The 'Complete Idiot's Guide' to Tosai (dosa) making

First of all, it is tosai, not dosa just like it's Deepavali, not Diwali. 


Ok, so, with my record of 


1) having been fed with homecooked tosai made from scratch by my grandma in my little hometown for at least the first 15 continuous years of my lifetime-yes, i practically never ate at a shop till i was 15, 


2) getting culture shocked in being introduced to the often over-fermented, cardboard like mamak tosais in my twenties in KL city 24 hour restaurant, where i moved to further my studies,

3) to that one time i experimented with the instant tosai mixture that landed on every cash and carry shelf some 10 years ago


and finally,

4) hvg tasted the overpriced tosais in northern indian/southern indian/ exclusive restaurants sprouting out in KL city these days;


I think im more than qualified to doing this. Breaking the code for making really awesome, fluffy, how-grandma-done-it, soft tosai!


Now, what most tosai(dosa) recipes probably won't tell you is to please please pleasseee do trouble yourself in sourcing some really good Grade 1 peeled and still whole ulunthu @ black dhall @ urad dhall. 


I normally get the AKS brand locally, the grains are bright and as their ads claim, pearly. Trust your eyesight, Grade One means fresh, no blemishes or dusty/powdery exterior which probably means its getting ready to rot, no way! 


You may want to experiment different varieties of ulunthu for yourself like I did, you will quickly find that good quality ulunthu will ensure a great smelling and tasting and non-sticking on the pan tosai. 
(My grandma though used the only available version those days i.e. the unpeeled and it is tedious work separating the skin from grain after soak and she made super tosai)

Once you have that covered, next source for a grade 3 (if possible broken) rice instead. It will ferment faster and contains less bleachings. Of course some claim basmathi or ponni or that special tosai rice that looks like risotto rice yields you better results, well, go and experiement!  Now that you have both main ingredients together, let's get cracking.


Stick to the age-old ratio of 2 cups rice : 1 cup dhall, for best results in fragrance, taste and fluff.


But if you are one of those who actually prefer the mamak restaurant variety which often ends up like cardboard once cooled for 5 mins, then you need to up your rice ratio by another cup or two and dont give a crap of what ulunthu you hv. This i guess is a way for them to save cost, the mamaks as you know them are not really loyal to their roots and origins, well, thats my gripe with them ever since that Bersih thingy but hey, thats my opinion. BUT i guess for me, real tosai is all about the ulunthu and its nutrients. Remember more ulunthu is more protein more goodness while more rice is more carbo/sugar more lethargy, even if some claim the rice turns into protein through fermentation. 

1) Check the grains for any tiny bits of gravel or dirt what-so-ever. Then rinse both grains a few times till the water is clear before soaking. Whether you choose to soak them together or separately or whatever, trust me, it doesnt really make much difference.

2)Soaking needs just enough water to cover an inch off the surface of grains. Soak preferably for 2-3 hours. You can throw in a tsp of fenugreek if you want but i normally go basic.

 If you asked why they add the fenugreek, one might say it is for preserving it (but you are going to ferment it anyway!) or because 'my mom did it', some say the fenugreek seeds holds onto carbon dioxide hence making tosai fluffier, so just dont break your head over it.

For eg one 80 year old aunty i know adds cumin and turmeric into her mixture, that's fine, its aids digestion and kills germs. But she goes through an extra step of cooking a cup of her tosai mixture till it turns into porridge-like before pouring it back into the main mixture. 'Why?' I asked her. "I dont know", she said, "I just follow what my mother used to do". My two cents guess is probably, to make tosai fluffier or easier to ferment whatever but it goes to say a lot of us just keep repeating things because someone else did it which is such a damper on learning something new. What is wrong in experimenting even age old recipes and tweeking it here and there to suit yourself? Who knows you might learn something they all missed!!!

3)Now, after 2-3 hours when grains are all swelled up nicely like a man with a beer belly, plug on your blender. Its fine even all you have is that RM69 on promotion Pensonic blender you bought off the shelves at Carrefour 2 years ago.

