Thosai are soft, slightly fermented and super-savoury pancakes that are eaten simply with a sambar (a south Indian saucy lentil dish) and/or sambol for breakfast or dinner.
There are various ways to make them; the more traditional methods involve soaking urad dhal (black gram) and rice grains in water for hours, before grinding to make a paste, combining to make a batter and then fermenting. This can be a little fraught, not to mention time-consuming, so here I offer an easier version based on a recipe from Chandra Dissanayake’s book Ceylon Cookery.
Thosai are traditionally made on a flat pan called a tava pan, but a large non-stick frying pan works just as well.
Makes 14.
Ingredients 16
9 g dried yeast
5 g caster sugar
175 ml coconut water, at room temperature
110 g undu flour (urud dhal flour), see my tips below
110 g plain flour
50 ml coconut cream
300 ml water
ghee, for pan-frying, optional
Temper
30 g ghee
5 g curry leaves
180 g brown onion, diced
3 dried chillies, small, sliced into thin rounds
4 g salt flakes
3 g mustard seeds
3 g cumin seeds
2 g fenugreek seeds
0.5 g turmeric powder
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Method 7
Mix together the , and in a bowl and leave for 5 minutes so it starts to bubble and froth up.
Combine the and in a mixing bowl and slowly stir in the coconut water mixture until it all comes together. Cover with a tea towel (dish towel) and leave for about an hour, after which time it will become a little puffy.
Mix together the and , then slowly whisk into the dough until you have a thickish pancake batter. It will probably be a little lumpy, but there’s no need to worry about that as we will fix it later. Rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the temper. Melt the in a small frying pan over a medium heat, add the and cook, stirring, for a minute until the leaves are fried. Add the and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir in the , , , and and cook for 4–5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onion has softened. Add the and cook for another minute.
Allow this mix to cool, then add it to the batter and whisk together – this should fix any remaining lumps. The batter can be used immediately, but I prefer to let it sit out for a few hours to get a more fermented flavour. You can even rest it overnight in the fridge to use the next day, you will just need to add a little extra and give it a moment to come up to temperature.
Place a tava pan over a medium heat and rub with a small amount of ghee (if you are using a non-stick frying pan you won’t need the ghee). Ladle about 80 ml (2½ fl oz) of batter into the middle of the pan, then use the bottom of the ladle to spread it out evenly in a circular motion to a thickish pancake. Cook for 1 minute until small bubbles appear, then flip and cook the other side for 1–2 minutes.
Remove and serve hot from the pan, then repeat with the remaining batter.
O Tama Carey's tips
Undu flour is urud dhal (skinned black gram) flour, and you will need to buy this from a Sri Lankan grocer. If you can’t find it, you could probably use another type of lentil flour, though I have not tried this myself. If it’s not feasible to serve individual thosai straight from the pan, you can keep them warm in a low oven, then serve them all at once.
