Hello all,

I searched googlegroups, and found some discussion on dosa's and other
flatbreads in this newsgroup, so I hope it is okay to ask my question here.

I have tried to make dosa's about ten times now. The first time,
everything went well, The batter at least doubled overnight. That never
happened again I have no idea what I changed, so I figured it must be
a temperature thing, but I obviously have no clue.

My recipe comes from Peter Berley's 'The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen'. It
is very simple, and similar to other recipes I found online:
- 1/2 cup Urad Dahl
- 1 1/2 cup rice (I tried basmati and later parboiled)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon sea salt

I soak the dahl and the rice for at least twelve hours, then mix it
together with maple syrup and salt, and let it ferment for at least
twelve more hours. It does not ferment at all. No bubbles, no increasing
in size. Most of the time nothing happens, the batter just stays the
same. I can still make "dosa's", and they actually do not taste bad. The
last time the top of the batter was hard, it looked spoiled.

I read some instructions on line, so I tried:
- not overwashing the dahl
- adding some fenugreek seeds
- not covering the bowl

I would really appreciate some help. It is so frustrating to carefully
prepare everything, and then check and check, and not seeing anything
happen. If you think it is a temperature issue, I would appreciate
suggestions on making a place with a constant warm enough temperature.
Berley suggests an oven, but my electrical oven is not suitable for this.

Best regards, Lena (please be assured that my bad English is not meant
disrespectful at all, English is obviously not my own language)

"lenalena" > wrote in message =
...

> Hello all,

Hello [(lena)^2]

I do not think that dosas are done at r.f.s. Why don't you try =
sourdough
bread?

Get some starter at www.carlsfriends.org -- yes they will send it to =
where
you are even if your stamps|money are the wrong color. Follow some of =
the
recipes at that site, and you will probably succeed easily.

After that, you might try motivating your dosas with that starter. Also =
you
could try adding lentils and rice to sourdough, and see what you get.
Forget the maple syrup, though, and start with cooked lentils|rice

> The first time, everything went well, The batter at least doubled =
overnight.=20
> That never happened again.

Well, the kitchen faeries do not always turn up on schedule. Nor the
leavening microorganisms.=20

> (please be assured that my bad English is not meant disrespectful at =
all,=20
> English is obviously not my own language)

(Looks good to me. You spell well. You use caps and punctuation=20
appropriately, except for your redundant uncapitalized ID. You are =
already=20
among the elite at r.f.s.)=20

--=20
Dick Adams
<firstname> dot <lastname> at bigfoot dot com
___________________
Sourdough FAQ guide at=20
http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughfaqs.html

P.S. If you were in India, you could buy dirty lentils, having a better =

constituency of microflora. Rye berries and other whole grains can be
quite dirty in places where vegetarians and whole-food shoppers go to
buy stuff.

On 4/17/05 11:04 AM, "Dick Adams" > wrote:

> If you were in India, you could buy dirty lentils, having a better
> constituency of microflora. Rye berries and other whole grains can be
> quite dirty in places where vegetarians and whole-food shoppers go to
> buy stuff.

Dick,

My whole grains are not dirty. They have "feral microbes".

Will

> soak the dahl and the rice for at least twelve hours, then mix it
>together with maple syrup and salt, and let it ferment for at least
>twelve more hours

You make dosai with whole grains? Then you are adding maple syrup? Then
you load that with enough salt?
May I ask .... Are you making a rice lentil pickle<g>?
With Maple syrup.....I was surprised
I thought dosa is the indigenous product of India and not Canada?


IIRC the organism responsible for that is related to what inhabit in
the culture of another Indian delicacy called idli which are the
lactobacteria: .Leuconostoc mesenteroides the wild yeasts
,trichospuron pullulans and candida species which IMO usually do not
thrive in a maple syrup enriched environment.
Perhaps the microbes cannot understand French and was used to hearing
the HIndi language<g>?

