Banana Dosa/Balehannu Dose

I first ate this at my friend Nivedita's house on my previous visit to India. Must say, her mom cooks such amazing food, I used to travel around  15 km one way, just to eat what she cooked when i was back in college. So, this time around her mom made these scrumptious doasas for me. They were sweet, but not annoyingly sweet and that caramelized banana flavour... umm!! Takes me to a different plane. Her mom gave me this recipe, which i tried after a long time. This dosa is eaten with jaggery, before it is solidified. In the sense, jaggery in it's natural state is a semi liquid, it is processed further to solidify. Or you can have it with a sweet date chutney, coconut chutney, honey, ketchup or anything you may please. If you top it with some roasted nuts and honey, it makes an excellent dessert. I made sorakaya Pachadi to go along with this dosa, recipe for which i will update in coming days. Here goes the recipe for the versatile banana dosa.

Prep time: 15 minutes (excluding soaking and fermenting)

Cook time: 2 to 4 minutes, each dosa

servings: About 10 dosas

Ingredients:

1. Large ripe bananas - 2

2. raw rice - 1 cup

3. Salt - to taste

4. Jaggery - 1/2 cup to 1 1/2 cups or more depending on how sweet you want it. Grated.

5. Water - required amount to thin the batter.
6. Fenugreek Seeds- 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Soak rice and fenugreek seeds together for atleast 5 hours.

2. Grind soaked rice and banana to a smooth batter, it's consistency should be like dosa or pan cake batter.

3. Add salt and jaggery, let it ferment overnight or atleast 8 hours. 

4. To make pan cakes or dosa, heat a tava or a skillet, pour a ladle full of this batter in the middle of the skillet. Press down the ladle gently on the batter in the center of the batter and in a circular motion, spread it around the pan slightly.. not too much.

5. Pour oil around the batter and let it turn brown, flip and cook for 30 more seconds. Dosa is ready to be served. Be careful when you flip the dosa, it is very delicate so handle it with care.

Serving suggestions:

This particular dosa can be eaten as breakfast or dessert. If serving as break fast, use some savory sides like chutney, ketchup or pudi. If serving as a dessert, use honey, maple syrup, jaggery paste, date chutney. Also drizzle some chopped nut on top for more jazz.

Tips:

1. If bananas are rotting away, you know what breakfast to make the next day, ;) wink.

2. Very good carbs, so it is an excellent breakfast when you need all the energy.

3. Use more jaggery into batter if you are planning to make dessert, than breakfast.
4. Heat of the skillet should be monitored, since this dosa has a lot of sugar, it will burn faster and will not cook through. Heat the skillet on medium heat, not high.