How to get a crisp dosa from fresh batter

Fresh batter does not behave like the packet kind. It is livelier, it is wetter, and it rewards a hotter pan. If your first dosa from a Homy pack came out pale or stuck, none of these is a fault in the batter. They are the five things that decide whether a dosa goes crisp.

1. Take the batter out of the fridge first

Cold batter hits a hot pan and seizes. Give it twenty to thirty minutes on the counter before you start. In Chennai that is usually enough. Stir it gently once, just to bring it back together. Do not beat it, you will knock the air out.

2. Get the consistency right, then leave it alone

It should pour in a steady ribbon and spread when you push it. If it is too thick it will tear as you spread. Add water a spoon at a time, never a glass at once. If it is too thin the dosa will be lacy and limp, and there is no fixing that, so go slowly.

3. The pan has to be properly hot

This is where most dosas are lost. Flick a few drops of water on the tawa. They should skitter and vanish in a second or two. If they sit and bubble slowly, the pan is not ready. If they disappear instantly with a crack, it is too hot, so take it off the heat for a moment.

Wipe the pan with a halved onion or a cloth dipped in oil between dosas. It cools the surface slightly and stops the next one from catching.

4. Spread from the centre, in one go

Pour a ladle into the middle and spiral outwards without lifting the ladle. Work quickly. Once the batter starts to set you cannot spread it further without tearing it, and a patched dosa never crisps evenly.

5. Oil the edges, not the middle

A teaspoon drizzled around the rim is enough. It runs underneath on its own. Oil poured into the centre pools there and steams the dosa instead of crisping it.

Wait for the edges to lift and turn golden before you touch it. For a crisp dosa you do not need to flip at all. Fold it straight off the pan.

If it still sticks

• A brand new tawa needs seasoning. Rub it with oil, heat it until it smokes lightly, cool it, and repeat two or three times.
• Non stick pans that have lost their coating will stick no matter what you do.
• A pan that is not hot enough sticks far more often than one that is too hot.

Our Idly and Dosa Maavu is stone ground every morning and reaches you the same day, so it has not sat in a warehouse losing its lift. See it in the shop.