"Happy Birthday" Cakes

To my little cousin, every cake is a “Happy Birthday” cake, that too her “Happy Birthday” cake :). She gets very confused if the cake is devoid of candles, and even more perplexed if she is restrained from making a wish or from singing Happy Birthday when the cake is cut. I’m always reminded of her when I see a birthday cake or even contemplate on baking a birthday cake!

Well, starting from the last week of July to all the way till the end of August is a busy month for us - there are occasions, festivities, and plenty of birthdays of near and dear ones. Every year, this is the time when I get into full-fledged baking mode, and then wear myself out so badly that I retreat into baking-hibernation and emerge only during Christmas. As I prepare for Anand’s birthday, making notes on what I did, what went well, what was a disaster, and what I should aim for this year, I reminisce on the memorable birthday cakes of the past years.

Death by Chocolate
When I first came to know of Anand’s love affair with chocolates, and heard him say in his most serious tone - “I love chocolates so much that I would consider myself lucky if I could die eating chocolates.”, I immediately set out to make a rich chocolate-orange cake for his birthday... how dutiful, right? ;)

My good friend, who is an expert baker, helped me all the way through with plenty of research and guidance on finding the perfect cake recipe. And since it was a surprise “party”, we had plenty of fun baking together and coming up with elaborate schemes to keep it all within wraps! I still have the chocolate cake recipe, but we put it together from numerous online sources (incorporating all the yummy bits from each source), so I’m not sure if I can write it down here! Well, can I argue that due to our “unique” mix and match, we ended up with our own “version”? ;) Anyway, those interested please email me and I’ll send the chocolate cake recipe!

We baked two layers of intensely rich chocolate cake, and sandwiched the layers between a thick coat of orange marmalade. We then “improvised” on this orange cream-cheese frosting by adding orange liqueur and orange marmalade and came up with a frosting so delicious, it was hard to keep our fingers away from the bowl! The frosting was melting a bit in the August heat, but we still managed to liberally coat (or bathe) the cake with the frosting.

In addition to loving chocolates, Anand loves The Simpsons. If he is tempted between a bowl of chocolates and watching The Simpsons, he wouldn’t be able to pick one - it will involve intense soul searching on his part to come to a decision. So, I wanted a Simpsons’ themed cake. I made the naive mistake of asking Anand what his favorite Simpson’s character was. Now, I am a person with a head-full of random, useless questions. More often than not, it is Anand who gets bombarded with all my questions. As a self-defense mechanism, he usually tunes me out the minute my voice hits an inflection that forebodes a question. His practised answers are - I don’t know, I don’t care, Yes, No, Maybe.... all in random order. So to my aforementioned question, he first said, “I don’t know.” After my persistent bugging, he uttered the first name that came to his mind - Lisa Simpson. Back then, I was blithely unaware of this random answer, and so, I took his word very seriously and decided to ice Lisa Simpson on the cake. Icing/drawing on a frosting that threatens to melt any time is not easy, that too attempting to draw someone like Lisa, without ever practising on pen and paper, is plain silly. But that’s what I did - and ended up with a scary looking cross between Daisy Duck and Lisa Simpson! But the rich taste of the cake more than made up for the poor icing!

 

Lemon Cake
Anand and his family have a soft corner for intensely tart, citrus flavors. They are ardent fans of Starbucks’ Lemon Cake. So, last year, I was obsessed with trying to make the perfect Starbucks’ cake at home - to no avail, of course. But I haven’t given up - the quest continues! Anyway, I adapted from this recipe to make two layers of poppy-seed lemon cake, greased with an easy lemon icing (1/2 cup butter whipped with 3 cups of confectioners’ sugar, 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract). I changed the lemon cake recipe to add yogurt and flax seed instead of eggs. Although the cake tasted alright, it still didn’t have enough zing and flair to promote the citrus. It wasn’t “lemony” enough!

