“Mushti Polo/ Dosa- 1” … a delicious soft spongy dosa from GSB Konkani Saraswat Cuisine served for breakfast … tastes awesome served with pickle/ coconut chutney or any other side dish of your choice … Yummilicious …
** Mushti polo/ dosa is a very soft spongy textured dosa from GSB Konkani Saraswat Community served for breakfast with coconut chutney. Mushti in Konkani means fist and before you begin to wonder the reference given to the dosa here, I would like to mention that for this dosa a fist full of urad, coconut and beaten rice is used while the rice used is more in quantity. As most of the ingredients used are in measures of fist, I guess our ancestors found it appropriate to name it mushti polo and over the years to the tradition just continues.
** There are many versions of this dosa prepared in each home in their own measures and with different varieties of rice. Again, in some homes they add in cooking soda to bring in the spongy texture while some do not, again some use beaten rice while some use more of coconut or leave it out. Traditionally this dosa is cooked covered and not flipped over at all, but then recently I have seen many do so too. Well, I guess it is individual choice, I do not flip it over, and the final texture of the dosa is always soft and spongy and a delight to relish.
** Here I have used my old recipe with cooking soda, though for the same recipe you can leave out the addition of same and ferment it properly too. Again during monsoon or winter the dosa batter does not ferment well and despite leave it out for more hours it may or may not or may tend to smell differently, during such times a little bit of cooking soda or fruit salt comes in handy, though personally I would prefer to not use it, at times I do and for this one here I have. Do try it out and enjoy with your family and friends, its too good.
** Here is my recipe for “Mushti Polo/ Dosa- 1” which I learned from my Amma …
** Ingredients :
Raw Rice/ Tandul/ Akki : 3 cups
Urad Dal/ Black Gram Split Dal : ½ cup (without skin)
Methi/ Fenugreek Seeds : 1 tsp
Coconut/ Soyi/ Nariyal : 1.5- 2 cups freshly grated
Beaten Rice/ Poha/ Povu/ Avalakki : ½ cup (thin variety)
Cooking Soda/ Sode Pitti/ Fruit Salt : ½ to 1 tsp (Optional)
Salt/ Namak/ Meeta : to taste
** Oil (Tel)+ Toop (Ghee) mixture in 1:1 for removing the dosa.
** Wash properly and soak the raw rice and urad dal together in plenty of water for 4-5 hours. I used surti kolam thick variety of raw rice here you can use any of your choice.
** Note : Always use normal rice that is thicker in texture, these are not over polished and give good results while preparing dosa/ Idly etc. While you can use any brand or variety of rice as there are plenty available, I usually use thick variety surti kollam.
** Soaking of Methi : Soak methi/ fenugreek seeds separately in water is just my method of doing so for dosas. I use it later along with the water while grinding the dosa batter as I believe that if methi is added to dal while soaking, the nutrients and medicinal properties of methi seeds are lost when getting washed again after soaking period.
** Note : Almost everybody I know, even my Mom soaks the methi seeds along with the rice or dals while soaking the same. Therefore, it is not necessary to follow my method of soaking separately. You may do so with other ingredients too, choice is yours.
** Soak poha in just little bit of water, say to the level of poha, just to make it soft enough. Soak it just before you begin to start grinding the soaked ingredients, say for minimum 10-20 minutes. Do not add excess water while soaking, and if there is then squeeze it out as much as possible to avoid batter running thin.
** Once the ingredients have been soaked well, drain the water and once again wash with clean water and drain off the excess water and its ready to be ground. I have used mixer grinder for grinding the batter here, you can use wet grinder too.
** Grind rice, urad dal, coconut and methi along with the water in which it is soaked to a smooth paste adding extra water as is needed only. Do not use excess water as we need to keep the batter thick in texture, so be careful with addition of water.
** Now poha and continue to grind until all the ingredients are ground to a thick smooth batter. Remove it into a large vessel add salt, mix batter well with hand until it has been evenly mixed. Keep the batter aside covered for 8-10 hours or overnight to ferment.
** Note : This batter rises a lot on being fermented especially if the weather is hot and truly it should too to get well soft spongy dosas. In order to avoid the batter spilling over use a large vessel with enough space for the batter to rice.
** After the batter has been fermented, gently mix well taking care to see that the ground rice settled at the bottom has been evenly mixed. If you find the batter too thick to be spread on tava, then add little water and mix well, do not beat the batter too much, just mix well.
** Now add cooking soda on top and sprinkle some water over it so that it bubbles up, immediately mix the batter well and it is ready to be prepared into dosas. If the batter has fermented well you can skip adding cooking soda, its individual choice.
** To remove Dosa/ Polo : Heat an iron dosa tava, sprinkle some oil+ ghee and gently wipe with a tissue, leaving a thin film of oil on the tava. Now pour in a cup full of batter at the center of the tava, from about 1 inch height. Do not try to spread the dosa, the batter itself gently takes a thick round shape when poured gently.
** Sprinkle some oil+ ghee drops on the outer rim of the dosa and a few on the top of the dosa, cover with a dome proper lid which leaves a little bit space around the dosa too and let cook on medium to low heat. Open the lid and check if done, the top surface will form a lot of holes and will have glaze look and will not wet fingers when touched.
** This means the dosa is done, if the batter still sticks a bit to fingers then cover with the lid again and cook for another few minutes. Do not raise the heat, lest the dosa burns at the bottom side. This dosa easily lifts off the tava, so when done remove with spatula and place it on the plate in as it is position to retain its softness and texture.
** Continue to remove dosa with the remaining batter in the same procedure as mentioned above until the required number of dosas are done. Remember to apply oil+ ghee after removing each dosa for best results. The remaining batter can be stored in a large vessel covered in fridge until need, remains good for 24 hours only, so be careful.
** “Mushti Polo/ Dosa- 1” is done and ready to be served. Dosas always taste best served hot directly from tava to serving plate. You can serve it with any chutney, sambar, chutney podi, pickle or any other dishes of your choice. I served it pickle on first day and with raw mango garlic coconut chutney on the next day and it tasted great, though I suggest you serve it with simple coconut ginger chutney the traditional way for best taste, my Amma’s way.
** I am sharing links to the “Mixed Vegetable Pickle” and “Raw Mango Garlic Coconut Chutney” with which I served below, you may check it out and try out the same too ….
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Thanks.