparation time: 2 minutes a dosai max.

Ingredients:

Ragi – Half cup

Rice- 2 tablespoons level

Salt to taste

Cooking Soda- Quarter teaspoon

Oil-to make the dosais

Soak the ragi  and rice separately overnight. Grind together till  it turns into a batter like regular dosai batter.

Add  the salt, cooking soda, and mix the batter well.

Heat a tawa or flat girdle , and pour a deep ladel full of the batter in the centre. Using swift circular movement, spread it out like you would a pancake. Grease the edges with a drizzle of refined oil.

The side you see turns a dark, maroonish colour, thanks to the ragi fibre.

Flip over, it will remain light. A minute later, the ragi dosai is ready to be taken off the tawa and served.

Tastes great with chilli powder—gun powder or molagaipodi—and coconut chutney.