Erra Karam Dosa

Buffet on Table: Week 2 -- Indian States

Day 7: Andhra Pradesh -- Erra Karam Dosa

I am making a dish from my home state of Andhra today. It was quite a task deciding on dishes for this week. I had big plans but things got hectic and I lost track of time. Finally I decided on making simple recipes that have been on my bookmarks for a long time.

This Erra Karam Dosa from Suma's blog is something I have been planning to make for a while now. It is a spicy and delicious variation of dosa from the Rayalaseema region in Andhra. According to Suma it is a dish that is a popular street food.

Erra karam dosas are so named because the dosas are smeared with erra karam (erra=red and karam=hot spicy). But the dish is not extremely spicy as the name suggests. The recipe has quite a few components that mellow out the spicy taste of the erra karam.

Like I mentioned before, there are quite a few components to this dish but all of them can be prepared ahead of time, may be the night before, so you are ready to make these yummy dosas for breakfast in the morning.

Recipe from Suma's blog:

Ingredients:

For Dosa Batter:
Urad dal - ½cup
Rice - 2cups
Poha - 2tbsp
Methi seeds - 1tsp
Salt - to taste

Erra Karam - recipe follows
Bombay Chutney - recipe follows
Pappula podi - recipe follows

Method:

• Soak urad dal along with poha & methi seeds and rice separately for at least 4~6 hours. Grind them separately into smooth pastes and mix them together along with salt. Leave the batter to ferment for 8~10 hours or overnight.
• When ready to make dosas, first prepare bombay chutney, erra karam and pappula podi.
• Heat a nonstick or cast iron griddle/ tawa on medium heat. Pour a ladle full of batter on the tawa and spread it out into a thin circle with the back of the ladle. Drizzle some oil around the edges of the dosa. Cook dosa until the bottom is lightly browned. Flip and cook the other side for another 30 seconds. 
• Now flip the dosa again, spread some Bombay chutney on top followed by a thin layer of erra karam and a sprinkle of pappula podi. Fold the dosa in half and cook on both sides for a few seconds. Serve hot with a chutney of choice.

Bombay Chutney:
Onion - 1 small, finely chopped
Besan/ Chickpea flour - 1cup
Turmeric - ¼tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tsp oil in a nonstick pan. Add the onions and cook till they turn translucent. Stir in turmeric.
• In a small bowl, whisk besan with water and form a lump free, smooth batter.
• Add the besan mixture along with salt to the onions in the pan, whisk continuously and cook till the besan is cooked through. Add more water if needed, but whisk well to avoid lump formation.
• Turn off the heat. This chutney gets thicker as it cools, so make sure it's not too thick when you turn off the heat.

Recipe from Suma's blog:
For Erra Karam:
Onions - 3 large, chopped
Red chili powder - 1tsp (or adjust as per taste)
Garlic - 2 cloves (optional)
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Grind onions, red chili powder, garlic (if using) and salt into a slightly coarse paste.
• This chutney can be used raw. But I like it cooked.
• Heat 2tsp oil in a pan; add the ground onion mixture and cook on low heat until it loses it's raw onion paste.

For Pappula Podi:
Roasted gram dal/ putnalu/ dalia - ½cup
Dry red chilies - 2 (optional)

Salt - to taste (optional)

Method:

• Grind all the ingredients into smooth powder and keep ready.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 56.

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