Odupale/ Odu dosa/ Dosa cooked in an earthen pan

Odupale/ Odu dosa is a traditional South canara (Tulunadu) dish. Odu is pan and pale (PaaLe) is sheet (dosa) in Tulu! It is a variant of Kerala special dish appam. It can be translated as Dosa made in an earthen pan. It is delicious & tastes heaven when served with sweet coconut milk that is thick coconut milk with jaggery. It is my favorite and it was the one dish I used to crave for. It is very aromatic when prepared using firewood cooking method. 

The specific pan to make this dosa looks like this!

Today’s post focuses on the Odupale recipe which is not very difficult to make.

Preparation time: 4 hours

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves: 12-15 dosas

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 3 cups

Boiled rice – 1 cup

Cooked rice – fistful (optional)

Salt – to taste

Coconut oil - 2 spoons

Method:

• Wash and Soak rice for 4 hours.
• Drain water completely, wash once again and grind to smooth batter adding salt & cooked rice. Consistency should be little thicker than neer dosa batter. Add 2 spoons of oil to this batter & mix well.
• Preparing Odupale/ Odu dose:
• Heat the earthen pan (Odu) on medium heat.
• No application of oil required in this. When the pan is hot enough, pour 1.5 ladle of batter. Do not touch it after.
• Cook covered for 2-3 minutes, until it is cooked.
• Remove from the pan with the spatula. Allow cooling a bit before serving. Place the hot odu dosa separately spread on a large plate (that is, not on top of the previous one).
• It is suggested to clean the pan with a clean wet cloth after making 2 odupales!
• Serve with Chutney & sweetened coconut milk.
• It can also be served after soaking in sweet coconut milk for 1-2 hours.

Notes:

• There is a process to season the earthen pan/ odu. In which, oil will be applied to each sides of the pan and heated on high flame. But this procedure is optional. It is sufficient if oil is applied properly on the new pan and keep it for a day before making dosa.
• This dosa takes little longer to cook than other dosas as it is comparatively thick.
• Cook it on low – medium flame. Otherwise, one side of dosa will be charred when other side gets cooked completely.
• This dosa should not be flipped off to cook other side. Cooking should be done only from one side.
• Take care while getting the batter consistency. Initially check with thicker batter and see if odu dosa turns brittle/ harder on cooking, then thin batter by adding little water. Depending on the rice used thickness should be adjusted. It may stick to the pan even after cooking if consistency is thinner & rice used is sticky.
• People also make it only with white dosa rice (no boiled rice). In this case it is recommended to add 1/4 cup grated coconut & fistful of cooked rice while grinding to make the batter.
• You can use concave shaped iron griddle/ pan if you have no earthen pan.