Kulith- Urad Dal- Tandul Polo (Horse Gram- Black Gram Dal- Rice Dosa.

“Kulith- Urad Dal- Tandul Polo (Horse Gram- Black Gram Dal- Rice Dosa” served with kajoor ravo (dates syrup) and mixed vegetable pickle (nonche) … a traditional healthy dosa from GSB Konkani Saraswat Cuisine prepared over generations, tastes awesome served with any chutney, loni (butter), curry, pickle, chutney podi or any curry side dish of your choice … Yummilicious …

** Dosa’s are a delight to relish for breakfast served with coconut chutney, pickle, chutney podi, pickle, dates syrup or my favorite butter. We GSB Konkani Saraswat’s have been eating lentil based dosas, curries etc. for generations and it is only now gaining publicity Thanks to technology, we get everything in finger tips now and there are plenty of recipes in rotation some traditional, some innovations based on them.

** All said and done a dosa can be thick, thin or medium textured, again you can have them soft or crisp textured, it all depends on fermented batter and of course the mix and match of ingredients. A good Dosa in my opinion is that which is able to be spread well on tava and when done can be removed from tava without tearing. There are plenty to try from, so go ahead and enjoy them the way you prefer.

** South Indians have always shown their expertise in preparation of Idly, Dosa and other breakfast dishes. Lentils/ pulses/ legumes have always been a part of our cooking and though our ancestors were unable to explain, they always insisted that we eat any one out of several pulses on daily basis. Over the decades, modern trends of food habits have almost neglected this habit and switched over to fast foods.

** In GSB Konkani community a tradition has been handed down generations, wherein there are marked days in the week for preparation of a particular pulse/ lentil. Like on Fridays was marked for whole black chana, while Tuesdays was whole green moong, again on Saturday’s it was kulith and so on. This practice helped the women to remember do so easily and see to it that they were indeed consumed on frequent basis.

** Horse gram/ Kulith is often considered as a cattle food as it is cooked in bulk and served to the cattle’s in hometowns including down southern parts. However, the true fact is it has lots of healthy properties that are good for human beings too and must be relished by one and all. The only point to keep in mind is it produces excess heat in the body and is best consumed during winter or monsoon time when there is chill in air.

** Again, the solution advised is to always follow it by eating Whole green moong is a coolant and thereby helps in balancing the body heat produced. In GSB Konkani Saraswat Cuisine kulith is used in all forms, be it for dosa, idly, curries or chutney podi. Kulith can be sprouted too and used as upkari/baji, which I have already included in the Blog, so have I added on many curries and saars prepared using the same.

** Well, I can go on, however I do not want to bore you, so I better move on to recipe part as I have written enough of its benefits. If still in doubt, you can always google in for more info. This is a thick textured dosa, soft within and crisp outside and needs to be fermented. However the kulith is ground and added next day as if done together then it will get fermented in excess, so be careful and follow as mentioned.

** Here is my recipe for “Kulith- Urad Dal- Tandul Polo (Horse Gram- Black Gram Dal- Rice Dosa” … a traditional recipe, I learnt from Amma ….

** Ingredients :

Urad Dal/ Split Black gram dal : 1 cup

Raw Rice/ Tandul/ Akki : 3 cups (I used Surthi Kollam)

Horse Gram/ Kulith : ¾ to 1 cup

Methi/ Fenugreek seeds : 1 tsp

Ginger/ Adrak/ Alle' : 1 inch cut into small pieces.

Green Chilly/ Trani Mirsanga/ Hirvi Mirchi : 4-5 cut into small pieces.

Salt/ Namak/ Meeta : to taste.

** Oil+ Ghee in 1:1 portion for removing dosa.

** Wash well and soak urad dal and rice separately in plenty of water for 5-6 hours. Just before grinding drain water, rinse well with fresh water, drain off water completely and keep them ready aside separately and then go ahead with grinding process.

** Soaking of Methi : Soak methi seeds in ¼ cup of water in a small cup for an hour or so, just before you start grinding the batter. This is to be used while grinding the dosa batter. I do not add methi along with dal’s coz. When we drain water, the health and medicinal properties of methi seeds are also lost through it. You can use lukewarm water if you have only 10-15 mins time at hand only. It will give similar result.

** Add soaked and drained urad dal into a wet grinder or mixer grinder and grind to a smooth fluffy paste adding water as required only. The batter should be thick in texture, remove and add it into a large vessel enough for fermenting.

