Sabudana Dosa | Sago Dosa

Ingredients

For soaking

• ½ cup sabudana (sago or tapioca pearls)
• ½ cup idli rice or parboiled rice or sona masuri rice
• ¼ cup urad dal (husked whole or split black gram)
• 10 to 12 fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)
• 1.5 cups water – for soaking sabudana and urad dal
• ¾ cup water – for soaking idli rice

For grinding

• ¼ cup water – for grinding rice
• ⅔ to ¾ cup water – for grinding urad dal, sabudana and fenugreek seeds

Other ingredients

• ¼ to ½ teaspoon rock salt (edible and food grade) or add as required or regular salt or Himalayan pink salt
• oil – as needed for cooking dosa

Steps

Soaking ingredients

1. Put the sabudana, urad dal and fenugreek seeds together in a bowl.
2. Rinse a couple of times, add 1.5 cups water and cover with a lid to soak for 5 hours.
3. In another bowl, rinse the idli rice a couple of times, add ¾ cup water and soak for 4 to 5 hours.

Grinding and fermenting batter

1. Before grinding, drain all the water from the sabudana, urad dal and fenugreek seeds.
2. Put the drained ingredients into a grinder jar with ½ cup fresh water.
3. Start grinding. When the dal and sabudana are slightly crushed, add ¼ cup more water and grind to a smooth, light batter. A few whole sabudana pieces are acceptable, but there must not be many.
4. Preferably grind the sabudana and dal in two batches. Their quality determines the overall grinding water, which can be ⅔ to ¾ cup.
5. Pour this batter into a pan or bowl.
6. Drain all the rice water, then put the rice into the same grinder with ¼ cup water.
7. Grind the rice batter to a fine rava-like consistency.
8. Pour the rice batter into the bowl or pan holding the urad-dal and sabudana batter, and mix thoroughly.
9. Mix in ¼ to ½ teaspoon edible rock salt, adjusting salt as required. Cover with a lid and leave to ferment for 8 to 9 hours or more.
10. Fermentation may need less or more time depending on your city's temperature. Look for a faint sour aroma and tiny air pockets, then stir or mix lightly before making dosa.

Making sabudana dosa

1. Heat a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet or nonstick pan until medium hot. Use low or medium heat while making the sabudana dosa.
2. For an iron skillet, spread ¼ to ½ teaspoon oil over the pan with a silicon brush, spoon, kitchen towel or half an onion. Leave a nonstick pan unoiled. Keep the heat low or medium-low to make spreading the batter easy.
3. Use medium heat if the pan's base is very thick. An excessively hot pan prevents spreading the batter into a round circle.
4. Pour a ladleful of batter into the middle.
5. Gently spread it with the ladle into a neat circle for a slightly thick dosa, or make it thin if you prefer.
6. These need more cooking time than regular dosa; cook over low to medium heat.
7. Put a lid over the sabudana dosa and cook for some minutes.
8. When the top appears cooked, you may spread some oil on it. Cook these dosas on one side only.
9. Continue until the base is golden.
10. Lift off and serve once the base is golden. Refrigerate any remaining batter.
11. Offer the sabudana dosa hot or warm with coconut, tomato or peanut chutney.