Adai - Mixed Lentil Crêpe

Everyone knows Dosai. Especially, Masala Dosai, the Indian crêpe that's wrapped with awesome potatoes cooked in Indian spices.

To introduce, Adai is much like dosai, but even better, in that it is nutritious and filled with the goodness of many lentils and pulses (whichever you can lay your hands on, literally), in addition to rice and urad dal/black gram dal, which is the base.

Adai makes a hearty tiffin/ dinner by itself and is best served with Aviyal (Medley of vegetables in grated coconut, green chillies and yoghurt sauce) or Sambar.  Personally, I prefer Adai with grated jaggery, for that contrast of sweet and savoury.

What You Need -

 

For the Adai Batter :

• Idly Rice (the broken rice variety) - 1 cup
• Urad dal - 1/4 cup
• Mixture of various lentils - Channa dal  (I always include it), Green Moong dal (Pacha Payaru), Mochai (Hyacinth bean), Cow peas (Karamani), Rajma (Red beans)  - totalling 3/4 cup

This proportion of Rice to Urad to Other Lentils will yield the right consistency of batter for Adai, my mom says. 

• Curry leaves - 2 strands
• Red chillies - 5
• Salt - to taste (~1 1/4 tsp)
• Hing / Perumgayam/ Asafoetida - a pinch

Oil - 4-5 drops per adai, to make Adai

 

How To -

Soak rice and all the dals (lentils) in enough water for an hour.

Drain most of the water and blend everything into an almost-fine batter (a bit of crunch here and there would be nice).

Please add curry leaves, red chillies, salt and asafoetida while blending itself.

The batter is instantly ready for making Adais. There's no need to wait for it to ferment, like we do for Idlis.

Adai Batter

Take out your dosa kal or pancake pan, grease with a teaspoon of oil and heat the pan for 2 minutes.

Adai - the more nutritious Indian crêpe

Spread the batter evenly using a ladle (capacity of about 6 tbsp) on to the pan, into a circle. Pour drops of oil around the circumference. Turn heat on to medium or to Low (if you feel its too hot). Wait patiently for the crêpe to get roasted well and then flip sides. This step might require some practice but you should be able to get it ok (yes, trust me) from the second crêpe onwards as the pan is seasoned, by then.


Hope you start relishing Adais at home now, more than Dosais :)