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Dosa: The Fermented Flatbread To Know

8/29/2016

Revisionist Baking/ Method Monday

I love the rhythm and ease of these breads-something soaking,
something fermenting,
something on the griddle.
And, when they’re on the griddle I get to use my fancy French crepe spreader and
wooden flipper.

For several years I religiously followed the dosa recipe I had copied down from my favorite Indian cookbook The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi. Then one day I was out of urad dal, and white basmati rice, so I substituted split peas and pearl barley and guess what? They were wonderful. So I began to branch out, keeping the proportions and technique the same, but trying all manner of grains and legumes.

So far these are the grains and legumes I've used:

pearl barley, millet, long grain brown rice, short grain brown rice, and amaranth,
red lentils, black eyed peas, mung beans, and split peas.

This is a great way to use up little odds and ends of beans and grains.

I premix up baggies of odds and ends for dosas when I’m cleaning out grain and bean jars.

Makes one quart of batter enough for 12 dosas

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole grain or mix of grains
3/4 cup legumes
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 3/4 cup filtered water

Making Dosas
I follow a simple three day process
I say simple because while it takes time, it doesn’t take much of your time, and nothing you need to do is difficult.

Step One
Mix the grains and legumes together in a bowl
Cover them with water and let soak overnight. The mix will always be
a ratio of two parts grain to one part legume.

Step Two
Next day rinse the grain/legumes.
Measure out 1 3/4 cups water.
Add water and legume/grains to the food processor and blend for 6 minutes.

Step Three
You'll now have a wet smooth batter which tastes raw and beany. Let the batter sit out in the bowl, covered at a warm room temperature until it ferments and tastes slightly sour.
I usually let mine sit overnight because I like it nice and sour, but a shorter time works as well. It should have lost its beany taste, be slightly bubbly or puffed, and taste sour. On a warm day this could be as short as 4 hours. I’ve never had to leave mine longer than 12 hours.

Step Four
After it's fermented
Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the batter and stir   Pour into a quart sized mason jar. You can cook some up now, or store and use as needed in the fridge for up to a week.

Cooking Dosas
Heat a round cast iron griddle, or nonstick griddle or crepe pan on low for 10 minutes. Move the heat up to medium and oil the pan as for pancakes. I use butter or ghee for this, coconut oil tends to stick.
Oil the griddle before each dosa for a crisp bottom.
Pour 1/3 of a cup of the batter into the middle of the pan, take a deep breath, no hurry Spread it out as thin as possible with a crepe spreader, or the back of a large mixing spoon, pressing lightly, and moving outward in a continuous spiral motion. This takes some practice but your learning curves will taste great.
Cook for a couple of minutes per side.

Large thin sourdough griddle cakes are a staple here. We rotate weekly between
Brittany Buckwheat Crepes, Ethiopian Injera, and Southern Indian Dosas. Besides being absolutely delicious, they’re a nifty way to roll, wrap and bring food to the mouth.

I’m especially fond of the Indian Dosa,
because turning only a handful of grains and legumes mixed with water and some salt into a thin crepe like bread is magic. Each region of India has its favorite version of the dosa, and they vary in names and thickness: Paper thin crisp dosas from Tamil Nadu, vegetable laden poori from Gujarat. Cheela,velvety smooth from Uttar Pradesh. They are eaten throughout the day and are nourishing, inexpensive and easily digested. Served with myriad of fresh chutneys, dal soups, or stuffed with masala potatoes, the variations are endless, especially with all the different spices and herbs that can be added to the batters.
How do we eat our homemade dosas?
We fill them like a crepe and eat them with a fork, or roll them like a burrito and eat them with our hands. What I like best is to fold them into fourths, and tear, using the pieces to make little parcels for dal and fresh chutney, or my scrambled eggs and greens.

How To Make
1 inch nub of fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 seeded and chopped jalapeño
1/ 4 cup roasted cashews
2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice or vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup fresh coriander or mint or both
1 cup toasted shredded unsweetened coconut or fresh coconut.

In a food processor
Pulse ginger, garlic and jalapeño
Add cashews and pulse
Add other ingredients + 1/3 cup of water
pulse and correct to taste.

http://www.abluedotkitchen.com/kitchen-blog/ethiopian-wisdom-we-can-eat-injera-everyday

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Crepas de Calabacita

8/26/2016

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Local Food Friday

Crepas de Calabacita

Serves 4
Warning! You may develop a longing for this dish, which isn’t traditional to Mexico made this way, maybe more New Mexican. Ah well it's just another folk rendition of good food. The melty onions and summer squash, just the right amount of heat in the homemade New Mexican chili sauce; sweet, salty, creamy and warming. Then the way the crepas soak up the juices…I already want to make it again.

