Should I Smear The Pan With a Little Oil Before Making Dosa?

I have been receiving some questions about making dosa.

One of the questions is about the use of cooking oil - when to use it and how much to use it.

You can smear the pan with a little bit of cooking oil before you make the dosa. It is not absolutely necessary, if you are using a non-stick pan.

But if you are making dosa for the first time, you may find it easier to fold and flip the dosa by smearing the pan first with a little oil.

If you want a crisp dosa, as you might have tasted in restaurants, you need to use two tea spoons of oil. You need to cook the dosa on low medium flame. The longer it takes to cook, the crispier it will be. Two tea spoons of oil around the dosa makes it very crisp.

If you want the dosa fat free, you can steam the dosa by covering it with a lid while cooking. You can use less oil this way. You can also make the dosa completely without oil.

For this take a piece of tissue paper folded into a wad. Dip it in water and squeeze out the wad. Smear the pan with that water. Make dosa with dosa batter. Cover the dosa with a lid. Steam cook it for a minute. Fold and flip. You must have a non-stick pan for this type of dosa. This dosa will not be crisp. It will be soft and tasty.

In the video you can see that no oil is being smeared before the dosa is made. Two tea spoons of oil is added around the dosa, after the circular shape is made on the pan. If you have not seen it yet, watch the video and learn how to make dosa.