 

Almond-Chocolate Cake
And finally, here is one other birthday cake that I both enjoyed baking (and eating!). This cake turned out to be one of the most lightest, airiest, fluffiest cake I have ever made/eaten. It was also the first time I whipped egg whites - it always excites me to whip egg whites into frothy, fluffy, lathery goodness! And the combination of almond with chocolate was just beyond delectable! I followed every step of this recipe to make a single layer of almond cake. I then iced the cake with the Whipped Bittersweet frosting mentioned in the post. It was a very simple, very tasty, no-mess-easy-to-apply icing. And since I used low-fat cream, I felt a bit better ;). I was really glad I could serve a properly executed cake to this master-baker friend of mine :).

 

Now, keep your fingers crossed for a successful season of baking and Happy Birthday cake!

Fancy Fruit Salad

Women’s Web is an upcoming online women’s magazine that has a wide range of impressive articles primarily catered towards Indian women. It is organizing a unique cooking contest to which I was invited to participate! Wow, that has never happened to me before - somebody inviting me to contribute :). My long-lost-but-recently-united friend Anne, whose writing is as beautiful as she is, is one of the lovely writers and publishing agents for Women’s Web. Thanks Anne, for the invitation! Anne and I bonded over interesting conversations, most of which involved empathizing and sharing our life’s “woes” with each other, while waiting for the college bus to arrive :). Both of us are kindred spirits! While writing has so far remained just a hobby to me, she has found the heart and will to let go of her software engineering profession and plunge into freelance writing. I applaud her and wish her the very best in her writing career!

The theme of the cooking contest is - Cooking is Child’s Play. So, I had to think of a dish that could be prepared with a child. Knowing me, even I’m not safe by myself in the kitchen, let alone bringing a child into the mix! So I’d almost abandoned the idea of entering this contest, for I couldn’t think of a suitable dish that didn’t require chopping, heating, or complicated techniques. And then it suddenly came to me - a fruit salad!

During my fifth and sixth standard, my school had an annual “fruit salad day” and “sandwich day”. On these rare days, the entire afternoon session of classes was canceled and was instead devoted to our fruit salad or sandwich making! We eagerly looked forward to this day, planning for weeks on what ingredients to bring in which boxes, with which friends we would sit together and prepare our dishes, envisioning all the fun we would have eating and chatting, and so on. Although none of us were excited about fruits per se, the day brought us closer to fruits. And a lot of memories were made. So, for people like me, fruit salad is a “happy” dish that brings to mind good times, childhood friends, and much laughter.

I also tried to put myself in my little cousin’s “shoes” (or mind). She is a smart kid with a vivacious burst of energy that begs to be channelized into creative avenues! So engaging her in a knife-free kitchen and letting her imagination run wild, seemed ideal. Besides, she loves fruits of all kinds and shapes.

So here we go - here are some basic ingredients to make a special, elegant-looking fruit salad.

Ingredients:

1. Fruits (of course!). I decided to go with the below combination, but you can always substitute and use any fruit/s of your (and your child’s) liking. I envision a fun trip to the grocery store with the child, letting him/her pick the fruits of their choice, with perhaps some guidance to try the ones they don’t like. If the child goes towards a fruit like pineapple, I would recommend that the fruit be chopped prior to the child entering the kitchen, or pick up pre-diced, canned/frozen versions.
1. Two bananas
2. One orange
3. 170 gms or 1 pint each of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries (I didn’t pick strawberries for they involve dicing)
4. Raisins
2. Milk (quantity depends on the fruits - but around 4 cups)
3. 1 tablespoon of Honey
4. 2 teaspoons of cardamom powder
5. A couple of scoops of Mascarpone cheese (or vanilla icecream/ any kind of icream, or whipped cream)
6. A handful of toasted almonds (or any other nuts... hopefully the child isn’t allergic to nuts)
7. A drizzle of store bought caramel syrup (or chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, maple syrup.... you can pick one the child really likes)
8. A teaspoon of vanilla extract

Preparation:

