Oct 4, 2006

Kuleeth dosa (kuleetha ramnaN)

Kuleeth or kulthi, also called Horse gram in english is a legume. It looks like whole masoor or brown lentil. Kuleeth was the staple food fed for horses in India, and hence its English name. The cooked kuleeth was fed to horses and the liquid after cooking kuleeth was drained, used to make saar. I will post this recipe some other day.

Kuleeth
Kuleeth or Horse gram


This recipe for Kuleeth Dosa, called kuleetha ramnaN in konkani, is from the authentic Konkani Cookbook, "Oota Upahara" published in Kannada and "amgele kaaNa jevaN" in konkani by Jaya V Shenoy. The book has been around nearly past 20 years and is a popular cookbook in the Mangalorean Konkani households.

1 cup kuleeth/horse gram
1 cup urad dal
1.5 cup rice/idli rava

To make the batter
Soak kuleeth and urad together. If using rice, soak it separately. Soak time approx 2 hrs. Rinse and clean the above. Grind kuleeth and urad to a smooth paste. Grind rice coarsely to the consistency of idli rava. Batter should be of idli batter consistency. Mix all the batter and add salt. (If using idli rava mix it with kuleeth and urad batter now). The batter can be used immediately, does not need to be fermented.

Now to make ramnaN. ramnaN can be made in 2 different ways

You can steam cook the batter like idli. Traditionally its cooked in a round metal plate with 1 inch depth like the cake tins/dokla stand called vaTTe in konkani

Kuleeth Dosa
Kuleeth dosa or kuleetha ramnaN


The other way to make is in a round bottomed wok or kadai. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a kadai and splutter a few mustard seeds. Add 2 serving spoonfuls of batter. Place the lid and cook on low flame till the bottom side gets crispy and brown and upper side is cooked. You can turn the ramnaN and roast other side. This turns out like Idli hidden inside a crispy Dosa!

Serve with Sambar or Rasam or Chutney.

Updates
Check out the recipe for Kuleeth Saaru and Stir Fry

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Manjula..
If u use rice rava for the dosa, What I feel is it wont bake so fine..the rice particles will be half cooked. is that true? whenever i do any dosa I grind rice very smoothly.. so that it cooks very fast..

Manjula said...

Hi Usha,
ramnaN is a special kind of dosa. it is very rustic, almost like a lightly fried idli. This isnt smooth or crisp like other dosas.
Like I mentioned you can steam cook them like idlis. The other way is to make thick and small dosas in the round bottomed kadai and cook on low flame. This makes the ramnaN soft and fluffy like the idlis and crisp outside!!

Idli rava cannot be used for other dosas. You are right. Dosas like the masala dosa has to be a smooth batter.

Try this recipe and let me know how you like it.

Manjula said...

Usha,

Also, when you use idli rava in any batter, soak the rava in Luke warm water for about 1 hour and then mix in the batter. It really makes a whole lot of difference. I do that for idlis too.