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Akoori Masala Dosa
March 17, 2007 | 23 Comments
Eggs mean more to India’s Parsi (Zoroastrian) community than, probably, to any other ethnic group. It’s a part of their rituals, culture, and cuisine. An eeda (egg) is to Parsis what the coconut is to Hindus. (If you’re in coastal India, to non-Hindus as well)
In a Parsi wedding, an egg is broken into the pot in which a mango sapling will be planted during the pre-matrimonial ceremony. On the wedding day, a tray containing a raw egg, betel, coconut, dates, water and rice is presented to the groom. An egg is one of the five ingredients used by the priest to conduct a Parsi funeral ceremony.
At the Parsi restaurants in Bombay, it is customary to find dishes topped with baked eggs. After cooking the vegetable or meat, the chef will poke holes on the surface with the back of a spoon (as in a focaccia), and fill the dimples with eggs. The dish is then baked until the eggs set. One dish Bee ordered had a dozen. “It’s garnish, ma’am”, the waiter said.
A sampling of Parsi egg-based dishes:
Pomfret (fish) curry with egg as a base and thickener
Every cutlet, vegetarian or non-vegetarian, that is coated with egg
Parsi omelette (Poro)
Kera Per Eeda (eggs on ripe bananas) (No kidding!)
Lasan Nu Eeda (eggs with tender garlic and green onions)
Papeta Nu Eeda (eggs with potatoes)
Taamota Per Eeda (eggs on tomatoes)
Wafer Per Eeda (eggs on potato straws)
and of course, Akoori (soft scrambled eggs, Parsi style), which is a regular on breakfast menus.
What distinguishes Akoori from other scrambled egg recipes, is the use of ginger, garlic, tomatoes, and coriander leaves in two forms. A portion is added at the beginning of the recipe, and the rest is added at the end. The fried coriander leaves add an interesting dimension to the dish. A little cream or milk is added for a silken texture.
We made ours with egg whites.
Traditonally Akoori is eaten with bread, rotis or parathas.
Ours is wrapped in a dosa, spiced up with a chutney inspired by Asha’s wonderful Peanut-Garlic Chutney.
DOSAS
Ingredients
1/3 cup Rose Matta rice
1/4 cup long-grain brown rice
1/4 cup skinned, split black lentils (urad dal)
8-10 fenugreek (methi) seeds
1 tablespoon chickpea flour (besan)
2 tsps. semolina (rava) or cornmeal
a pinch baking soda
salt
oil or ghee
Method
1. Wash and soak the rices for 6 hours or overnight. Soak the urad separately with the fenugreek seeds.
2. With very little water, grind the dal to a very smooth, thick paste in a blender. Grind the rice to a fine, but not completely smooth paste. mix the two gently with your hand, add the salt and leave it to ferment in a warm spot overnight.
(Fermentation is just to develop flavour in this case, so if it does not rise – ours didn’t – , don’t despair. You will still get good dosas.)
3. Mix the fermented batter with the chickpea flour and semolina, add the baking soda, and make dosas as demonstrated in this tutorial. Thin it out a bit to the consistency of whipping cream with water. if necessary.
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Prepare the Chutney and Akoori before you start frying the dosas.
Peanut-Garlic Chutney
Ingredients
½ cup toasted peanuts (we didn’t skin them)
2 red chillies
1/2 tsp. paprika/kashmiri chilli powder
5 curry leaves
½ tsp. mustard
2 tbsps coconut (dried)
2 big garlic cloves.
A small walnut sized knob of tamarind
¼ cup water
salt
½ tsp oil
Method
1. Microwave the tamarind with the water on high for 30 seconds, and extract the pulp.
2. Heat the oil, splutter the mustard seeds, then add the curry leaves and garlic and fry until the garlic is light golden.