1. Grate the zest of one orange (a rasp/grater is sharp, but with a little guidance and supervision, kids can manage this, as an orange is much easier to firmly grasp such that the fingers are away from the grater. If not, zest it yourself). Take care not to zest the white-part of the orange as it is bitter. Gently scrape just the orange part.
2. Add the zest to a deep and wide bowl. Then allow the child to peel the orange and add the pieces into the bowl... I can imagine my cousin doing this... her brows knit in concentration, a bit of her tongue sticking out, until of course, she loses patience!
3. Next, the bananas! I think children would love to squish bananas into tiny pieces, so let them do it. Clean hands, though!
4. Then, watch them add the washed berries and raisins to the colorful mix.
5. Now pour in some milk just until the fruits are barely submerged. Measure out the milk before allowing the child to pour :).
6. Hand over the vanilla extract to the child and let them decide how many teaspoons should go in ;)
7. Squeeze a tablespoon of honey. I am wary of adding too much sugar and fueling kids to an uncontrollable sugar-high.... my cousin is usually always at such a state anyways ;). So I’m not inclined to add any more sugar in addition to the fruits, the syrup and topping! I may even skip honey.
8. Let the child sprinkle some cardamom powder (cardamom gives a distinct Indian flavor). Give them a spatula to stir the entire mass of sweet smelling salad.
9. Ladle out a few spoons of salad into a smaller bowl. Top it with a scoop of mascarpone cheese (a creamy, unsweetened cheese that doesn’t have the pungent smell of cheese), or ice-cream or whipped cream. Drizzle some caramel syrup/ any syrup of the child’s liking on the topping.
10. Finally, chop or crush some nuts... it is easy to break up cashews and peanuts with your fingers. So you don’t need to go near a knife. Toast them on the stove.... distract the child with other activities such as scooping out ice-cream or licking the ice-cream spoon as you toast the nuts. Sprinkle the toasted nuts on the topping and enjoy!

 

Fruit salads with a creative mix of flavors are a great way of encouraging kids to have their fruits. And making the process fun and engaging might entice them to change their perception of fruits. Both the child and the adult get to have a healthy, flavorful snack/meal, depending on their portion size! 

 
Plus, the simple manner of layering the fruit salad with toppings, and serving it in an elegant bowl elevates the simple and humble dish into a fancy dessert that can find its place even in gourmet menus. It’s easy for adults to throw together such a decadent-looking dessert when time is not on their hands. And it’s wonderful that you can tweak and change the flavors to your liking. Cooking surely becomes  child’s play with this dessert! 

P.S. : This entry actually won the first place! I'm still reeling with surprise :). Thanks to all you kind people from Women's Web :).

"Pooh" Cake

One of our friends is expecting a baby soon! In keeping with the tradition of throwing a baby shower for the mom-to-be, we had a get-together recently. A baby shower is incomplete without a cake (and of course, gifts!). So, I was racking my brain on what cake to bake that would be appropriate for the occasion. Since the theme of the baby’s nursery is Winnie the Pooh (a popular favorite in recent times!), I thought it would be fun to bake a “Pooh” cake! But, having never attempted cake-sculpting and detailed icing before, it was a little too ambitious of me to aspire to make an entire replica of Pooh himself. And of course, time is always a constraint. So I toned down by several degrees, and eventually decided to create a teddy-bear-faced cake that looks a little like Pooh :). 

 
I know there are Winnie-the-Pooh cake pans available in the market, and it would have been perfect had I purchased one such a pan. But, I wasn’t sure the pan would find much use in the future. In my view, most such specialty pans serve just a one-time-use,  for which child wants to have the same looking cake every year, or every so often? Their interests and fascinations change every week :). Besides, I really wanted to try my hand at making a simple bear-cake without the help of fancy cake pans that do most of the difficult job.

So, here is my version of a sloppy looking Pooh cake! I used yellow and red colored butter-cream frosting to slather over the cake. The red dye ended up being dark pink, and simply refused to budge to the deep end of the color spectrum no matter how many drops I poured!

