The husband has been asking me to reduce the carbs in our daily diet since he has to lose only a few more kilos to reach his ideal weight. It is tough to take him seriously because he makes these requests while munching on a bag of chips or biting into a milk chocolate. But I also needed to finish my packet of millets and so I agreed to go along with his request. I have been making millet dosas and idlis for quite a while now but I have not been able to simultaneously please both the husband and daughter. If he likes it, she wouldn’t and vice versa. Finally I cracked the perfect balance between taste and there being reasonable amount of millets in the batter to make some difference. Of course, the battle will be on to somehow try and add more millets in but that is a fight for another day.

I have tried this recipe with all the millets but all three of us agree that little finger millet or sama arisi is the best of the lot while thinai or foxtail millet is our least favourite. But thinai makes for a delicious pongal and so we end up eating enough of that too. I use the same batter for both idli and dosa. While grinding the batter, I add water to make a thick batter which is suitable for idlis. When I need to make dosas, I take some batter in a separate vessel and add some more water to make dosas. I use only the wet grinder to make this batter because I don’t get satisfactory results in my mixer. But my mother swears by her mixer for the idli batter and so you can try and see how you like it.

Makes around 25 idlis or 30 dosas

WHAT WE NEED

Little finger millet 1 1/2 cups

Idli rice 1 1/2 cups

Raw rice 1 cup

Split skinless black gram / urad dal 1 cup

Fenugreek seeds 1/2 tsp

Salt

Water

Oil, to make dosas

WHAT TO DO

• Soak the millets, idli rice, raw rice and split skinless black gram in adequate water in separate vessels for 6 hours or overnight
• In a grinder, add the split skinless black gram and grind till it is smooth
• Take a small portion of it and drop it in a bowl of water. If it floats then it has been properly ground
• Transfer it to a large vessel and set aside
• Add the millets, idli rice and raw rice to the grinder
• Add the salt and fenugreek seeds and grind to a near smooth paste
• Just add 1-2 tsp of salt. This salt ensures that the batter ferments well. You can adjust the salt for taste before making the dosas / idlis
• Transfer the millet rice mixture to the ground urad dal and combine the two with your hand
• The vessel needs to be large enough that the batter fills only half of it
• Cover and set aside for 8 hours or till the batter ferments and expands to fill the entire vessel
• The batter is ready for use. If you are not using it immediately then refrigerate it until you need it

To make dosas

• Add sufficient water to the batter to make it like regular dosa batter
• Heat a tava
• Once it is hot, pour a ladle full of batter on it and spread it in circular motions to make a round dosa
• Dot the edges of the dosa with some oil
• Once it starts browning at the edges, use a steel spatula and release the dosa from the tava
• Turn it over to ensure the other side of the dosa is cooked
• Take it off the gas after 30 seconds
• Repeat the process till you get as many dosas as needed
• Serve hot with coconut chutney, sambhar or gunpowder
• Enjoy!

This is my post for the Blogging Marathon under the theme, ‘Crepes all the way’.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM