Masala Dosa Bonda
Dosa is a very popular Indian dish form Southern part of India. People usually eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Its one of those dishes you can eat anytime of the day.
Dosa are made with rice and lentils, by soaking them for few hours and then grinding them into fine paste. Then this batter is left to ferment a little bit. Once it hits that fermentation part, it adds so much character and slight flavor to the dish. It adds slightest tang to the batter.
Dosa is often compared to Ethiopian Injera. Dosa are crispy on the edges, soft in the middle and comes in different variations. Some have a garlic red chili chutney spread inside it, some with potato masala, some plain. Its also compared or called crepes by non-Indians.
Its so addictive and often served with some side dishes like coconut chutney.
My masala dosa bonda is inspired by the original dish. Same recipe, but little different way of making it and serving it. I don’t make it every time I think of masala dosa. Once in a while, if you want to make something different with similar taste and flavor for friends or guests, this would be the dish.
The recipe is in two parts–
Potato filling
I make dosa batter sometimes at home, but at times I also keep a store-bought container in the refrigerator. I will link my home made dosa batter. But, if you want o buy it from Indian grocery store, go ahead. Shortcuts are totally okay. Its very easy and simple recipe, but the flavors and textures are all very delish. You can try homemade dosa batter linked here. You might end up having some extra. Make Uttapams instead from leftover batter.
Masala Dosa Bonda
Ingredients
- 2-3 medium potatoes boiled
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 tsp ginger grated
- 1 tsp or 2 small chilies chopped
- 2 tbsp oil
- ¼ tsp mustard seeds
- 2-3 curry leaves
- 1 tbsp chana dal or white split urad dal soaked in water for 5 minutes
- 1 -2 tbsp cashews roughly chopped
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
- 1 tsp lemon juice optional
- 1 tbsp cilantro chopped
- 1 cup dosa batter
- Small pinch baking soda or Eno
- Oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Take some oil in a pan, let it heat up on medium heat. Once hot, add mustard seeds, let them splutter.
- As soon as they splutter, add the curry leaves, ginger, chilies. Stir. Add chopped onions too.
- Mix it well, let onions cook a little bit and add urad dal or chana dal, cashewnuts. Followed by the turmeric and salt.
- Once the onions look cooked, add in the chopped boiled potatoes. Roughly, mash it with the back of the spoon. Do not completely mash it, leave some chunks. Mix well to combine everything.
- Turn off the heat, add lemon juice and cilantro. Again, mix it well.
- Let it cool down, divide it in equal portions. I got 10 tennis ball sized rounds out of it. You can remove the curry leaves at this point before rolling them into balls.
- Heat up some oil for deep frying on low-medium heat.
- While the oil heats up, take dosa batter in a mixing bowl, add baking soda or Eno, whatever you are using. Stir it well to mix the soda evenly in the batter.
- Once the oil is hot around 250-300 F. (Oil should not be too hot). Dip the potato balls with the help of a spoon into dosa batter and drop them carefully into the oil and fry them until golden crispy on all sides.
- Repeat, until all the potato mixture is fried.
- Serve it hot/warm with coconut cilantro chutney.
Notes
- The oil should be hot but not too hot, the dosa batter will burn quickly if the oil is too hot.
- I used store-bought dosa batter.
- Count the number of curry leaves you are adding to the potato mixture, so that you can remove it before dipping them and frying. Curry leaves are totally edible, but usually people remove them. They are there more for flavor.
XO, Devangi