Neer Dosas & Sambar

What I really enjoy about internet is that you can learn so much about so many things! A few weeks ago, I was checking Indian food recipes and found something I never heard about before: Neer Dosas… It looked so good that I really wanted to make some at home so I have been reading and watching a lot of recipes before trying. I also wanted to do a dish side and finally found the perfect dish that I could prepare with vegetables from my garden: a sambar.

This two dishes are from South India so feels like you are travelling while cooking them thanks to all the spices you have to use. Neer mean “water”, in this recipe, only a few ingredients are needed: water, rice and salt. Some people also add some fresh coconut. About the Sambar, there are so many ways to cook it! Only a few ingredients never change: onion, garlic, tomaotes and spices; but all the other ones are seasonal vegetables (green beans, potatoes, coliflower…). Here is my recipe for 2 people.

Ingredients for Neer Dosas:

• 80 g rice
• 100g water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for Sambar:

• 90 g yellow French beans
• 24 zucchini flowers
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 potatoe
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tablespoon Maggi liquid seasoning
• 1 tablespoon Garam Massala
• 1 tablespoon Curcuma
• 1 teaspoon Coriander
• 1 teaspoon Paprika
• black pepper
• fresh parsley
• Sunflower oil

Recipe:

Wash the rice in a bowl with cold water several times until the water is clear. Then, cover with water (the water has to be 1 cm up from the rice). Let it rest 3-4h.

During this time, prepare the Sambar. Remove each end of the Yellow French Beans. Peel, wash and cut the potatoe in small cubes. Put them with the beans in a sauce pan and cover with water. Place it on the burner at high temperature until boiling, then, reduce the heat at medium temperature and let cook 12-15 minutes. When it is cooked, dry them in a colander. Finally, cut the beans in pieces.

Remove the pistil from the flowers and wash them. Cut them in pieces. Peel and chop the onion and the garlic. Wash and cut the tomatoes in cubes. Wash and chop the parsley.

Place a big frying pan on the burner at medium temperature and add 1 tablespoon Sunflower oil. Then, pour the onion and garlic and mix with a spatula. Add the flowers and mix. Let cook for 1-2 minutes until it reduce, then, add the tomatoes. Let cook again 2 minutes with a cover. Then, add the Yellow French Beans, potatoes, Maggi liquid seasoning, black pepper, coriander, garam massala, paprika and curcuma. Mix and let cook 5 minutes. Then, add the fresh parsley and turn off the heat.

When the rice has been soaked for 3-4h, place it in a blender with its water and mix until everything is liquid. If you want, you can add some fresh coconut. If so, add it in the blender with some more water and mix again.

Before cooking the dosas, turn on the heat under the Sambar at low temperature so it will slowly warm up. Place a frying pan on the burner at high temperature and oil it using a tissue. Use a ladle to take a dose of the dough and pour it on the frying pan to create a disc. Fill the holes with there is some and let it cook 1 minute until the borders are raising. Then, fold it before placing it on your plates. Serve with sambar (mine was not  really liquid but you can cook it with more tomatoes and serve it in a bowl).