Bajri Dosa

Bajri Dosa

Like always, I got so excited when we went to Edinburgh as I usually get to do my Indian grocery shopping then. The shop that we go to is owned by either a north Indian or a Pakistani. So most of the items will be typical of the north Indian pantry but I would also get a lot of south Indian stuff there. When I went there sometime back, I was so excited to see the variety of cereals in flour form so picked a pack of barley flour, jowar flour and bajra flour. I will talk about the first two in a later post and for now stick to bajra flour. I was so ambitious in getting it and came home and tried bajra roti. As anyone who has tried it before may tell you that it is not the easiest roti to roll and it does not taste quite like regular roti. It was a definite no no from my husband but then I came up with the Aloo bajra roti which was very nice. However, I could still not make it a regular so was pretty much stuck with the flour. It then occurred to me that when I could make ragi dosa with the ragi flour, I could very well make bajra dosa as well. As I have said in previous posts, I am a fermented batter dosa lover and that is how I came up with this recipe. As I use brown rice and also par boiled rice along with bajra flour, this dosa is wholesome and is very nutritious. I would team it with a nice masala, sambar and chutney and would enjoy it. Bajra is a good source of a variety of amino acids (proteins), B vitamins and iron. It is also known as pearl millet and is called ‘kambu’ in tamil. My brother usually makes fun of me saying I make people eat what horses would eat but I would always say we are not as strong as they are so no harm eating these cereals. Also, I would say it is a fair point if they did not taste good, but these dishes are yummy so why would it hurt us to have healthy and delicious dishes? Anyway, enough of my rant, here is the recipe…

1/3 cup urd dal

2/3 cup brown rice (you can use white raw rice instead)
2/3 cup par boiled rice
¼ cup poha (flattened rice)
2/3 cup bajra flour
1 teapsoon fenugreek seeds

Salt to taste

Soak all ingredients except salt and bajra flour together for atleast 6 hours. Grind to paste and add the bajra flour and grind everything to fine batter. Add salt and allow to ferment for a day or night

Heat a tava, pour a ladleful of batter, spread thin to make crispy dosas and add some oil or ghee and once it browns, turn the side and cook about a minute (I also stuffed some vegetable masala to enhance the nutrition)

Serve with chutney and sambar

I stacked them up just to make it more presentable for my guests.