Darshini Style Dosa is a unique dosa made in restaurants in Bangalore. This dosa has a crunchy, crispy outer layer with a soft and pillowy texture inside.
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Darshini style dosa is a variety of dosa available exlusively in quick service restaurants in Bengaluru.
These dosa have a crispy outer texture and a pillowy soft inner texture that makes a perfect dish for a takeaway.
They usually serve this restaurant style dosa with thick coconut chutney, sambar and a big dollop of white butter.
Where can you find Darshini Style Dosa?
When I say restaurants, these places are small eateries, commonly a two-word name ending with a Darshini or Sagar, that serve these delectable dosas. They are Bangalore style “Corner Cafe” that serve tiffin items such as Idlis, Dosas, Masala Dosas, Khara Bath, Chow Chow bath, Puri Sagu etc etc.
They are the QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants) of Bangalore serving fresh food that makes every office goer’s breakfast plans easy or solve every parent’s “what should I make for dinner” dilemma. In Bangalore, specifically in South Bangalore, every other street has a darshini style restaurant catering their unique dosa – Upahara Darshini, SLV, Vidyarthi Bhavan, Sukh Sagar, Adigas etc etc. where you can enjoy these them. But almost all corners of Bangalore have these darshinis, so if you are new to Bangalore, eating a dosa at a darshini must be on your to-do list.
Ingredients to make this Darshini Style Dosa
Typically, most restaurants have a unique recipe that revolves around the same set of ingredients but different proportions of it – red raw rice, parboiled rice, aval, chana dal, tur dal and methi seeds. Each darshini or sagar will have something unique about their dosa or the accompaniment that goes with it.
If you don’t have access to red raw rice, you can use normal white rice (sona masoori or basmati).
The red raw rice, tur dal and chana dal adds to the golden colour while parboiled rice gives the dosa a body. Rice along with Urad dal – soaked, ground and fermented gives the dosa the nice tang/sourness thereby upping the flavour. Methi seeds and Aval add to the pillowy texture of the dosa.
Some people might not like the sourness from the fermentation, so sugar is added to mask it. Adding rice flour just before making the dosa, will yield that all famous crackling crispiness on the outside.
How to make Darshini Style Dosa?
You can start by soaking rice, urad dal, aval, chana dal and tur dal together for a minimum of five hours after washing them. But if you plan on making restaurant style dosas for dinner, soaking dals and rice overnight is alright, but make sure to drain out the soaked water and use fresh water.
After soaking the dals, grind them in a grinder or a mixer until you achieve a smooth consistency. Some people drain the water and use fresh water to grind the ingredients, but using the soaked water is fine too.
Add the ground batter in a large container, give it a good mix with your hand. With the hand, you ask? – The answer to that is the wild yeast! Wild yeast lives in the air, around us and in our hands. The action of mixing the batter with your hands enables the wild yeast to get incorporated into the batter, causing perfect fermentation.
Place the mixed batter in a large container, giving it enough space to ferment and rise. A good 5-6 inches above the batter should be available for fermentation. I always keep a plate underneath the container to avoid any cleaning hassles. We can do overnight the fermentation or 6-8 hours, depending on the weather.
Once fermented, the next morning, add salt and sugar – give it all a good mix. The batter should be thick, but of spreadable consistency. Thirty to forty minutes before making dosas, add the rice flour and mix it thoroughly through the batter.
Preparation to making Darshini Style dosas
Before making darshini style dosas, make sure that the pan is hot and sizzles when you sprinkle some water on it.
Pour out a large ladle of the batter on the hot tawa, and let it steam cook. Once the batter dries up on the tawa, you can add oil or ghee to the sides, which will help with the crisping factor. This dosa doesn’t need to be flipped – once the insides are porous and soft, that’s when you know it’s done.
You should also see the outer layer of dosa, turn into the characteristic golden red. Keep the flame on medium high so the heat can remain even. Take the dosa off the pan and serve with the accompaniments you have prepared.
What do I eat it with?
Restaurant style dosas at Darshinis and Sagars are served with Restaurant style Sambar and coconut chutney. Typically, people eat dosas only with chutney, and Idlis go with sambar. However, most places commonly serve both chutney and sambar.
Shelf Life and Storage
Shelf Life – You can keep the dosa batter out for an hour or two after fermenting and making it. Else, the fermentation will continue and might end up tasting really sour. So it is best to pop it back into the fridge as soon as you’ve eaten.
Storage – You can store the fermented batter in the fridge for up to 3 days, after which the sourness would’ve increased.
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Recipe
Darshini Style Dosa
Ingredients
- 1 cup Dosa Rice (parboiled rice)
- 1 cup Red Rice Or white if you don't have any
- ¾ cup Urad Dal
- ¼ cup Aval poha
- ¼ cup Tur Dal
- ¼ cup Chana Dal
- 2 tsp Methi Seeds
- 2 cups Rice Flour
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Salt or as required
Instructions
Soaking, Grinding and Fermentation
- Wash and soak together – dosa rice, red raw rice, urad dal, avalakki, tur dal, chana dal, methi seeds in enough water. (2 inches of water above the soaked rice and lentils)
- It should be soaked for a minimum of 5 hours. Once soaked, drain the water (save it, use it to water your plants) and grind it in a grinder for an even texture. Add fresh water in small quantities to ensure that the grains don't stick to the grooves of the grinder. If you do not have a wet grinder, you can use a mixer, but do it in batches so that you don't crowd the jar.
- Pour the batter into a large vessel, giving it enough room to ferment. Leave this batter to ferment for at least 8 hours or overnight.
- You know that the batter is fermented when you see air bubbles trapped in the batter.
Dosa Preparation
- Once fermented, add sugar, salt and water and give it all a good mix. Next, add in the rice flour, and mix until there are no lumps of rice flour in the batter. The consistency of the batter should be thick and flowy ( like thick pancake batter). Let this sit for at least 30 minutes if you are in a hurry or an hour, so that the rice flour has had a chance to blend in with the batter.
- Heat a tawa to high heat, reduce the flame to medium and pour a ladle of batter and spread it evenly on the tawa.
- In this dosa, you do not have to flip and cook on the other side. You can let the dosa cook on one side while letting the other side crisp up to a golden brown colour.
- Once the inside portion is cooked, fold the dosa in half and enjoy the textures and tastes of the dosa along with this restaurant style chutney or sambar
Notes
- It is always better to leave the batter out from the fridge 20-30 minutes before making the dosa. Cold batter on a hot dosa pan will yield broken dosas.
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