Aval Dosai/Avil Dosai/Poha Dosa

Most of you, who read my blogs regularly would be knowing that we are not a breakfast family. We don't indulge in elaborate breakfast meals. It is usually oats, cereals or at the maximum bread. It is not that we don't prepare the usual breakfast items. We have it for dinner, and hence I find it really difficult to click pictures and post the same. And that is the reason why list of items in the tiffins category is very limited. I think it's high time I did something about that. And this recipe comes first in that list of additions to my Tiffin Menu.

A little something about this dosa. This is one a signature dish of one of my aunts. She usually serves it with a combination of ginger chutney. And it really tastes awesome. This dosa is really soft with lovely pores on top. It has a beautiful spongy texture. The best thing is it tastes good even when it is not hot. The most important part is the fermenting. the batter should ferment well, to get the kind of dosa I mentioned above. But if it is left out for too long also, then the batter will turn very sour. So, take the call on the batter, depending on the weather conditions at your place. Read the notes.

What you'll need 

1. Raw Rice/Pachha Arisi – 3 cup
2. Thick Aval/Poha/Flattened Rice Flakes – 1 heaped cup
3. Vendayam/Fenugreek Seeds – 1 tsp
4. Sour Buttermilk – as required, for soaking
5. Salt to taste

Method

1. Wash and rinse the rice well and then soak it in enough water with the fenugreek seeds for 3 to 4 hours.
2. Wash the aval/rice flakes well and then soak it in sour buttermilk for atleast an hour. Let the level of the buttermilk be slightly above the riceflakes. Once soaked, the aval would have absorbed most of the buttermilk.
3. Grind the rice and aval separately into a smooth paste adding water as and when necessary.
4. Transfer to another container. Add salt to taste, mix well.
5. Allow this to ferment for at 8 hours, if weather conditions are cold. In warmer places, you can grind the batter in the morning and make it at night.
6. Heat a tava/non stick griddle, mix the batter very well with a ladle and then pour one big ladle of batter on the tava. No need to spread it, let it spread on itself. Pour half ladle more if you require slightly bigger dosa. Drizzle a little oil on the sides of the dosa, cover with a lid and cook on low flame till done. No need to flip the dosa.
7. Repeat with the same with the remaining batter.

Serve hot, with chutney/sambar.

Notes:

1. The batter should have fermented well, only then the dosa will come out nice and spongy with lot of holes at the top.
2. Since we are using buttermilk to soak the riceflakes, if you live in a warm/hot country, the batter will ferment in 4 to 5 hours. So if not making the dosa on the same day, refrigerate the batter after it has fermented.
3. If you are living in a cold place, the batter will take anywhere between 10 to 15 hours to ferment. So use your judgement. It takes almost 20 hrs for my batter to ferment.
4. Don't stack the dosas, one on top of the other when hot, they will stick to each other.