My Husband's Recipes: Multi grain Dosai/बहुधान्य डोसा

About My Husband

Prologue by my husband Sandeep 'mashoor'

"Basically I love food, not just to eat but love to do everything about food

To think, to read, to view, to listen, to smell, to cook, to serve, to imagine, to explore, to ‘dream’, to understand its historical aspects and different foods of different ethnic groups, to know science of cooking, to search hotels, restaurants offering good food; in short all about food

I was very thin long back. Although I belonged to well to do family in Thane, Mumbai (खाते पिते घर का) but I had not developed my ‘taste’. Later on my passion to learn Urdu took me to Qasim Shaikh who became my close friend. Qasim introduced me not only to Urdu literature but to many Muslim delicacies such as Biryani, Dabba Gosht, Reshami Kabab, Afalatoon and so on. He taught me to enjoy food in perfect combination of food items of complimentry taste. His company made me realize immensejoy even in small things such as eating curd and sugar at Brijwasi, Thane. He truely developed a ‘kahavaiyya’ in me.

Gradullay I travelled from just exploring in kitchen to have complete possession of kitchen. Women get this knowledge passed on by their mother and could easily know many referal tasks in the process. I did not learn from my mother but ofcourse observed her cooking. Observation, trial and error were the methods through which I became a cook. I relied on ‘Annapurna’ by Mangala Barve and eventually cookery shows, columns, blogs on internet, clips on Youtube, short cookery courses done after settling in Pune all contributed in this creative journey.

I enjoy cooking by all senses. My joy doubles if people like my preparation. This joy made me understand that I can ‘express’ through this. One of the forces behind this blog is ‘Preeti’ (wife is formal relationship but a closest friend of mine). Sometimes I used to publish snaps of my recipes on my facebook profile and used to get good response. But once Preeti published it under the title ‘My Husband’s Recipes’ and she got action packed response. Therefore she insisted on starting a blog by same name.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Multi grain Dosai/बहुधान्य डोसा

Generally everybody likes dosai. We have our own versions of dosai such as धिरडे or घावन in Maharashtra. Innovation here is use of different grains and not just Rice and Urad, it adds on nutrition value.

Ingredients: 2 measures (bowl, cup whatever as per the requirement) of rice and 1 measure of Mung, Urad, Lentil (masur) and chana dal each. Wash it properly and soak overnight. Grind it in the morning, texture of batter should be like regular dosai batter. Mix it well adding salt and little bit sugar. We can add half measure of soya, Finger millet and corn flour each. If these flours are not available, rawa can be used. Mix it well and keep the batter for 4-5 hours for fermentation. (म्हणजे पंचधान्य धिरड्याऐवजी अष्टधान्य धिरडे तयार होईल.)

After 4-5 hours it will be ready to make dosai. The batter doesn’t get stick to tawa (Sometimes things get stuck to non stick pan also, but it doesn’t) so can be made without oil or if you prefer you can use butter or cheese. You can serve it with chutney.

आप्पे पात्र असल्यास ह्याचे आप्पेही करू शकता. To make appe, add green masala in the same batter. Grind chili, coriander, ginger, garlic, coconut and 1 small onion together and add it in batter. You can make tasty appe with this.

Curry: half coconut grated, 5-6 bedgi mirachya, coriander, 1 small onion, 4-5 garlic cloves. Make tadka with ghee, cumin seeds, asafoetida and pour on these ingredients. Grind all the contents. Fry chopped onion on coconut oil, add gravy paste. Add necessary water and salt. Cook it well. Curry goes very well with the dosai. One can try it instead of sambar some times for different taste.