Potato Dosa

This is not a very traditional dosa. It's my version of the Sri Lankan Farmers breakfast that they serve at Lentil as Anything  which is essentially a dosa. The pancake (dosa) is made out of buckwheat flour and chickpea flour, it's gluten free and vegan. Buckwheat is technically a fruit not a grain. Both the buckwheat flour and chickpea flour are high in protein which is not the case with other flours. Lots of people have jumped on the gluten free band wagon who are not gluten intolerant, which is great... a lot of us could stand to cut down on our gluten intake. However the gluten free pastas and and flours that you can buy are often very refind and can spike your blood sugar levels even higher than wheat can. You don't have that problem with these to flours I've used here and better still chickpea flour  can be whipped up yourself in the blender from dried chickpeas in minutes.

With the left over dosas, my children ate them with jam after dinner. Which sounds strange but Chickpeas surprisingly make the jump over to sweet-land quite nicely. I once made a cake out of chickpeas and no other grain, it was quite good. So if you are gluten intolerant this dosa recipe could be a good one for you with many a topping.

The filling has cauliflower in it. If you don't have any or it's not in season replace it with a medium sweet potato. It's equally as good.

And for the final part of my rant. I have specified to use organic potatoes. Even if you don't buy much organic food, potatoes are one thing that you should consider buying. As they are a root vegetable they absorb all the chemical used on them. And there is a lot. No amount of washing can get rid of them. Also the price difference is very marginal depending where you go. And they taste very, very different (BETTER).

If you are vegan I've added a little idea at the end to replace the yogurt sauce.

INGREDIENTS

Dosa

130g Chickpea flour (1 cup of dried chickpeas)

130g Buckwheat flour

1 tsp of baking soda

a pinch of salt

500 ml of luke warm water
2 tbsp of coconut butter melted + extra for frying

Filling

4 medium organic potatoes (I used nicola) peeled and diced

half a cauliflower roughly chopped

1 large onion diced

150g of podded peas fresh or frozen organic

2 tsp nigella seeds

2 tsp ground coriander

3 tsp of turmeric

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp of curry powder

about half a bunch of fresh coriander

1 tsp of good quality sea salt

coconut butter or olive oil

Tomato Sauce

1 large onion

1 jar of tomato pasata

1 tsp of nigella seeds

1 tsp salt

Turmeric Yogurt

1 cup or so of organic or biodynamic yogurt

1 tsp of turmeric

a pinch of salt

1 garlic clove

DIRECTIONS

For the dosa place a cup of dried chickpeas in the blender and blend on high speed for a few minutes. This will yield about 130g of flour. Place all the dry ingredients in a bowel and the melted coconut butter and then the warm water a bit at a time whisking the whole time until you have a smooth batter the consistancy of runny cream. Put a plate over your bowel and set aside while you make the filling.

For the filling bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook the potatoes and cauliflower until tender.

Meanwhile start the tomato sauce. Peel the onion and slice it in half, lengthways and then thinly slice it widthways so you have half circles. Fry them in olive oil until soft but not brown. Add the nigella seeds, the pasata and a pinch of salt and cook on medium to high heat for about ten minutes.

Now back to the filling. Drain the potato and cauliflower when they are tender reserving a teacup of cooking liquid. Fry the onions until they are soft, add the spices and cook for a minute longer. Now add the potato and cauliflower and the cooking liquid, stirring every now and then to prevent the bottom from sticking. After a few minutes add the peas. Cook for a few minutes longer then turn off the heat and add the fresh coriander.

Now get a heavy pan (I used a cast iron pan you may need to test out what temperature works best for your pan) And set it on high heat add a little coconut butter and put in 3/4 of a ladle full into you pan, moving the pan around so you have a thin layer. when the dosa is full of holes and dry on top gently flip over and cook the other side until golden. Repeat method until all the dosa are cooked. Keeping the cooked dosa inside two plates in a warm oven until your ready to go.

To fill the dosa. put one on a plate and put the filling over half of it. Fold the dosa in half and top with the tomato sauce, turmeric sauce (directions below) and fresh coriander.

Turmeric Yogurt

Place the all ingredients except for the garlic in a bowel and stir with a fork. Smash the garlic, skin on with a heavy knife and sit the garlic in the sauce for ten minutes, Remove it before serving.

Vegan Turmeric Sauce.

Soak a cup of cashews in filtered water for four hours, drain and rinse. Put the cashews, a 1/4 of a clove of garlic, juice of half a lemon, 1 tsp of turmeric and a pinch of salt. Slowly add water with the blender on until you have the desired consistency.

Enjoy!