>From what I remember(I had watched an Indian chef a few times in the
past) about dosai making and did have the opportunity to try it once
under his guidance). But that was long ago.
>From what I still can remember,
The grains are soaked separately for several hours and then ground
fine. Then a ratio of 3:1 of ground rice and lentil is combined (
from my estimate based on the total amount of ground grains (about 1%
of salt by weight,) then enough water are added to form a thick batter.
The mixture was allowed to stand overnight in his tepid kitchen
(around 30-32 degree C) .Then if the mixture is still thick I just add
enough water to be suitable for spreading on the hot plate and cooked.
I suggest in your recipe that you reduce your salt to a third and grind
your grains before letting in stand for fermentation
, If you still insist that your microbes are Canadian immigrants you
can optionally add a wee bit of maple syrup<g>....But if they are
indians by heart.....
I think ....The critters may prefer to have their substrate tainted
with jaggery?
Roy

lenalena wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I searched googlegroups, and found some discussion on dosa's and other
> flatbreads in this newsgroup, so I hope it is okay to ask my question here.
>
> I have tried to make dosa's about ten times now. The first time,
> everything went well, The batter at least doubled overnight. That never
> happened again I have no idea what I changed, so I figured it must be
> a temperature thing, but I obviously have no clue.
>
> My recipe comes from Peter Berley's 'The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen'. It
> is very simple, and similar to other recipes I found online:
> - 1/2 cup Urad Dahl
> - 1 1/2 cup rice (I tried basmati and later parboiled)
> - 1 tablespoon maple syrup
> - 1 tablespoon sea salt
>
> I soak the dahl and the rice for at least twelve hours, then mix it
> together with maple syrup and salt, and let it ferment for at least
> twelve more hours. It does not ferment at all. No bubbles, no increasing
> in size. Most of the time nothing happens, the batter just stays the
> same. I can still make "dosa's", and they actually do not taste bad. The
> last time the top of the batter was hard, it looked spoiled.
>
> I read some instructions on line, so I tried:
> - not overwashing the dahl
> - adding some fenugreek seeds
> - not covering the bowl
>
> I would really appreciate some help. It is so frustrating to carefully
> prepare everything, and then check and check, and not seeing anything
> happen. If you think it is a temperature issue, I would appreciate
> suggestions on making a place with a constant warm enough temperature.
> Berley suggests an oven, but my electrical oven is not suitable for this.
>
> Best regards, Lena (please be assured that my bad English is not meant
> disrespectful at all, English is obviously not my own language)


The dhal to rice ratio seems to be OK. I soak them separately and start
by grinding the dhal first. The dhal needs to be ground until it is very
smooth and starts to get airy like creamed butter. Then grind the rice
fine again and gently mix in with the dhal batter. You may add a small
amount of salt to taste, but please leave out the sweetener, the batter
does not need it. Leave in a warm place, I leave it near the heat
register undisturbed and the batter doubles in volume in about 8-12
hours in Portland. Other ways to get the batter to rise, is to place in
an oven that is warmed a little and then turned off and/or mix the
batter by hand not with a spoon, but my foolproof way to get the batter
to rise is to add a tiny bit of sourdough starter to the batter. I miss
not being able to leave the batter on the counter and having it ready in
about 4-8 hours (like in India) without going through all these
convolutions of getting it to raise.

- Kamala.

There's a class about South Indian Breads here which might be helpful:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?...=31133&hl=dosa

--Rebecca

Hello,

Thanks for your responses to my questions about failing dosa's. I really
appreciate your help, and I am sorry for not responding earlier. I had a
sick kid, but I know that sounds like a lame excuse.

Your suggestions were most helpful. I will try to better grind the dhal
I did it with a hand blender, and will now try the food processor. I
will reduce salt and skip the maple syrup, and I will put the batter in
a turned-off oven to ferment. The egullet link is very detailed,
sometimes a picture really is worth a lot of words. I will let you know
if and when I have success.

I actually want to make sourdough bread, and thought of starting that
when I manage the dosa's. I already bought a starter, but am a bit
hesitant to try it because I cannot even get the dosa batter to ferment,
whereas my recipe made it sound like a piece of cake. I now realise that
the sourdough starter may even be easier than the dosa's, I hope so. I
am a computer programmer, it is really hard for me to constantly follow
the recipe to the letter, and still do not get the desired result

Best regards, Lena.

"lenalena" wrote :

> ... it is really hard for me to constantly follow the recipe to the =
letter ...

The recipe bears a pragmatic, imprecise, and often quite hazy and
nebulous, relationship to that which it purports to represent.

In short, the recipe is not the loaf.

(Or slab, or lump, or bowlfull, or what have you?)

At best, the recipe begets a plan which is largely based on prior
knowledge and experience.

--=20
Dick Adams
(Sourdough semanticist)
<firstname> dot <lastname> at bigfoot dot com
___________________
Sourdough FAQ guide at=20
http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughfaqs.html