Dear Mamta,

1. In your recipe you mention that the dhal must be soaked and blended separately from the rice. Why is this? I;ve seen other dosa recipes and none of them mention soaking separately.

2. the recipe says to add salt before fermentation, however, other recipes say don't add salt until it has fermented as it will slow down or even stop fermentation process.

3. In all my attempts to make dosa, I have found it impossible to spread the dosa on pan with the ladle - it simply comes off on the ladle!

i've tried increasing and decreasing the oil on the pan

i've tried making pan hotter and cooler

i've tried making batter thinner and thicker

BUT NONE OF IT WORKS! it's so frustrating and i'm puzzled what's going wrong.

please help.

thanks.

Liza

Hello Liza

Making dosa takes a while to learn, just like pancakes. I remember every problem you are mentioning from my early dosa making days ;-)!

Dal is ground separately first because it takes is a little bit coarser than rice. I note that I have not made that clear in my recipe, I have amended it now. In fact, I have amended the whole recipe, to make things a bit clearer. You can grind rice and dal together, but I have always done it this way. I have rarely seen a recipe where they are ground together.

I have always added salt before fermenting. I am told that it helps with the fermentation. Try without salt by all means. There are so many differences in dosa recipes from family to family and they all work for them. So try different ways.

Read the amended recipe and get back to me if you still have problems.

By the way, I have asked a good friend of mine in Madras (Chinnai now) to get me her mother?s recipe. I am sure it will be better than mine. She has been making dosas everyday for longer than I have been cooking!

Best wishes

Mamta

thanks mamta, i will try out your tips. but would also be very interested to see your friend's recipe. thanks.