Jowar dosa

The slow way to make a jowar dosa, called jolada dose in Kannada and jonna dosa in Telugu, is to soak whole jowar with urad dal, grind it and ferment the batter overnight. This is the instant version: jowar flour, a little rice flour, sour curd and water whisked into a thin batter, rested for 15 minutes and spread on a hot tawa exactly like a regular dosa. No grinder, no fermenting, no planning the night before.

The style here is plain, thin and crisp. The batter is spread with the back of the ladle rather than poured from a height, so you get an even, pale golden round with crisp edges and a soft centre instead of a lacy one; if you want the lacy, holey kind, the ragi dosa method does that. The seasoning is crushed black pepper and a pinch of hing, the way a milagu dosai is seasoned, which suits the mild, faintly sweet taste of jowar better than onion and chilli do.

Rice flour is there for crispness, because jowar has no gluten and a pure jowar batter makes a softer dosa that tears; curd adds tang and helps the browning. For a vegan dosa, skip the curd, add a teaspoon of lemon juice and cook with oil instead of ghee. You can also fold a spoon of potato masala inside. Half bajra, half jowar flour works in winter. More ideas are in the jowar recipes roundup.