Instant Multi Grain Dosai ~ Savory Indian Crepes

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When it comes to dosa nothing beats the instant variety. And if the instant variety can be made with a combination of healthy flours, even better :)  Once in a while I make some form of instant dosa, sometimes with wheat flour as the star ingredient, sometimes oat flour and sometimes with different variety of flours like this version of multigrain dosa I posted earlier. 

Here is another version of multigrain dosa that I have begun to make fairly frequently. This version has a nice variety of healthy ingredients like wheat/atta, finger millet/ ragi, oat, sorghum / jowar and buckwheat/kuttu,  yet the best part is that it does not taste like it has so much healthy stuff in it. This is definitely an effortless way to make something healthy and tasty :)   It works very well for a weekend breakfast, as a snack or even a  light dinner.

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Ingredients and Method to make multigrain dosai

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (atta/ godumai maavu)

1/4 cup oat flour (see notes)

1/4 cup finger millet flour (nachani/ragi)

1/4 cup chick pea flour (besan/ kadalai maavu)

1/4 cup rice flour ( chawal ka atta/ arisi maavu)

1/4 cup sorghum flour (Jowar ka atta)

1/4 cup buckwheat flour (kuttu ka atta)

salt to taste

1 Tbsp oil

3/4 tsp cumin seeds ( jeera)

3 Thai or Indian variety green chilies cut fine (or to taste) (hara mirch)

1 to 2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro (coriander leaves/hara dhania/ kothamalli )

Approx 2 & 1/2 -  2 & 3/4 cups of water or as needed

A little sesame oil to shallow fry the dosa

In a large bowl add all the flours one by one and mix well. Add water a little at a time and mix to get a batter of pouring consistency. Not too thin and runny and not too thick either, if in doubt err on the side of thicker batter, you can always add more water if needed later. Add salt to taste and mix well.

In a small pan heat oil, add cumin seeds, when the cumin seeds sizzle and green chilies and stir once or twice. Pour entire seasoning on the prepared batter and mix well. Add finely chopped cilantro to the batter and mix well.

When you are ready to make the dosa, heat heavy iron tawa/ griddle / flat pan/ non stick pan. Pour a little batter in the center and quickly spread into a thin circle, add a few drops of oil around the circumference of the dosai.When the lower side is golden brown, flip over and cook the other side until it gets golden brown spots.

Remove from heat and serve hot with chutney of choice, sambar or molaga podi (spice powder ) 

Store balance of the batter in the refrigerator and use within 2 to 3 days for best freshness.  Yield will depend on the size and thickness of each dosa.

Notes:
For oat flour I powdered quick oats in my mixer until fine. If you have store bought oat flour you can use that too in this recipe.

If you are looking instant dosai varieties, here are a few more

Buckwheat dosai ~ Kuttu atta dosa

Finger millet Oats Dosai ~Ragi dosa

Oats Dosai ~ Atta rava oat dosa

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Instant Multigrain dosai (Savory Indian crepes)

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Pearl Millet which is known as bajra/ kambu in Hindi/ Tamil has numerous health benefits. Pearl Millet is a good source of protein, fiber and has many essential minerals like magnesium, phosphorous and zinc.   Studies show that magnesium is not only important for good heart health but has also proven beneficial in reducing the severity of asthma attacks, reducing blood pressure and in reducing frequency of migraine attacks.

Pearl millet is also recommended for stomach ulcer as it has alkaline properties and ulcers are often caused by excess acidity. So consuming pearl millet is supposed to help in reducing the effect of ulcers and in preventing the formation of ulcers. All kinds of  millets including pearl millet are said to help in reducing the risk of cancer. Amazing isn't it that this grain has such amazing benefits. For a while now I have been wanting to include some form of pearl millet into our regular diet.



I decided to start with pearl millet flour with the intention of trying it out in something like thalipeeth (a flat bread from Maharashtra, a region in western India)  But before I got around to doing that I decided to use it in dosai. Dosai (Savory Indian crepe), as regular readers of this space might have already guessed is my favorite kind of food :) And I never seem to get tired of trying out different kinds of dosai, especially the instant kind that comes in so handy for weekend morning breakfasts :) This one has all the goodness of oats, finger millet (nachni/ ragi) , buckwheat and pearl millet (bajra) and the best part, you can never tell from the taste that everything in it is so super healthy. It turns out thin and with crisp edges and softness in the center. Just perfect :) Pair it with your favorite chutney/ sambar or potato masala curry and enjoy :)

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Instant multigrain dosai
1/2 cup buckwheat flour (kuttu ka atta)
1/2 cup oat flour (see notes)
1/4 cup rice flour (chawal ka atta/ arisi maavu)
1/4 cup millet flour (bajra/ kambu )
1/4 cup finger millet flour (nachni/ ragi)

salt to taste
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (optional)
1/2 tsp red chili powder (or to taste) (can be substituted with cayenne powder)
pinch of asafoetida (hing/ perungayam) (optional)
3 tbsp finely chopped cilantro (coriander leaves/ kothamalli) (optional but recommended)
a little sesame oil to shallow fry the dosai/ crepes

In a large bowl add all the flours and mix well. Add all the spices except cilantro and mix well again.

