Cooking dosas

[Jugglering1]

I was trying to make dosas this afternoon but keep finding that the batter sticks to my tava, despite oiling it first. The tava is a well-used one and I'm reasonable competent with chapattis and parathas (and omelettes in my omelette pan), so I don't think it's the tava that's at fault. I had heated the tava up, oiled it, tested the temperature with a few tiny drops of water (yep, they sizzled like mad), turned down the heat slightly and then poured the batter over (1/3 cup), spread it out and then sprinkled a little oil over the top and down the sides. The cooked ones taste fine but keep seriously sticking to the tava - does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong ?

[Mrs. Bucket]

What kind of tava are you using? If you've oiled it, sticking should not take place. Are you mixing the chapattis very soft? This has me baffled, I have to think some more.

[Jugglering1]

Thanks Mrs B..... but it's the dosas I'm having problems with, I'm ok with chapattis and parathas - they don't stick ! The tava is about a year old now, anodised and used regularly (like twice a week).

I have now tried making the dosas with a cold tava, with a warm tava and a hot tava - all have the same effect - burnt, stuck on dosa batter !

[figure]

Juggles, try cooking a dosa or two in a slightly oiled non-stick or heavy stainless pan. See if you still have that 'sticking' problem. You would think if the cooking surface is greased there would be no sticking eh ..... hmmmm

[Jugglering1]

Haha Figure - that's exactly what I've been doing with the dosa batter - the tava is a non-stick anodised pan that I've been oiling. I've been making chapattis, parathas, griddle cakes, pancakes, omelettes etc for years and never had this sort of problem before. I was so baffled by this that I posted this Q !

Since the original Q, I have also tried the dosa batter in an oiled cast iron frying pan and on an oiled stainless steel griddle and each time it just stuck to the surface - The only thing I can think of is that the batter mix was *off* on some way, but when I tasted the bits I managed to scrape off the pan, they tasted wonderful !

[figure]

Sounds like you're a fantastic cook and not the type who gives up easily ;-) If you are in the mood for experimenting, next time to make dosa add a pinch or two of baking powder to the batter - see if that makes a difference.

Here's a bunch of dosa recipes - http://www.recipes.keralaz.info/dosa-recipes/M oong-Dosa.shtm

[Jugglering1]

Thanks Figure, I don't call it *being a fantastic cook* I call it being a fanatical cook - and no, I don't give up easily. I didn't make the dosa batter myself - I just bought a pack off one of the shelves in Asda's world food section to see if I liked the taste of them (Topo had mentioned to me that he had eaten lovely tasting dosas in India, which made me realise that I'd never even tried them... hence the purchase - there was no way I was going to all that effort of making them from scratch if I didn't even like the taste).

I have watched just about every video on tinterweb that I can find on making dosas and I still can't see what I am doing wrong...doh !