Food I Grew up Eating – Paan Polo (Neer Dosa)

Last Updated on December 1, 2021 by Babita

This next recipe is from my friend P.L and since she wishes to remain anonymous, I am going to use only her initials. As a Mangalorean konkani, she has very fond memories of this dish. It is called Paan Polo in her language, while in Tulu we call it Neer Dosa. This particular dosa or crepe is made from watered down and runny rice batter. It does not need any fermentation and therefore can be made instantly. The only distinction between Paan Polo and Neer Dosa is an additonal ingredient of coconut in Paan Polo. Mangalore is a coastal city where rice and coconut are plentiful and cheap. It is common for this region’s cuisine to have coconut in some form or the other.

Paan Polo is very light and melt- in-your mouth kind of delicate crepe. Visually it looks like a delightful little lace cloth. Since it is so light in taste as well, it is easy to gobble up 5-7 of them in one  sitting ( I admit doing that). So as I share my friend’s recipe with you I would like to shout out a big thank you to her. Everyone else, Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 cups of rice
3/4 cup of grated coconut
salt to taste
water as required (around 6 – 7 cups)

Preparations

• Wash rice well and soak it for 2-3 hours.
• Drain the rice. Add the rice, coconut and about 2 cups of water in to an idli grinder and grind it to a fine consistency batter.
• Empty the batter into a big saucepan. Add the rest of the water and salt and mix them thoroughly. The batter has to be runny, thin and easily pourable. Check for that consistency and if required add some more water.
• Heat a non-stick pan or an iron skillet.
• Coat the pan completely with a little bit of oil
• When the pan is hot, take a ladle full of batter and pour it. As you pour the the batter, move the pan around so that the batter completely coats the pan.
• Cover it with a lid and cook it till the top of the dosa crepe looks firm, which usually takes few seconds.
• Fold it into quarters and remove it. Continue this process, until all the batter has been used up.
• Serve it hot with coconut chutney.

Useful suggestions:

• If you are in hurry and do not have time to grate coconut, you can use one can of coconut milk (available in Asian stores) for 2.5 cups of rice.
• For those of us here in the US, my friend suggested using hard anodized non-stick pan or heavy cast iron griddle or pan.