Davengere Benne Dosa (plain) and Mint-Coconut Chutney

This dish brings back fond memories of my college days. We very religiously used go to dosa camp to have these benne dosas almost every mess off (saturday nights). Not only was a plate of dosa affordable, they tasted awesome. Its heavenly to bite into one of these. They are soft yet crisp and the smell of fresh butter takes you to another world. This post is dedicated to all my hostel friends. The recipe has a few extra ingredients, but the method remains the same as how one makes a normal dosa.

You may add potato masala inside the dosa, but plain dosa also tastes heavenly. If you are making dosa for the first time, Please refer to my simple dosa post.

Ingredients:-

Wash and Soak together in 4 cups of water:-
3 cups of idli rice-puzungu rice-parboiled rice (you may use normal eating rice too)
1 cup of plain eating rice
1/8 cup of bengal gram/channa dal1/4 cup of flattened rice

We use parboiled rice as it reduces the soaking time before grinding. If you use normal rice instead of par boiled, please soak for 2 hrs extra. Bengal gram is added for the color and flavor. The flattened rice is added to make the dosa light and soft. Benne dosa's color is darker than normal plain dosa's color.

Wash and Soak together in 2 cups of water:-take one cup of urad dal (full)/ ulatham paruppu (Skinned, while color)
2 spoons venthayam/ fenugreek seeds

Fermentation is caused due to air-born wild yeast. These two ingredients draw wild yeast from the air. Do not over wash them One is enough.
4 tble spns of salt
unsalted fresh butter while making the dosa.
Iodized salt destroy the wild yeast, hence try using non-iodized salts. If you have to use iodized salt, add the salt after the fermentation, before making the dosa. In summer if the weather is around 90 F, then you may add the salt before fermentation as the weather is favorable for the wild yeast growth. During winters or temperature below 80F, add the salt after fermentation.


Method to make the batter:-
Soak these ingredients in water for 4 hrs. If the urad dal is too much the dosa will not come out well and if it is too less it wont come crisp. The measurements ought to be perfect.

Grind the urad dal mixture first to a soft and smooth paste.It should be too thin. Don't put too much of water to grind in the mixer, add little by little. It should be a soft and fluffy.

Grind the rice mixture to a fine thick paste. It will still be a little rough when you feel it in between your fingers.

Mix both these pastes and add 3-4 tbl spns of salt (add salt if the weather is 90 F and up or else it is better to add after fermentation). The batter should be dropping consistency.

Store in a vessel and make sure its half empty or else it will ferment and overflow. Leave it overnight.

Tip:-If you are still think that it might overflow, keep a few tooth picks or match sticks on top of the batter. The batter will not over flow.

Method to make Plain Benne Dosas:-

Take a non-stick pan/tava. Use a brush /paper towels to smear 1tsp butter on it evenly.
Heat the tava, keeping the flame/heat to medium.

Sprinkle some water to check if the tava is heated up. The water should evaporate immediately making a fuzzy sound. If it does, then the tava is ready.

Add one ladle full (medium sized ladle) of batter on the tava and spread the batter to make a circle immediately by rotating the ladle in a circular motion.

Add 2 tsp of butter on the dosa (periphery and center).

Allow it to get golden brown/light brown on one side (this takes 1 min or so and the upper side also begins to look cooked) and then turn the dosa and cook for a few more secs (20 secs if it is thin dosa. For a thick dosa may be 1 min or so).

Remove it from the pan/tava and serve hot.

Before making the next dosa, apply butter to the tava evenly and mix the batter before spreading it on the tava.



Mint-Coconut Chutney:-
Ingredients:-
10 fresh mint leaves
1/2 a cup of coconut grated
3 green chillies
salt to taste

Tempering:-
1 tsp of mustard
2 dry red chillies
1/8 tsp of bengal gram
1 tsp of oil


Method:-

Grind the mint leaves, coconut and green chillies to a thick paste.
Add salt to taste.
Temper the rest of the ingredients and serve.