Pesarattuu (Green Gram Dosa)
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried mung beans (Moong dal, or split and shelled mung beans can be used just as well. Your pesarattu will simply be yellow instead of green-ish.)
- ½ cup water
- 2 inch piece fresh ginger
- 1 whole green Thai chili (omit for children, as needed)
- 1 t sea salt OR a pinch of Kala Namak (Black Salt) if you have it on hand, but be aware of the the bold flavor it will bring.
- Additional seasonings or add-ins, as desired. (See Note for suggestions.)
- ghee, oil, butter, or cooking spray for frying
Instructions
- Cover the whole mung beans in water and soak for 4 hours to over-night.
- Blend together the softened beans, ginger, chili, and salt, with half a cup of water. (Plus any additional seasonings as desired.) You should end up with a runny batter that still has a rough texture. Add a few more tablespoons of water, more, or less as needed. The thinner the batter the crispier the pesarattu will be. Leaving the batter to rest for 30 minutes is best practice, but can be skipped if time doesn't allow.
- Preheat a heavy skillet or crepe pan well and reduce heat to medium/medium-high. Add a small amount of ghee/better/oil as desired and spread well across the pan.
- Pour in batter and spread by tilting the pan or using a spatula, until the entire surface is covered thin and evenly. (This is the time to sprinkle on any add-ins such as chopped onions, chilies, or cilantro.)
- In restaurants the cooking surface tends to be very hot eliminating the need to flip the pesarattu, however it is entirely acceptable to flip them when homemade. Either way, you will need to wait until the edges have crisped and are golden before removing from the pan or flipping.
- Serve the pesarattu open, folded, or rolled with soft cheese, chutney, sambal, umpa, sambar or other prepared dal as desired.
Notes
There are some additional options depending on your taste: season your batter with asafoetida (hing), cumin, garlic, curry, or other favorite spice blend; add fresh onions to the batter before grinding/blending; or sprinkle chopped green or white onions, fresh green chilies, and/or cilantro over the batter when it has been spread in the pan.
As for a finished dish, pesarattu is most often served with a side topping, such as coconut chutney (pol sambol), cilantro chutney (coriander sambol), tamerind chutney (sambal asam), and/or with umpa, or sambar.