Surnali

I am going to dedicate this post to my friend Gita, who really appreciated this dish when I took it as part of my lunch box.

Surnali is a dish from the Konkan belt, it is generally made quite sweet and had with ghee or home-made butter. I made it just a tad sweet as I planned to have it with a savoury side dish during lunch time.

It is pretty much simple to make and quite a delight when it gets so gloriously soft and porous on the tawa. Let me now get into how I made it.

Ingredients

2 cups idli rice (this is something I get easily in Bangalore but if you do not have access to this, use any kind of raw rice),

¼ tsp fenugreek seeds,

2 cups grated coconut,

1 cup of sour curd

½ cup thick poha or beaten rice,

½ cup powdered jaggery,

1 small piece of fresh turmeric or ¼ tsp powdered turmeric,

Salt to taste,

¼ tsp baking soda,

Ghee as required

Method

Wash the rice and fenugreek seeds and soak it together for about 4-5 hours.

Wash and soak the thick poha for about 5 minutes.

Grind the soaked ingredients together with grated coconut, fresh turmeric (if using) and curd to a fine paste. I did this in two batches. Then add the jaggery, salt and turmeric powder (if using).

The consistency of the batter should be thick but pourable. If you feel the batter is too thick you can add a little buttermilk to get the right consistency.

Let this ferment for about 8 hours. I generally leave it overnight.

After the fermentation beat it until fluffy and add the baking soda and mix again.

I have not had much success with this dish and my iron dosa tawa, perhaps because of the jaggery, so I generally make it on my non-stick pan.

Heat the non-stick tawa till hot, smear a little ghee and pour a ladle full of batter. Do not spread it around like a normal dosa, you can spread it a bit to get a thick round. Drop a few drops of ghee over it and cook covered. You will see many holes appear on the surface after about one and a half minute. It is generally not flipped over. If you want to you can gently flip it over and cook for just a few seconds.

This version can be served with just some chutney or even just like that.

If you want to make the sweet traditional version use about 1.5 cups of jaggery instead of just half cup jaggery.