The cake
The cake was a simple, yet divinely delicious, egg-less date cake that I found here. Thanks to Shilpa for sharing the awesome recipe! I followed every step as mentioned in the post, and ended up with a fluffy delight! It was a huge hit. I highly recommend the cake. Don’t be deceived by its simplicity! I also have to add that milk and yogurt are excellent egg substitutes as well (in addition to ground flax seed). They make the cake moist and soft. And dates pureed in milk? How can it not be good? Or as Ina says, “How bad can that be?” :)

You might have already guessed the “strategy” I employed to achieve the bear-like face. I filled three small ramekins (2-3 inch ones) with a few spoons of the cake batter. The cake will rise, so fill the ramekins up to half-way (and remember to grease the insides with butter). I baked all three at 350 F for 20 minutes. Then I scooped the remaining batter into a 9-inch round cake pan and baked it for 35 minutes at 350 F. Allow the cake/s to cool completely (give about 45 minutes for the 9-inch cake), before covering them with frosting. 

 

Assembling the cake
To form Pooh’s nose/mouth, place one mini-cake at the center of about 1-1 ½ inches from the bottom of the 9-inch cake. Then shave off about a quarter inch of cake along the diagonal of the other two mini-cakes to form ears that can be placed at the sides of the bigger cake. All the cake needs is some color, eyes, and a smiling mouth!

As for the icing, I put together my own version of a butter-cream-frosting. The consistency wasn’t perfect, but it was manageable. I couldn’t bring myself to add any more sugar to get the frosting to be thicker - my heart was thumping away at every spoon of sugar that went into the frosting! But this measurement left me with a few extra spoons of frosting, so you could probably cut down the butter to 1/2 - 1 stick.

Ingredients for the frosting:

1. 2 sticks of unsalted, room temperature butter
2. 1 ½ cups of confectioners sugar
3. 1 Tablespoon of milk
4. 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
5. Food coloring - red and yellow  (Pooh’s colors)
6. Black colored gel-icing (a small store-bought tube)

Preparation:

1. Cream the room temperature butter until it looks whipped (a hand-beater is ideal)
2. Then slowly add the confectioners sugar - ½ cup at a time, and beat it well with the butter till it turns into a smooth, spreadable cream.
3. Add a tablespoon of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Blend well.
4. Separate a couple of spoons of frosting (for Pooh’s ears). Add several drops of the red food coloring and mix it into the frosting (you can use a spoon to do this).
5. Add a few drops of the yellow coloring to the remaining frosting and mix well. Since you’re looking for a lighter shade of yellow, go easy on the dye. Add a few drops, stir, inspect, add a few more drops... repeat the process till you reach a color you’re happy with. Due to bad lighting, the yellow in the picture looks brighter than it was.

Frosting tips:

First, cut some parchment paper (butter paper) into little strips, and insert them all around the bottom of the cake. This will catch all the frosting that is sure to spill over. Remove the paper strips after frosting, and the plate/pan underneath the cake as well as the bottom of the cake will look clean.

Prepare the frosting after the cake is taken out of the oven, for the frosting will get gooey if left sitting out for a while. Also, if the cake is warm, the frosting will melt over the cake, so be sure the cake is cool (place the cake in the fridge for a few minutes if there is a time crunch - like I faced!). Using a flat icing spatula, gently spread the frosting. To even out the uneven strokes of the frosting, run the spatula under warm water and then gently glide it over the imperfect strokes to get a reasonably smooth finish. Despite all this, my frosting technique still needs plenty of practice, so the cake looks nowhere close to a store bought one. And maybe that is the point of homemade cakes - they should look homemade ;)

Slather the yellow frosting all over the 9-inch round cake. Then frost the nose/mouth. Cover the ears with the red (deep pink) frosting and place them on either sides of Pooh’s face. Draw big black eyes, curious-looking eyebrows, a simple nose, and an innocent smile with a store-bought black icing gel.

Viola! A teddy-bear’s face materializes! But then, this one looks more like a cat... an indication that the baby is going to be a Leo?! The nose/mouth should have been bigger... an experiment for another day! This isn't the perfect bear-cake... it has its numerous flaws, but I had a lot of fun making it!