Add water to make a batter of pouring consistency. When adding water, add a little at a time and err on the side of a thicker batter, if needed water can be added later to adjust consistency. Finally add cilantro and mix well.
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Allow this batter to "rest" for an hour or two.  This step is important because as soon as the batter is ready if you try to make dosai with it, it tends to roll a little and comes out thicker and chewier, but after an hour or two, the dosai comes out thin and crispy.

Heat a flat pan/ griddle/ tawa on medium to medium high heat. Mix batter thoroughly again, as some settling can occur for this batter. When hot,  pour a ladle of batter in the center and quickly spread into a circle. Spread very thin for a crispier dosai and a little thicker if you want a soft dosai. Add a few drops of oil around the circumference of the dosai.  When the lower side is golden brown,  flip over and cook the other side until it has small brown spots.

Remove from  heat and serve hot with chutney of choice/ sambar of choice or this potato masala curry

The balance of the batter can be stored in the refrigerator and used up in two to three days. If you plan to make this for breakfast and do not want to wait for the batter to "rest" in the morning, you can make the batter  a day ahead and stick it in the refrigerator too :)

Notes:
If you do not have oat flour, you can just powder quick cooking oats/ 1 min oats in the spice grinder/ mixer/ blender until you have fine powder and use it in this recipe

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Instant Ragi Oat Dosai ~ Nachani dosa ~ Savory Indian Millet and oat crepes

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Ragi or Finger millet has some amazing health benefits, some of which I have already mentioned in this post.
One of my favorite ways to try and incorporate this cereal grain in our diet is by using it in dosais( savory crepes) and idlis (steamed cakes). As I have already mentioned my preference for dosai over idli in the past, I will not go into that again :-)

I often make variations of dosai for weekend breakfasts or light dinners. This variation of ragi dosai, in addition to being healthy and tasty has one more thing in its favor, quick preparation. The batter for this dosai can be ready in under fifteen minutes and then it just needs to be shallow fried, making this an ideal breakfast item in my book. If you are looking for ways to include both oatmeal and ragi in your diet, this dosai may be what you are looking for.....

On an unrelated note, in the recent past, I have been on a mission to update pictures in some of my older posts.  The latest post that managed to snag my attention and get an updated picture is this sweet potato roti. Have a peek at it if you have a minute :-)




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Ingredients and Method for Oat Ragi Dosai
1 1/2 quick oats powdered fine
3/4 cup medium semolina (rava)
3/4 cup rice flour (chawal ka atta/ arisi maavu)
1/2 cup finger millet flour (nachani/ ragi flour)
salt to taste


Seasoning
2 tsp coconut oil (or any other flavorless oil, see notes)
4 Thai or Indian variety green chilies cut fine (or to taste)
3/4 tsp cumin seeds (jeera/jeeragam)
3/4 tsp mustard seeds (rai/kadagu)
1/8 tsp asafoetida powder (hing)

a few drops of sesame oil to shallow fry the dosai.

Dry roast the quick 1 minute oats for a minute or two. Cool to room temperature and powder fine using a spice grinder / blender.

In a large bowl, mix together oat flour, rice flour, semolina , ragi flour and salt to taste. Add water one cup at a time and mix well, making sure no lumps are formed. The batter needs to be a little thick not too runny. If in doubt err on the side of getting a thicker batter, it can be corrected more easily later by adding a little more water.

Heat oil in a small pan. Add mustard seeds, when it begins to splutter, add cumin seeds. When it begins to sizzle, add green chilies and asafoetida powder. Stir a few times and pour the entire seasoning on the batter and mix well.

Heat a griddle/ flat pan/ tawa , when it is hot, pour a ladle of batter in the center and quickly spread into a thin even circle. Pour a few drops of sesame oil around the outer circle of the dosai and a couple of drops in the center.
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When the lower side is golden brown, flip over and cook the other side until it gets brown spots on it. Remove and serve hot along with chutney of choice/ sambar/ flax molaga podi (spice powder)/ Traditional molaga podi 

Proceed with the balance of the batter in the same manner. Balance of batter can be refrigerated for upto a week and used as needed.