Ingredients
1 lb onions/2 medium cut into a small dice
2 lbs mixed yellow and green summer squash cut into a medium dice
¼ cup unsalted butter (½ stick)
4 large New Mexican dried chiles
2 cups drained tomatoes diced
1 ½ cups boiling water
Salt to taste about 1 ½ teaspoons
1-2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese

Instructions
Premake crepe batter
preheat crepe pan 10 minutes before cooking them
Pour boiling water over dried chilies and let steep for ½ hour
Saute onions in butter on medium heat for 10 minutes in a large heavy bottomed pan.
Add summer squash, stir, cover with a lid and let cook 10 minutes stirring occasionally
Puree chilies with water in a food processor or blender and strain through a food mill
Now is the time to preheat the crepe pan
Add drained tomatoes, and salt to taste
Stir, summer squash should be tender
Add chili sauce and cook until sauce has reduced to a medium thick coating over vegetables about 8 minutes
Preheat oven and set in a plate for crepes
Taste and correct for salt, it may need a dash of vinegar.
When calabacita is done put it in a serving dish and keep warm in the oven.

crepe instructions here

Serve with a bowl of grated cheese, calabacita, and plate of warm crepas covered with a cloth.
Let the diners use crepas like a burrito to eat with a fork, or tear and stuff in mouth sized pieces.
With Love Enjoy!

What was French about Mexican Cuisine?

Yes, we can grow peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and corn here on the Olympic Peninsula, our season is short for heat loving veggies, but oh so good.

¿Que qué?!

Crepes and Mexican food, that not right, is it?
Well actually, if you know your history it is. In the 1860s, the French invaded Mexico. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the day in 1862 when an outnumbered Mexican army pulled off a victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla. But the French would stay another five years before they left Mexico for good, and their stay opened the doors for a French culinary fascination that includes the beloved crepas made today.

Crepes are enormously popular here in Morelia--and all over Mexico. Friends of ours own a small, upscale restaurant called La Crepería, where everything that's served, from appetizers to desserts, is made with crepes. A Mexican woman is often at our neighborhood weekly tianguis (street market) selling crepes, ready to be filled at your home, for 25 pesos/10 crepes. And lordy, when I make crepes for a company dessert you should hear the raves I get!
cristina Sep 4, 2010
Link: http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

Each human personality is like a piece of music, having an individual tone and a rhythm of its own.
Hazrat Inayat Khan

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Outlandishly Delish Sorghum and Water Kefir Crepes

8/25/2016

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Outlandishly Delish Sorghum and Water Kefir Crepes

Culinary Curiosity THursday

The sorghum flour and potato starch create a delicate lacy crepe, and the addition of tibicos water kefir give them a light yeasty aroma.

Sorghum Tibicos Crepe

Makes 1 quart of batter enough for
12 crepes using ⅓ cup batter per crepe
In a food processor or blender
Ingredients
1 ¾ cup all purpose gluten free flour
¾ teaspoon salt
2 ½ cup tibicos (water kefir)
3 large eggs
Eggs can be replaced with three flax eggs. 3 flax eggs= 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed and ½ cup+1 tablespoon tibicos

Mixing Instructions
Add flour and salt to food processor
Mix eggs and tibicos together in a liquid measuring cup
Pour liquid into food processor with machine running until well blended
No need to wait you can use the crepe batter right away.

Cooking Crepes
Set oven to warm with a plate for crepes
Preheat crepe pan or cast iron griddle to low for 10 minutes
Move heat to medium
Butter griddle and pour ⅓ cup batter into the center of pan
Spread with crepe spreader or back of a large spoon
Let cook until sides begin to curl up, about 2 minutes
Flip and cook other side until it smells and looks golden
Keep crepes warm in the oven until you’ve made as many as you’ll eat

Keeping The Batter
Crepe batter will keep in the fridge for up to three days just stir and use.

Keeping Cooked Crepes
Cooked crepes can be rolled and stored in the fridge wrapped up.
To reheat, put on a warm griddle and cover with a lid for about two minutes.

Formative Crepe Encounters

I like to remember my first encounters with a food, and for crepes there are two early memories. First, my middle school French class. I longed to learn French because it’s part of my heritage, after all I was named after my Great Grandmother Sidonie, but French certainly wasn’t spoken in my Oregon home. I was doing so well at First Year French when the teacher took leave to give birth. She was replaced by a subsitute who didn’t speak French period. We were bored and it killed my commitment to learn the language, but I remember taking home a mimeographed copy of a crepe recipe. I treasured that piece of paper, but felt exiled in too many ways to try it on my own.
In the other memory, I’m a young mother in Astoria Oregon, walking down the steep hills, with my baby in a front pack. I’d walk several times a week down to a long windowed diner by the Columbia River. I’d sit at the counter on a blue vinyl stool and watch Jacques cook enormous crepes. He was so deft, the crepes paper thin, and filled with savory Oregon hippy foods.
I loved everything-- the baby, the walk, watching and watching Jacques every move and the dripping cheese of the mushroom, veggie and sprout filled crepe.
I make crepes these crepes all the time now, they're easy quick food. We eat them for breakfast, tearing off a quarter crepe and filling it with spinach, mushrooms and eggs.