Musti Polo Recipe - Softest urad dal, rice dosa flavoured with fenugreek

Musti Polo Recipe - Softest urad dal, rice dosa flavoured with fenugreek

When I make dosas for breakfast, there isn’t a single day that goes by without thinking of the times my mom makes hot dosas for me. That’s when I get to sit, relax and enjoy hot dosas. I wish she could do that for me everyday!! Don’t we all miss our moms? What’s your favourite breakfast that your mom cooked for you that you miss the most? If you ask me, I miss everything my mom makes! I’m sure most of you would have answered the same. But I miss eating mom made hot dosas, in peace, the most. :-)

South Indians grow up eating dosas. And here’s another recipe to make soft, fluffy dosas, that are made in most Konkani homes. They're called musti polo in Konkani. Musti in Konkani means fist and polo means dosa. These dosas turn out soft, super fluffy and taste delicious. They make a great breakfast! These dosas look like set dosas (as they are called in Bangalore) but I bet they taste a lot better. :-)

The dosa batter takes a minimum of 8 hours of fermentation. The more the batter ferments the better, softer, fluffier dosa you make. So, do prepare the batter the previous night of the day you intend to make these dosas.

A fistful of ingredients are used to prepare this dosa batter. Hence, the name musti polo in Konkani. However, I have mentioned the measurement for ingredients in measuring cups as fist size differs from person to person. 

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup medium grained rice (dosa rice, if not use sona masuri)
  • 1/4 cup beaten rice/flattened rice/poha - use any variety/thickness - Guide to use different varieties of poha
  • 1/4 cup grated coconut (optional)
  • 1/4 cup urad dal 
  • 10 fenugreek seeds (1/4 teaspoon)
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil for frying the dosas

Serves: 2-3

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes for frying the dosas

Fermentation time, resting time for the batter - 8-9 hours.

Preparation Method:

  1. Soak rice grains, urad dal, fenugreek seeds, flattened rice together in a vessel with enough water, for a minimum of 30 minutes.
  2. After the soaking time, give them a nice wash and drain all the water.
  3. Grind rice, urad dal, fenugreek seeds, flattened rice along with salt into a smooth paste using as little water as possible in a mixer. We need a semi-thick batter. The batter should fall off the ladle easily and shouldn’t be too thick.
  4. Transfer the ground batter into a vessel. Check and adjust salt.
  5. Store the batter closed in a warm place and allow it to ferment for a minimum of 8-9 hours. After fermentation the batter rises and gets airy. 
  6. If the resting time of the batter was less or if the batter hasn’t fermented enough (due to cool temperature or due to less resting time) then you get hard dosas instead of soft ones.
  7. After the batter has fermented well and has risen, you are ready to make soft, fluffy dosas. 
  8. Heat up a frying pan. If you’re using a cast iron pan, grease the pan with enough oil to prevent dosas from sticking to it. If you’re using a non stick pan, then skip the greasing step.
  9. Add a ladle full of batter onto the preheated pan and spread it out just a little to make semi thick to thick dosas depending on how you like them. 
  10. You know the batter is well fermented when you see nice holes being formed on top of the dosa, once the batter starts to cook.
  11. Cover the dosa and fry them on medium to high heat until the dosa is completely cooked on one side. You know it by the change in colour of the dosa. Once the dosa is completely cooked on the bottom, the top of the dosa becomes completely off white is colour. 
  12. That’s when you flip the dosa. Drizzle some oil on top of the dosa and flip it.
  13. Fry the dosa on the other side until it's cooked through on that side and starts to form golden brown spots.
  14. Remove the dosa off the pan and serve the dosa hot with coconut oil on top and with a coconut chutney of your choice. 
  15. We like these dosas with a spicy coconut chutney or with an onion ginger coconut chutney. The soft, fluffy dosas with coconut oil and with one of these chutneys, taste great!

Recipe for onion ginger coconut chutney:

Grind grated coconut, tamarind, salt, green chillies into a coarse paste. Then grind them with roughly chopped 1/4 onion and 1/2 inch piece of ginger until they blend in well with the chutney. You don’t have to make a smooth chutney. 

Side Note:

1. Traditionally these dosas are fried only on one side but in our household we always fry them on both sides.

2. Use a wet grinder or mixer to grind the batter.

3. Don’t add excess fenugreek seeds, it tends to make the batter bitter. 

4. Store any leftover batter in the fridge for upto 2 days. Keeping the batter in the fridge for more than 2 days may turn the batter very sour and the taste tends to change.

Do try other Konkani cuisine dosas. 

Tags: Musti dosa, urada surnali, Konkani cuisine, Konkani breakfast, Konkani dish, Konkani recipe, musti polo, GSB Konkani recipe, vegan, vegetarian recipe, South Canara Konkani recipe, Konkani cooking, GSB Konkani cuisine, kids breakfast

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