May the baby boy be cuter and cuddlier than Pooh! :)

Watermelon Popsicle

Anand has a massive sweet tooth. If he goes grocery shopping by himself, he may even forget to get the very first item on the list, but will unfailingly bring home items not on the list - such as a tub of ice-cream, a bar of cookies, a bag of chocolates, a box of candies, etc. He literally gets the unmistakable kid-at-a-candy-store glaze in his eyes if he stumbles into a specialty chocolate store, or even the candy aisle. We walked into a Lindt store recently, and boy, for the first time ever, I saw him flustered, unable to make a decision on what to get. Finally, he rationalized that the below massive mug of chocolates was the biggest bang for his buck (and palate). The most incredulous and mildly infuriating part is, despite his candy obsession, he has awesome, healthy, pearly white teeth! 

His current fascination has been towards Popsicles. For the last several weeks, his favorite post-dinner routine has been to stretch on the couch with a popsicle in hand (and mouth), and relax in front of the TV. He fondly related nostalgic stories of how as a kid he used to lust after the “kuchi-ice” sold in front of his school, and how his mom always forbade him from licking on such unhealthy, unhygienic treats. I think he is making up for it by licking away one popsicle a day now ;).

Since I agree with his mom, and am also wary of the artificial colors and additives running through such treats, I decided to buy a set of popsicle molds. They are easily available at the stores and online, and are BPA free.  

Fill up the mold with any juice of your choice - it can be store bought juices, or home made ones. If home made, dice the fruit/s, and puree it with a bit of sugar/honey, and other flavorings (such as vanilla extract, chocolate syrup, maple syrup etc.). Pour the juice into the molds (leaving about 1 inch room for the popsicle to freeze). Place the molds in the freezer for 4+ hours (or overnight), and you have home-made, additive free, relatively healthy popsicles! You can even try filling the molds with ice-cream and sorbet.

I tried it with watermelons recently. I pureed the watermelons as is and prepared the popsicles. Watermelons are usually quite sweet, but of course, this batch didn’t have enough sugar to appease Anand :). So next time around, I should add a teaspoon or so of sugar to the juice.

This is a healthy substitute for store-bought popsicles, and is a great way to allure (fool) kids into having their fruits. It’s all in the fancy packaging and presentation!

Pepper Kuzhambu

Milagu (black pepper corns) is universally used in all cuisines to add heat to the dishes. Some Americans have been pleasantly surprised to know that black pepper takes an important place in the exotic range of Indian spices. To many westerners, Indian cuisine is synonymous to spiciness, especially the spicy bite of chillies. They never imagine their familiar and rustic pepper-corns playing a vital role in many of our key dishes.

Contrary to the burning heat of chillies, the sharp sting of black pepper is supposed to heal internal wounds. So, it is customary for black pepper to be used in abundance in comfort foods, home-remedies and foods for sore-throat, fever and other ailments.

Milagu Kuzhambu is basically a thick gravy of tamarind pulp, boiled and reduced in freshly ground black-pepper and a few red chillies. Due to the heavy reduction of tamarind, this Kuzhambu stores well in the fridge - and like good wine, the flavors are supposed to seep in and get better over time. This is yet another popular Tamizh side-dish, but I was quite surprised to not find its recipe in Meenakshi ammal’s book. Maybe the book hasn’t been indexed properly or the dish is called by another name that I don’t recognize.

So, here is my mother’s recipe.

