Magge Panpolo / South Indian Cucumber Neer Dosa.

Magge Panpolo / South Indian Cucumber Neer Dosa .... Yummy lacy Dosas with the flavour of Magge / South Indian Cucumber relished with Chutney ....

Panpolo or Neer Dosa as it is known in Southern parts of India is a famous thin lacy dosa that does not need any introduction. It has now become famous in other parts of India too. It is absolutely not necessary for me to go into details about panpolo as I am sure all of you know about it. But just for knowledge I would like to mention here that the authentic panpolo is prepared by grinding soaked rice with fresh coconut. However, over years and changing of times there are twists and turns to this dosa and now it is prepared with different pulses or millet too. Sometimes veggies are also ground along the rice or pulses to form batter and prepared in similar manner. I have already posted in a few methods with variations. Today I am posting here Magge Panpolo ie Neer Dosa prepared with the addition of South Indian Cucumber / Southekai. The magge or south Indian cucumber has lots of coolant properties and is considered very good for health. So do introduce this veggie in different forms in your daily diet. Here is to the recipe ….

For the Dosa : Soak 3 cups raw rice (I used Surti kollam thick variety rice) for about 4 hours in plenty of water. Wash well and drain off the water. Peel off the skin of Magge / South Indian Cucumber and also discard the inner seeds. Cut them into fine pieces. In all you should have about one cup of the same. Now put the cut pieces along with the rice into mixer grinder and grind the to a fine paste. I have not added any coconut here. Do not add much water while grinding as it will not turn out smooth. Once it is ground to a smooth paste remove into a vessel then add in about 2-3 cups of water to bring it to a thin consistency. The texture should be that of fresh thick milk. Add salt as required and keep ready. If still not sure of the consistency of the batter check it by dipping the ladle into the batter. When you remove the ladle out the batter should not form a coating on the back of the ladle. If it does, then add more water to the batter. The batter is not fermented so it is ready to be used immediately. However if you need to remove the dosa after a few hours refrigerate the batter and bring it to room temperature before you proceed in making of the dosa.

Preparing Dosa: This is similar to panpolo / neera dosa procedure. Heat a non stick large sized tava which has a fitting sized dome lid. Apply oil all over the tava. Rub it lightly with a tissue paper evenly all round the tava, so that the tava gets evenly coated with oil. Do not rub of the oil from tava just spread it with the tissue evenly. If you want you can spray or sprinkle some drops of oil in the center of the tava. Now turn on the gas flame to high and let the tava be very very hot. Using a deep rounded ladle that holds about ½ to ¾ th cup of batter, pour the batter on the hot tava after lowering the heat to minimum in a quick and swirl pattern by pouring in such way that the tava gets covered with a thin layer of batter all round. The batter should be poured from at least 4 inches above the tava and the ladle should not be allowed to touch the tava nor should you attempt to spread the batter as we do for normal dosas. Move from outward to inwards while pouring the batter. Because of the thin consistency of the batter, it will spread over the pan quickly and a lacy texture will be formed This does need practice and is difficult to explain and will help the novice if they watch any video demo on you tube for the purpose. There will be gaps or holes in the dosa, which if large can be filled with little bit of batter. There is not need to drizzle oil round the edges of dosa on the pan. 

Cover the dosa with a lid and let cook on medium heat. It takes only about 3-4 minutes maximum for the dosa to get cooked. Remove the lid and raise the heat and let cook uncovered for a minute. You will notice the dosa leaving the sides and curving inward. This dosa is snow white, soft and will not turn only little bit crisp if needed on bottom side, so do not attempt to make it too crisp. Gently remove the dosa and put it on a plate as it is with the same side down as it was on the tava. Remove rest of the dosa with the batter in similar way. Season the tava before you remove each dosa to ensure that the dosa comes off evenly without getting torn. 

** This dosa is not flipped over to cook. Ensure that the dosa has cooled a bit before you fold it into half or quarter, to pile them one on another or else they will stick to each other and may tear off when separate them while serving. You can serve this dosa with any dish of your choice. Goes very well with chicken curry, kurma, panna upkari etc. Children love this dosa simply with Shrikhand or homemade butter. You can serve with jaggery ravo too. I served it with coriander~pudina chutney.