** Now add the drained rice along with methi seeds and the water it is soaked in into the same grinder and grind to a smooth paste adding water as required only. Lastly add ginger and green chillies and further grind until it is crushed well.

** Remove and add the ground paste to urad dal batter in vessel, along with salt to taste and mix well with hands to get an even batter. Cover and keep it in a warm place to ferment for 8-12 hours or overnight depending on the weather.

** Pick the kulith/ horse gram to remove any small stones etc. if any, wash well and soak in plenty of water overnight or for 8 hours. Then drain the soaked water and rinse well with fresh water, drain excess water completely using a colander.

** Now add the kulith into a mixer grinder and grind to a smooth fluffy batter WITHOUT adding water, mixing in between to help even grinder. Remove and add this to the overnight fermented batter and mix well, check and add water only if necessary.

** Note : I soak the kulith overnight as I believe that pulses should be well soaked for proper digestion. But some people soaked it early in the morning only for 2 hours and grind to batter and then there are some who just wash and grind it too. You can even sprout kulith and use in grinding as a batter too. In any case do not grind it along with urad or rice and allow to ferment as it may over ferment the batter giving odd odour. In case you do not have time to grind it the next day then you can soak it for a few hours, grind it and store it separately in fridge and mix it with the fermented batter next day too.

** The preparation of the batter is done and complete now, so you can go ahead with the preparation of making dosa/ polo.

** Heat an iron or non stick/Teflon coated dosa tawa to smoking point (I prefer Iron tava). Lightly brush in the oil+ ghee mixture and evenly rub it over the tava with a tissue paper so that the tava is evenly and slightly greased only.

** Now decrease the heat level to minimum and with a help of rounded spatula/ tumbler add in about half a cup of prepared batter in the center of the tava and spread evenly into a thick round shaped dosa/ polo of about 6-8 inches only.

** Do not apply the dosa too thin or large shaped, keep it thicker in texture than that of masala dosa and smaller in size too. Increase the heat to medium and let cook. Sprinkle a few drops of ghee+ oil mixture on the rim of the dosa and on top too.

** Once the bottom side of dosa is cooked, loosen it with the flat dosa spatula and flip to over to cook on the top side too. When cooked and done raise the heat to cook it slightly crisp just for a minute or so, remove, flip it and place on serving plate.

** Repeat the procedure as mentioned above for preparing of each dosas to remove the required number of dosas. You can store the remaining batter immediately in a air tight container in fridge, remains good for 48 hours.

** “Kulith- Urad Dal- Tandul Polo (Horse Gram- Black Gram Dal- Rice Dosa” is done and ready to be served. Always serve polo/ dosas hot from tava for best in taste along with any side dishes like any type coconut chutney/ podi or loni/butter, pickle, godda ravo (jaggery syrup) etc. I served these dosas with khajoor ravo (dates syrup) and mix vegetable pickle (nonche) for breakfast and it tasted awesome.

** Note : Keep the excess/ leftover batter immediately in an airtight container in the fridge for later use if you do not want to consume it all. It remains good for 24- 48 hours depending upon the fermentation time used. Do not keep it at room temperature as it begins to ferment too much and is then not at all edible to be consumed.

** Note : The proportion of urad- rice- kulith varies with the method of grinding followed. I use table top wet grinder for all my dosa grinding requirements. If you are using mixer grinder then I suggest you use chilled water while grinding for best results and it avoids heating while grinding which leads to thinning of the batter. Again, wet grinder yields larger portion of urad while mixie does not, hence you may have to add a bit less of rice, say 2 to 2-1/2 cups of rice only for perfect textured dosas/ polo.

** Important Note : Horse Gram/ Kulith should always be carefully picked for small stones or inedible things in the grains how much ever the store keeper says it is clean, take my word it is not. So, never soak them on directly or add them with other pulses without checking through the same properly as there are bound to be some small stones in them and they will be unpleasant/ dangerous to eat if done so.

** Note : You can remove the dosa/ polo using either oil or ghee as per your desire or as you always do in your home. My Amma always used to prepare and keep ghee+ oil in the ratio of 1:1 in a bowl exclusively to be used in preparation of dosas only. I have no idea why she did it, but I can vouch that the dosa done so turn out good and tasty and I have simply followed that method for decades now without questioning. You may choose any method you like, however do give this method a try and judge for yourself.