adai

Adai 

Adai is considered to be a very heavy dosa variety by all the south Indians. This has lots of dhal in it. It can be compensated with lots of vegetables, jaggery and tea / resam/ green tea. But in these days we eat tons of pizza and junk food. When compared to all that I consider this as a very healthy high protein dish.
Every family has there own proportion of dhal and rice for making this dosa. Some use more rice and some use more dhal. I am giving 3 options. Try all the three and see which one suites your family taste.
Option 1:
Dhal and rice – 1:2
i.e Dhal one cup comprising of Channa dhal -1/2 cup, Toor dhal – 1/4 cup, Urad dhal (without skin – white) – 1/4 cup.
Rice 2 cups comprising of one cup raw rice and one cup boiled rice.
Soaked for 3 to 5 hours and grinded with whole red chilli – 10 nos (this is a spicy dosa). My redchilli is a non spicy version. Use as per your choice.
Then add salt, hing, curry leaves.
Make the dosa immediately. No need to ferment.
Option 2 :
Dhal and rice – 1:1 equal
i.e Dhal one cup comprising of Channa dhal -1/2 cup, Toor dhal – 1/4 cup, Urad dhal (without skin – white) – 1/4 cup.
Rice one cup comprising of 1/2 cup raw rice and 1/2 cup boiled rice.
Same way -soak it and grind it . Add the same salt, hing and curry leaves.
Option 3 :
Dhal and rice – 3 : 1
i.e. Dhal – one cup of channa dhal, one cup of toor dhal and one cup of urad dhal.
Rice one cup (1/2 cup boiled rice and 1/2 cup raw rice)
Same way – soak it and grind it . Add the same salt, hing and curry leaves.
The dhal proportion of channa and toor dhal can be interchanged.
When we use more rice it is crispy but has to be consumed when hot. Otherwise, it will be hard. If we use more dhal – it will be soft even when it is not hot.
I have used the 3rd option. I keep changing the option. The picture above is with the 3rd option.
Also can add some oats to this dosa. Oats makes the dosa very soft.
 
Normally only whole redchilli is used for adai. My mother always uses some green chilli and ginger.
I have added some green chilli and ginger too while grinding. The dosa will be of a golden colour only when more redchillies are used. If you don’t want to use so much chillies then add some turmeric to the dosa for the nice colour.
The batter has to be thick for this dosa. This is a thicker variety of dosa.
But you can grind it like the normal dosa batter and make it thin like dosas.
I prefer this without onion. But finely chopped onions can be added to the batter.
In my mothers house – if there is left over batter – then they add onions as the batter will be little sour. To nullify it the onions are added. I feel the dhal flavour is lost when we add onions.
This dosa will take little longer time to cook when compared to the normal dosas.
Soaking the dhal for 3 to 4 hours minimum is important. Soaking will help in better digestion of the dhal.