Soornali or Surnali or Sweet Set Dosa

This is a breakfast regular at my parents home. My mom makes this early in the morning and the whole smells with the sweet aroma of the dosa and the jaggery cooking on the iron griddle. The sweet aroma would make us wake earlier than usual :) The sweet surnali with butter and honey is beyond description and one must taste it to enjoy the wonderful soft dosa along with the butter melting due to the heat of the surnali. The non-sweet version of this dosa can be made by skipping the jaggery, but I always prefer the sweet version. Methi or fenugreek seeds are added to facilitate fermentation and to make the dosa more softer.

Ingredients

2 cups rice (preferably raw rice)
3/4 cup pova or beaten rice (thin)
1/2 cup butter milk or 1/2 cup curd
1/4 teaspoon methi seeds
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup grated coconut
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 cup gur or jaggery(skip, if you want the non-sweet version)


Method

Soak rice and methi seeds for 6-8 hours. Rinse the soaked rice and methi. Wash the pova and drain the water. Grind rice, methi, curd or buttermilk, pova and coconut to make the dosa batter. You should feel the coarse rice pieces in the batter and the batter should not be very fine in texture. Make sure that the batter is not too runny.

Cut the jaggery into very small pieces using a knife and mix it along with turmeric powder into the batter. If you don't want to make sweet dosa, you may skip the jaggery. Another option is to grind the jaggery pieces with the batter. Keep it in a warm place overnight for fermentation. The batter will rise and will double in volume. 
Heat a non-stick tava or griddle and rub it with oil. Pour ladle full of batter on the tava and gently spread it from center with a spoon. It is very similar to making pancakes. The dosa should not be very thin, so take care not to spread the batter on the griddle as you do for masala dosa. Cover and cook the dosa. This dosa is to be cooked only on one side and should not be flipped to the other side. Hence, it should be cooked on a very low flame till the top of the dosa looks well done.

Serve the sweet surnali with a dollop of butter and honey. The non-sweet version can be served with chutney or pickle.

Preparation time: 45 minutes excluding the soaking time.

Serves: 4-5