Notes:
I used coconut oil in seasoning and found it added a light hint of coconut flavor that I enjoyed in this dosai. It can be substituted with any other oil if you do not want or like the slight hint of coconut in your dosai. 

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Quinoa Ragi Dosai (Quinoa with finger millet Savory Crepes) and a riddle

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Before moving on to today's post, here is a simple riddle I came across, that I thought might interest you.....
What English word retains the same pronunciation even after you take away four of its five letters?

I am looking forward to seeing your guesses in the comments below.And I will publish the correct answer in my next post....

Moving on, after trying this quinoa dosai, this quinoa adai and this quinoa and flax uthappam, I thought it would be interesting to see how quinoa paired with ragi (finger millet). To know more about the health benefits of quinoa check this post. On a whim I started on this dosai and found that ragi and quinoa really paired well together. This dosai had a very soft texture and with all the healthy grains, it makes a great breakfast, or snack or even a light dinner.

Update: I am moderating comments on this post and will publish the ones with the right answers when I post the answer to the riddle in my next post.



Here is another view of this dosai.....

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Quinoa Ragi Dosai
3/4 cup quinoa
3/4 cup brown basmati (or any other brown rice)
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup white basmati rice (or any other short grained white rice)
1 cup cooked brown basmati rice (or any other cooked rice)
1/4 cup ragi flour (Finger millet flour)
salt to taste
a few drops of sesame oil to shallow fry the dosai


In a large container, soak the first four ingredients in sufficient water for at least 3 hours.

Grind the soaked grains in a blender/mixer in batches, along with cooked rice and ragi flour into a smooth and thick blender.

Place batter in a large container at least double the size of the quantity , add salt to taste and mix well.

Allow the batter to ferment for five to eight hours. Remove, mix again, add water if required to get pouring consistency. Err on the side of a thicker batter, because that can be corrected easily, if your batter is very thin making it thicker is a little more tricky. You can either use this batter immediately or you can store in the refrigerator for a few days and use when required.


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Heat a large heavy flat non stick pan/ griddle/ tawa. If you are using an iron tawa prepare the tawa by pouring a few drops of oil and smearing it on the tawa evenly. Pour a little batter in the center and quickly spread it into a thin circle. Pour a few drops of sesame oil around the spread batter and on the side facing upwards.

Allow it to cook until the lower side is slightly brown, flip over and cook the other side, until the other side gets a few brown spots.

Remove from heat and serve with either this or this spice powder / chutney of choice/ or sambar

Yield will vary and will depend on the quantity of batter used in making each dosai

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Instant Ragi Oat Idli

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Since the first time I made this  Instant Oats Idli (steamed cakes)  I have been making it regularly at home, so much so, that  the word instant idli  almost became synonymous with oats idli in my home.Almost but not quite:-)

Anyway for a while now I have been wanting to try making idli with cracked wheat and ragi. I wanted to make it as low carb and healthy as possible, not only for our sake but also because a few of my friends have been requesting something that is very low carb and diabetic friendly.

Ragi or Finger millet is said to be very healthy, you can read about its health properties here and here. In the past I have used it to make this dosai/ crepe  and some other varieties of dosai I have yet to post. For the first time I tried it in idli and loved this soft, simple and quick to make idli very much. I know that  this is going to provide serious competition to the oats idli I mentioned earlier, in my home :-)





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Ingredients and Method to make Ragi Oat Idli
3/4 cup cracked wheat powdered to rava consistency or wheat rava (broken wheat / dalia / fada)
3/4 cup quick oats powdered coarsely
1/2 cup ragi flour (finger millet flour/ nachani/ keppai)
1 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp baking soda

seasoning
2 tsp oil
1 tsp split chick pea lentil (Chana dhal/ Kadalai parappu)
1 tsp split black gram lentil (Udad dhal/ ulatham parappu)
1 tsp mustard seeds (rai/ sarson/ kadagu)
4 Indian or Thai variety green chillies cut fine (or to taste) (hara mirch/ pachai molagai)
4 tsp broken cashew nuts
1 tsp dried curry leaves (or 1 stalk fresh curry leaves cut fine) (optional) (kadi patta/ karapillai)

Just before steaming add
In 1: 1 ratio plain yogurt (curd/ dahi) (Total 2 cups for this quantity)
for this entire quantity about 5 tbsp of freshly grated coconut ( or to taste) (see notes)
handful cilantro cut fine

Powder cracked wheat to semolina (rava ) consistency and keep aside.

