Neer Dosa

Before you start

• Soak the rice 5 hours or overnight. Neer dosa has no fermentation and no leavening, so the soak is what makes the batter grind fine.
• Neer means water: the finished batter should be as thin as full-fat milk and run straight off the ladle in a stream.
• Season a cast iron tawa properly beforehand. On a poorly seasoned pan these tear every time.

Method

1. Drain the soaked rice and grind it with the grated coconut and 250ml water to a completely smooth batter, 4 to 5 minutes in the blender.Rub a drop between your fingers. Any grittiness at all means it needs another two minutes.
2. Pour into a bowl, stir in the salt and thin with the remaining water until it is the consistency of thin milk.This will feel far too thin. It is meant to. A pourable-but-thick batter gives you a chapati, not a neer dosa.
3. Heat the tawa over medium-high until a drop of water skitters across it, then wipe it with a coconut-oil-dipped cloth.
4. Stir the batter well, then pour a ladleful from a height onto the hot tawa, moving in a spiral from the outside in. Do not spread it with the ladle.Filling gaps with extra batter is the instinct to resist; a hole or two is the mark of a proper neer dosa.
5. Cover and cook 60 to 90 seconds until the surface loses its wet sheen and the edges lift on their own.
6. Do not flip. Fold the dosa in half and then in half again with a spatula and slide it onto a plate.
7. Wipe the tawa with the oiled cloth between each dosa and stir the batter every time, since the rice settles fast.Stir before every single ladle. The batter separates within a minute.
8. Serve warm with coconut chutney, a jaggery-coconut filling, or a coastal fish curry.

Storage

Best eaten within a couple of hours, stacked and covered with a cloth so they stay pliable. The batter keeps 2 days refrigerated; whisk and re-thin with water before using.