Paanpoley | Neer Dosa
The easiest to make of all the dosas. The batter requires no fermenting. Paanpoley as their known in Konkani language or Neer Dosa in Tulu are thin, soft dosas with a lacy texture reminiscent of a women’s handkerchief.
Neer means water in Tulu, while paan is the term used to signify “to drink” in many Indian languages, including ancient Konkani. Poley means Dosa in Konkani. The batter is of milky consistency. Hence, the names.
As mentioned above, the batter needs no fermenting or soaking the rice for long. Just a couple of hours of soaking the rice would be ideal. This rice is then ground fine and then diluted with water. The batter should not be overly thin but should have the consistency of milk. I have found that a ratio of 1:2.5 of rice to water, works perfectly. The addition of grated coconut and some cooked rice, adds a delightful flavour to the dosas and makes them ultra-soft.
The ease of preparation has made them a household favourite in Mangalore and the surrounding regions. The Paanpoley are pretty versatile and team up well with most dishes. They are usually had for breakfast but also find pride of place during lunch/dinner.
Enjoy them with any chutney or you can also simply dip them into your cup of tea/coffee and bite into them. But it doesn’t stop there. You can enjoy them with any meat curries and gravies, fish curries. Works best with coconut-based curries like the roce-curries and stews. A classic pairing is with Dukramass. They pair very well with Berry compotes too, my personal favourite being the blueberry compote. They pair really well with any leftover meat and fish curries too. Another classic way of enjoying it is with a filling of grated coconut and jaggery, rolled up into the paan-poley. I will talk about this in another post.
Use a non-stick pan or a seasoned cast-iron griddle to make the paanpoley. The pan needs to be piping hot. smear the surface with coconut oil. These days silicon brushes are used for oiling but in the good old days, a banana-leaf stem was used to dip in oil and smear the pan. Also a halved onion can be used too with the help of a fork.
A ladleful of batter is poured onto the pan and fried for a couple of minutes. I prefer to use our traditional laddle known as “Doi” (pictured above) made of coconut shell and bamboo stick. The dosa is removed onto a wire rack or the traditional “Kurpon” (pictured above) and soon folded into quarters and served.
Paanpoley are a very simple dosa to make. Just maintain the consitency of the batter and ensure the pan is hot enough and you won’t go wrong. Go try it out!
Paanpoley
Ingredients
- 1 cup Idli rice/ Sona masuri rice
- ¼ cup grated coconut (optional)
- ¼ cup cooked rice (optional)
- 2½ cup Water, divided
- Salt, as acquired
- Coconut oil, for frying
Instructions
- Wash the rice and soak it for about 2 hours (when I make them for breakfast, I soak the rice overnight)
- Drain the rice and grind it fine with upto a cup of water, along with the grated coconut, cooked rice and salt
- Empty it out to a large enough vessel. Wash the mixie with remaining water and add it to the batter and dilute it to milky consistency
- Heat a non-stick pan. Getting it piping hot. Smear it with a thin layer of coconut oil.
- Pour a ladleful of batter on to the pan and turn the pan around quickly so that the batter spreads around. Cover and cook for about a minute. This dosa is to be fried on one side only
- As the dosa starts peeling of at the edges, flip it onto a cooling rack and leave it there for about a minute. before folding it into quarters or rolling it.
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