Ingredients:

1. 3-4 teaspoons of black peppercorns (I use 3)
2. 1.5 dried red chillies (or more depending on your level of tolerance to heat)
3. 1 teaspoon of toor dal (lentils) / tuvaram paruppu
4. 1 teaspoon of turmeric (turmeric is another antiseptic; good at healing wounds)
5. 2 inch ball of tamarind (or more, if the tamarind isn't tart enough)
6. A small piece of jaggery
7. Salt to taste
8. 3 Tablespoons of sesame oil
9. 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
10. ¼ teaspoon of hing
11. A few curry leaves (up to 2 strips/sprigs)

Preparation:

1. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of sesame oil in a pan (medium heat)
2. When hot, add the pepper corns and roast for 2 minutes
3. Add thoor dhal and dried red-chillies and continue to roast till the pepper begins to pop. Immediately remove from heat (my mother warns me that the pepper should not be over-roasted)
4. Add the curry leaves to the pan. The leaves release their flavor in the residual heat. Let the ingredients cool.
5. Grind the mixture with a sprinkling of water into a relatively smooth paste (the paste is likely to be a bit coarse)
6. Soak the balls of tamarind in 1.5 cups hot water for about 15 minutes, and extract the rich juice from the tamarind pulp (one basically uses their hands/fingers to squeeze out the juice). Keep adding water to the tamarind until you extract most of the juice.
7. In a saucepan, add the tamarind juice, 2 cups of water, a piece of jaggery, turmeric, salt, and the ground pepper-chill mixture, and heat it over medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Switch over to low heat after the initial raw smell of tamarind dissipates.
8. Heat the kuzhambu for about 40-45 minutes. The resulting kuzhambu should be of the consistency of rich gravy (the kuzhambu continues to thicken as it stays in the fridge)
9. To garnish, splutter some mustard seeds in heated sesame oil. Add a bit of hing and a few curry leaves to the spluttering mustard seeds. Toss it into the kuzhambu to add a burst of fresh aroma of sesame oil, hing and curry leaves.

Pepper kuzhambu is supposed to be spicy, as the tartness of the tamarind demands some spice. Else, the kuzhambu will be bland with just the one-note flavor of tamarind. But if you are apprehensive, you can halve this recipe and add just two teaspoons of pepper. You can also add more jaggery to balance the spice level, as well as to reduce the tartness of the tamarind.

This kuzhambu is ideal with cooked rice (a dollop of ghee on the cooked rice will not hurt at all). It is also a wonderful side-dish for idlis, dosais, and rotis.  

Dosai/Masala Dosai

From Idlis we get to Dosais - that is the logical progression. Usually, idli batter that is a couple of days old is diluted to prepare dosais. Dosai/Dosa is a savory, crispy crepe. Some call it Indian pancake, but dosais are not as dense or thick as pancakes. Although I have a soft corner for idlis, dosai is my ultimate, all-time favorite food. You will never ever catch me saying no to dosai. Ever. And my mom’s dosai is my unbeatable favorite of favorites. She indulges my love for its crispy edges by liberally spooning sesame oil around the sides of the dosai to crisp it to the perfect level of golden-brown crunchiness.  In fact, I love it so much that I often munch on it without dipping it in sambar or chutney, or any other side dish. 

I have come to understand that the authentic taste of dosai lies in the traditional cast-iron skillet in which it is prepared. The non-stick skillets don’t come close to delivering the true taste. True, the quality of the batter matters as well, but heat distribution is a key element to achieving uniform cooking and crispiness. And the cast-iron skillet (stone, as it is called) is designed to deliver just that. The traditional cast-iron skillet has a few other alloys that I’m unsure of, but it requires diligent care and maintenance. My mother’s skillet still shines and gleams like a brand-new one, although it is more than 30 years old. I’m not bragging or exaggerating here, but just giving credit where it is due. I sorely lack her patience and meticulous maintenance routine. Even before the skillet cools, she douses it with tamarind and water (and sometimes lemon juice). The acidity of the tamarind and lemon helps strip away the grease. After the acids soak the surface of the skillet for a few hours, she scrubs it with a steel wool or coconut fibres (and no detergent) till there is not a speck of black dot or grease. It is then washed, wiped clean and generously coated with coconut oil. The skillet then sits sparkling on the shelf, ready for the next batch of dosais/adais. Here, I have to make do with a non-stick skillet and watch my dosais remain milky white and not gain any color from the insufficient heat.  