3. Dry roast the remaining ingredients.
4. Use the tamarind pulp, grind everything to a fine paste.
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Akoori
Ingredients
2/3 cup eggs (we used only whites)
1/3 cup milk
3 green chillies
3 tbsps. coriander leaves to fry
1 tbsp. coriander to garnish
½ cup onion
½ cup tomato
1 tsp. chopped ginger
1 clove chopped garlic
a pinch of turmeric
1 tbsp oil
salt
lots of freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Beat the eggs with the salt and keep aside.
2. Heat the oil, add the onion, ginger, garlic, chillies and coriander leaves. Cook until the onions are soft.
3. Add the tomatoes and turmeric. Cook the whole thing until pulpy.
4. Add the eggs, cook on medium-low until just about cooked , then add the milk and cook for a couple more minutes until the eggs are at the soft scramble stage. The eggs should be creamy.
5. Check the seasoning, add the cracked pepper, and garnish with the coriander leaves.
_________________________________________________________________
Assembly
Smear the inside of each dosa with 2 tsp. of the chutney, put 3 tbsp of akoori on one half and fold the other half over. Serve with more chutney.
Our entry for Sig’s Eggstraordinary Breakfast Event at Live to Eat for Weekend Breakfast Blogging.
Filed Under: akoori, chutney, Cilantro/Coriander Leaves, Coconut, Eggs, Lentils, masala-dosa, Onion/Shallot, Parsi, Peanut/Groundnut, Rice, Tomato, vegetarian recipes
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23 Comments
What a wonderful entry, and thanks for all the info about eggs in the parsi culture. Eggs in pomphret curry sounds wonderful, but on ripe bananas? And dozen eggs as garnish on one dish, you are kidding right?
I love Akuri too and make it with whites – me too working on reducing fat%
and the idea of filling a dosa with akuri is so much better (health wise) than filling more carbs like potatoes into a carb rich dosa.
I have stuck in two pieces of fresh tumeric root than my granny gave me into soil, am waiting for it to show some signs now! Love your garlic leaves!
What an interesting recipe. I have never tried making dosas at home, but maybe with your easy instructions I can give it a go. Thanks Bee!
Looking good…and we get three recipes for one! I think I want to try the Akoori, with parantha perhaps. Why did you leave out the yolks, now? They are the best part (as Nandita shakes her head in disapproval).
hate the smell and taste of yolks. j likes them. – bee
Very nice info on the Parsi traditions, had no clue that eggs were such an integral part of their culture !!!
Is the Akuri almost like Burji then ? It is the way I make burji if I want it as a sandwich spread.
yes. it’s almost like burji. Although I envision burji to be a little drier. Do you also put garlic and ginger in burji and fry the coriander leaves in the beginning too? Well then, its very close if not identical…Jai
that’s interesting. Egg as part of the wedding and funeral ceremony. I love reading the details. The akoori dosa sounds delicious. Will try it soon.
Anita,
:D:D:D
You’ve got me figured out very well indeed
Very very clever Miss!:D Good lookin’ entry Bee.
Akoori in masala dosa sounds so good.I better cook something today for Sig,been busy whole weekend and tired of course!:))
asha, when we don’t see you around, j asks, ‘where is asha? is she okay?’
Interesting info on Parsi culture there with the egg being so revered to them. A unique entry and the first picture is absolutely gorgeous!
Hmm..that was quite interesting info about Parsis…”An eeda (egg) is to Parsis what the coconut is to Hindus.” , I was wondering how about , “An eeda (egg) is to Parsis what the coconut is to Keralites”
)))
Shn
yeah, non-hindus too have alot of uses and reverence for the coconut. – bee
hmmm…interesting. I love the Parsi culture…
I made the akoori for lunch today. Tasted great and took less than 15mins to put together. I had it with idiyappam.Thanks guys for the recipe!
akoori with idiyappam sounds fabulous. – bee
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Bee,
Why do you add chickpea flour and semolina to the fermented dosa batter ? I found this very unusual..
Thanks
Suparna
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