Similarly powder quick oats coarsely and keep aside.

In a large container or bowl, mix together powdered cracked wheat, powdered oats and fingermillet (Ragi) flour. Add salt and baking soda to this and mix well.

In a small pan, heat oil, add chana dhal, stir for a few seconds then add usad dhal and stir for a few seconds. When the udad dhal is begining to turn reddish add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds splutter add green chillies, when green chillies start to turn color add cashews and stir till cashews begin to redden. Then quickly add curry leaves stir a couple of times and pour the entire oil + lentils+ cashew mixture on the dry powder and mix well.

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At this point the mixture can be stored in an airtight container for a week or so if required and only what is needed can be removed and used.This yields 2 cups of dry mixture

If you are planning to use entire mixture at once then, just before steaming add yogurt to the dry mixture and mix well.

Then add coconut and cilantro and immediately pour the batter on pre-greased idli plates ( I do not grease my idli plates and it still works fine for me), place idli plates in pressure cooker  and steam without the weight for about 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool for a minute or so and then remove idli from mould and serve hot with chutney or sambar of choice

Total yield approximately 16 (Yield will depend on the size of the idli moulds, mine are medium size so larger moulds will yield less and smaller moulds more )

Notes
The grated coconut adds a very nice flavor to this idli so skipping that may change the taste of the idli quite a bit.

This idli along with my Ragi dosai is off to the JFI- Ragi event being hosted by Madhuram

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Instant Ragi Oat Dosai ( Finger millet and Oat crepe)

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Ragi or Finger millet is a very nutritive grain. Millet is said to be non acid forming food, so it is easier to digest and soothing.Millet is also a good source of fiber and protein. This is probably why ragi flour is used in making a kind of a porridge called kanji in south Indian households which is very healthy and filling. You can find more information on ragi/ finger millet here 

I have always known that ragi is healthy, but never really tried to include this important grain in my diet very much. The only times I remember having ragi is when I have had the aforementioned porridge/ kanji when I was younger and had my mother give this to me saying it is good for me:-) Now that I am trying so many different grains in my diet like oats and quinoa,  I decided to try this grain too and see if I could form a grown up perspective on it. 

After keeping the flour in my pantry for a good two weeks I finally came up with the plan to try and make instant dosai/ crepe with this along with one of my favorite grains, oats.So I proceeded with making up the recipe as I went and cautiously added the ragi flour constantly worried that this one was going to flop and mentally reviewing my other options if this did fail.Luckily the dosai was a hit at home and the ragi flour did not lend a very overwhelming flavor here, making this an ideal way to sneak in this healthy grain for picky eaters.

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Ingredients and Method to make Instant Ragi Oat Dosai (Crepe)

1 1/2 cups of oat flour (see notes)

1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)

1 cup ragi ( finger millet) flour

3 cups of water

salt to taste

handful of cilantro cut fine

for tempering

5 small Indian/thai variety of green chillies (cut very fine)

1 tsp oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing)

a little extra sesame oil or other oil to sprinkle on dosai

Mix together the dry flours in a large bowl.Add water slowly, about half cup at a time and keep mixing it  to make batter.

Heat oil in a pan add cumin seeds and green chillies to it. When the cumin seeds start spluttering add asafoetida to it and give it a quick mix and add this oil+cumin seeds+ chillies mixture to the batter.

Add salt to taste and mix well. Add cut cilantro to the batter and mix well.

Heat a griddle/ flat pan and pour a ladleful of the batter in the center and spread into a thin circle evenly.

Sprinkle a few drops of oil around the batter. Let it cook for a few minutes on medium heat and when the lower side starts browning flip the dosai/ crepe and cook the other side.

When the pinkish/ brownish spots appear on the other side remove from heat.

Serve hot with chutney of choice or molaga podi/ spice powder  or even just plain ketchup.

Notes

The tempering in this dosai is very important as it imparts the main flavor to the dosai, so if you skip the tempering it will change the flavor of the dosai considerably

For the oat flour I processed quick 1 min oatmeal (Quaker brand) in the blender till it turned to fine powder but if you have store bought oat flour that should work too.

If you are looking for instant dosa varieties, here are a few more....
 

Instant Multigrain Dosa ~ Savory multigrain crepes

Instant Ragi Oats Dosai ~ Nachani dosa ~  Savory Finger millet and oats crepe

Instant Buckwheat dosai ~ Kuttu atta dosa ~ Buckwheat flour crepes

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