Thinai Doasi - Fox tail Millet and Brown Rice Crepes

The bright sun fooled me into being careless. As I was hopping from one leg to another waiting in front of the track field for DD to come cold and shivering(me not her) from the spring breeze and late evening sun. Lucky for me another mom was waiting for her son to finish as well. We started talking and she gave me tips on how to make squash papusa and the cold ceased to matter. I am so looking forward to making them soon. She asked me to use masa flour and the water added should be not too cold or not too hot for the papusa dough to come together nicely.

As for the recipe,
The first time I found millet at Whole Foods I thought they were pearl millet in a different color. But that was not exactly correct. The millet I was seeing here in the US is actually fox tail millet or thinai as it is called in Tamil a friend corrected me on FB. I am glad she did or I would lived the rest of my life thinking they were kambu or pearl millet.


I have cooked this millet like rice. They are not quite as sweet as rice but with a slight earthy taste. Give a new grain to a South Indian and dosai is never far behind. I added urad dal (white gram dal), brown rice and idli rice to make the batter and they were just as tasty as white rice dosai. In fact they tasted as good as or better than the regular dosai.

Thinai dosai
Preparation Time:30 minutes + overnight soaking
Cooking Time:20 minutes
For Dosai
Ingredients

1. 1 cup of foxtail millet
2. 1/2 cup urad dal
3. 1/2 cup brown rice
4. 1/2 cup white rice or idli rice
5. salt

Method

1. Wash and soak the millet and rice for 8 hours or overnight
2. Wash and soak the urad dal for at least 1/2 hour
3. Using a wet grinder grind the urad dal first. I usually let the grinder run for about 15-20 minutes. Remove to a separate container.
   
4. Next grind the millet, add the millet first and let the grinder run for a couple of minutes and then add the soaked rice, both brown and white and blend for about 8-10 minutes till the batter is smooth. Remove to the container with the urad dal.



5. Add salt and water from rinsing out the grinder to make a smooth pourable batter.



6. Let ferment overnight. I use the oven with the light turned on for fermenting.


For making dosai

7. Heat a dosai pan or griddle. Wipe the pan with a cloth which is dipped in oil. Spread the dosai batter in a thin swirl on the pan. Apply oil on the sides. Let cook on one side, flip and cook on the other side.



Serve with chutney of choice.

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