Don't get me going on how people those days used that humangous grinding stone where you have to squat for hours rotating a heavy piece of granite with one hand, over another square piece with the hole in the middle while your other hand swiped back the grains into the whole to mash.. been there seen that done that!


It doesn't really make better tasting tosai, mind you, people say that because they want to hang on to their past in some way or other and think they had it better.
Plus, it is not for working/new world women these days who have to wear the pants and skirt at the same time. We are not sticking to bullock carts because of those days, are we, guys?


While we are that, you know the big hype about the Sumeet grinding machine? Yes, it's a hype. You dont need Sumeet to make tosai mixture, period. Now if you are talking about making vadais, then yes, you need some grinder like Sumeet or similar to get that really thick mixture but nowadays you have plenty of choices. Just go and choose what suits you best.
Ok, now that i hv done some public service by shedding some light on the over-rated Sumeet issue and hopefully made life a bit less complicated for beginners in tosai making, let's get blending.

4) Load up the soaked grains 3/4 way up the blender and top with enough water (use the water used to soak) to cover 3/4 inch off the grains' surface. Now blend for 15 seconds, stop, blend again 15 seconds, then stop then blend 30 seconds then stop and now blend like a minute. You get what i mean, why i stop is to get the grains rolling faster, unless you have a more effecient blending machine, stick to the instruction on your machine.

5)All in all you probably need to add up to like 4-5 mins of blending/grinding and you will get mainly a smooth, creamy texture with a tiny bits of grainy effect (like those facial scrubs off the Body shop shelves), get it?

6) Ok, for the final grinding add in half a cup of leftover rice, if you have any. Otherwise, don't fret over it.


Now dip your hand into the mixture and give it a few nice whirls. It's therapeutic and it's like adding your personal touch in your tosai, let's say. :) And, apparently some hidden bacterias in our skin will kickstart the fermentation process faster. Sounds offputting? But hey, the human body is made up of big globs of bacterias and other microbes! Maybe it is time we looked at bacterias in a different way.

7) Pour mixture into a deep pot with a loose lid, filling up halfway and leave it over your fridge or anyway warm to speed up the fermentation process which may take up to 10-12 hours.

Note : It be ideal to time you soaking and grinding to end by bedtime so that you can go to bed and your mixture will be ready by the time you get up the next day.

8) Once the batter has risen nearly double in height, foamy and lets a slightly fermented smell, it's ready to go. If you find it a bit too foamy and thick, just add half a cup of water so it is at a pouring consistency. Add enough salt.

Let me break the next myth. You don't need that flat black tosai pan (tosai kallu) to make good tosai. Those days they didnt have stickless and so the tosai kallu maker was making big money. Now you have options. As a beginner, you dont want to have to mess with a sticky pan and rubbing onion juice all over it or worse still, end up with tosai that gets stuck to pan that you need a paint scrapper to scrap off the burnt muck risking damage to the pan further. 

9) So save yourself the headache/heartache and go for non-stick/stickless pan, it is foolproof. Wipe some oil with a small clean kitchen towel or like me use the disposable towel all folded up thickly and quickly dipped in a spoon of oil.

10) Get a medium but wide heat going so it heats up the pan evenly all over. Pour a ladle full and spread it around with the back of the ladle. Cover and cook till slightly golden, turn over and cook another 15 seconds.

If you feel like making ghee tosai or onion tosai or egg tosai or masala tosai, just water down the mixture a bit more and sprinkle more oil onto pan and spread a thinner layer and top with whatever ingredients you want. To get it crispier like the mamak version, generously sprinkle more spoonsful of 3rd grade 'for commercial use' oil and take a number at your cardiologist office.

11) As an alternative to the coconut chutney (mind you, some fearful western marketeers are making 'claims' that the coconutl is full of cholestrol and other bad stuff in order to protect their olive oils and butter sales EXCEPT, recently their consumers hv gotten wiser and are grabbing coconut oil off the shelves) try out my version of vegetable chutney instead and you have your daily intake of vegetables half covered! The best way to get small kids and the overgrown big kids to eat their veges is to cook this chutney ive mentioned and pour it into your chicken curry or fish curry or sambar! Not only does your curries ends up really thick and creamy, delicious, the kids will hv no clue!