Adai or Adai Dosa are a delicious protein rich, rice and lentils crepes from the South Indian cuisine. Adai recipe is made by soaking rice and lentils which are then ground to a semi-coarse batter. Adai batter is not fermented.
Rinse and then soak regular rice or idli rice, chana dal, urad dal and tuvar dal and dry red chilies (byadagi or kashmiri) in 1.5 cups water for 2 to 3 hours. You can also keep overnight.
Making adai batter
Later drain all the water and add the rice, lentils and red chilies in a grinder jar.
Also add chopped ginger and hing. At this step you can also add 1 green chili and ½ teaspoon cumin seeds.
Add ⅔ to ¾ cup water and grind to a semi coarse medium-thick batter. Do not make the batter fine.
Take all the batter in a mixing bowl. Cover and keep aside for minimum 20 minutes or till 1 to 2 hours.
Now add finely chopped onions (or pearl onions or shallots), chopped coriander leaves and chopped curry leave. You can also add grated coconut.
Add salt as required. Mix very well.
Making adai
Heat a cast iron skillet or tawa and spread a bit of oil on it.
Take a ladle full of the batter and pour the batter on tawa. quickly spread the batter to a round circle.
With a back of a spoon make a small dent or hole in the center. This helps in cooking the adai evenly.
Drizzle some oil in the center as well as on the sides.
Cook on medium-low to medium heat till the adai is crisp and golden. Then flip them. You can also cover it with a lid and then cook.
Cook the adai on the second side till it is cooked well and has golden brown spots. Flip and then serve. Make adai in batches this way.
You can serve protein-rich adai with some white butter, jaggery, idli-dosa podi or avial. You can also pair it with coconut chutney or tomato chutney or tomato-onion chutney.
Notes
Feel free to subtract any of the add-ins to the batter like onions, green chillies, spices and herbs etc if these are not available to you.
You can also ferment the batter for 3 to 4 hours or as needed. Just take care that the batter does not become too sour.
Do not omit any of the lentils or even rice from the recipe, as the flavor and texture will change.
Scale the recipe to make a smaller batch or for more servings.