According to Meenakshi ammal’s book, dosai batter is prepared a little differently from idli batter. She uses the same proportion as for idlis - 2 ½ cups of parboiled rice and 1 cup of urad dhal. But in addition, she advices adding a handful of raw (white) rice, because it makes the dosai crispier. Soak the rice and dhal separately. Grind it just as you would to get idli batter, and give the resulting batter about 8 hours before using it to make dosais. But, even without the addition of raw white rice, dosais made out of diluted idli batter turns out reasonably crispy. Perhaps in the interest of efficiency and conservation of time, most families follow this routine.

Preparing Dosai

1. Dilute fermented idli batter (that is more than 24 hours old) with about ½ - 1 cup of water (or more). The batter should be thin enough to be able to spread into delicate circles of dosai.
2. Heat your skillet on high heat until hot. Immediately reduce the heat to medium heat and keep it at this setting while making the dosais (overheating burns the dosai, doesn’t allow for uniform cooking, and the batter will roll up into lumps before you can spread it out)
3. Some people start by adding a spoon of sesame oil to the centre of the skillet (this step is not needed if you are using a non-stick skillet, but it is advised if you are using a traditional iron skillet). Then pour a ladle of batter onto the centre and gently spread it out in circular motions to form a thin circle. A stainless-steel ladle is ideal for this, as plastic may melt under the heat.
4. Spoon a little bit of sesame oil around the edges of the crepe/dosai. This step is optional, of course. For the uber diet-conscious person, this may seem unnecessary, especially if using a non-stick skillet. But the sesame oil infuses a delicate flavor and aroma that comes to be associated with the intrinsic taste of dosai.
5. Wait for about 2 minutes for the dosai to crisp/cook on one side. Then carefully flip the dosai onto the other side using a flat, broad spatula.
6. You may again spoon some sesame oil around the edges (and some over the dosai). Wait for about 2 minutes.
7. Flip the dosai back.
8. If you are satisfied that the dosai is cooked (the batter isn’t raw in patches, and the dosai has lots of little bubbles of escaped steam/air), transfer it onto a plate.
9. Dosais are best eaten while hot and crispy, with a side of milagai-podi, sambar, chutney, or pickle.

dosa sizzling and cooking in a cast-iron skillet

Adaptations

Masala Dosai/Onion Dosai:

Dosais can also be stuffed in the middle with spicy mashed potatoes, or any vegetable curry. Or you can just sprinkle some finely chopped onions into the uncooked batter. The onions crisp and caramelize in the heat. This adds extra flavor and texture to the dosai. The recipe for the stuffing below is merely a guidance. You can innovate and create as many different stuffings as you can. I usually use left-over curry/stuffing. 

Masala Stuffing (Ingredients: 2 potatoes, 1 onion, 2 green chillies, a piece of ginger, turmeric powder, chilli powder/garam masala, coriander leaves/curry leaves, and vegetable oil):

1. Cook 4-5 peeled potatoes. Once cooled, mash them into coarse bits.
2. Finely chop 1 onion, a piece of ginger, and the green chillies.
3. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan (medium heat). When the oil is hot, add the green chillies, 2-3 torn curry leaves,  ginger, and turmeric. Saute for a minute.
4. Add the onions and saute till translucent.
5. Then add the mashed potatoes and stir well.
6. Add a teaspoon of chilli powder and/ or garam masala (or any other spicy powder of your choice).
7. Add salt to taste.
8. Mix everything together and let the potatoes soak in the spices. (for about 5-10 minutes).
9. Switch off the heat. Garnish with finely cut coriander leaves.

Once the stuffing is cooled and ready,

1. Pour dosai batter onto the skillet and spread it out into a thin circle. Spoon in some sesame oil around the crepe. Wait for 2 minutes. Flip the dosai.
2. Spoon the stuffing into one half of the dosai (the picture contains a different stuffing of just potatoes/potato curry). Wait for 2-3 minutes.
3. Then fold the dosai over the stuffing.
4. Serve.

It takes some practice to spread the batter into a nice, evenly thin circle of dosai. If you are a novice, please don’t lose heart! What matters is the taste of the dosai, not the shape :)