Indian Dosas – Daring Cooks

Dosa Pancakes

Serves 4.

• 1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
• ½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
• ½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
• ½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
• ½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc. – I used coconut milk, as you need coconut milk for the curry sauce as well)
• ¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
• cooking spray, if needed

Method

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3. Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

Notes

1. Making the pancakes was easy, but getting very thin pancakes was much more difficult. I used more than 2 tablespoons of pancake mixture, usually around three.
2. Add the mixture to the pan while it is off the heat, try and let it cool as much as you can between pancakes, as to get thinner pancakes you need to be able to swirl it round the pan. If the pan is too hot it can cook faster than you can swirl it.

Curried Garbanzo Filling

• 5 cloves garlic – I didn’t use anywhere near this amount of garlic as I was starting to run out).
• 1 onion, peeled and finely diced
• 1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
• 1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
• 2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
• 2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
• 1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
• 1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
• 1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
• 4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
• ½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste

Method

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2. Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

Notes

1. This mixture gets really dry really fast, and sticks to the bottom of your pan (especially once the chickpeas have gone in) I added around 1/2 a cup of water to the pan, to try and keep it from sticking. Even on the lowest setting my hob can do – it was still too hot.
2. I used drained chickpeas, and even after steeping them overnight and cooking for 30 minutes they were still a bit tough to mash. Maybe they needed more soaking? Although this didn’t cause much of a problem in the overall dish

Coconut Curry Sauce

• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
• ¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
• 3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
• 3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
• 3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
• 2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
• 3 large tomatoes, diced

Method

1. Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2. Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3. Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4. Let it simmer for half an hour.

Notes

1. I decided to make the Dosas fairly last minute so I didn’t have all the ingredients, so I skipped adding the onion and tomatoes in the sauce. This created something like a very smooth sauce you would get in a bottle, it reminded me very much of the curry sauce you get in fish & chip shops at 3am on a Saturday morning. But in a really good way. This sauce was amazing, and simple too. I left mine simmering for almost 45 minutes while I got the pancakes and everything else ready.
2. I used the leftovers of the sauce in a spinach curry, which The Other Half said was something he “would pay for in a restaurant”. Praise indeed.

Finished Indian Dosas

1. Add a spoonful of the Curried Garbanzo Filling to each pancake and roll up, placing them seam side down on the plate.
2. Top with the coconut curry sauce. You can serve with rice, I didn’t because we only needed a light dinner after a big lunch.