The summer carnival at Vivekalaya school was the last place where I expected a culinary experience. As I wove past the many familiar faces in the festive setting, the one thing that I repeatedly heard was “You have to try the jalara dosa”. What was that? I asked where I could find it and was directed to a corner where Mrs. Reeta, a teacher at the school, told us that she and her mother-in-law have been making this for years and that it’s a family favourite. The dish, she said, had it’s origins in Malaysia. But she hadn’t the foggiest idea why it was called ‘jalara’ dosai. The dosai looked most interesting. Imagine a thin edible net-like parcel stuffed with a potato masal. It closely resembled an egg net. The jalara dosai was incredibly tasty and hit the right spots. The soft net had the perfect texture that just melted in the mouth. It had a hint of sweetness which complimented the savoury stuffing. Later, my friend Komala Prasad told me more about this dish. She had eaten it several times at her aunt’s place and encouraged me to make them at home. She gave me the recipe. Only, she called it jalli roti. Jalli meaning net-like.
I spoke to another friend in Malaysia, who informed me that it was a very popular snack there. They call it Roti Jala. It is eaten either stuffed or plain with a curry, much like our dosai. There are moulds to make Roti Jala. It is a square cup with four small funnel like openings. The thin batter is poured into the mould and moved around like the jalebi wallahs do when they make the jalebis. That gives it the net like appearance. The batter is made of maida mixed with coconut milk and egg like a pancake batter. When I tried it, I decided to make it healthier and so used wholemeal flour instead of maida. The wholemeal tasted great but did not look as delicate as the original. I used a squeezy bottle instead of the mould. The batter needs to rest for about half an hour before you cook it in a frying pan with a little oil on low heat. As the batter is thin and watery it cooks very quickly, in less than a minute. There is no need to flip it over either. Due to the addition of egg, the batter gets crisp around the edges and stays that way even after it cools. My kids just loved those crispy bits. My Roti Jala looked more like uneven lace than fine net but tasted just as delicious. Hopefully, more practice should do the job.
It’s a dosa variation. The first time I served it with a chick pea, tomato and mint stuffing. The second time around it was a paneer and spinach stuffing. I also served it plain with a light country corn gravy. It goes perfectly with all these flavours. I am looking forward to trying out more variants. Maybe add sugar instead of salt and make a dessert for the kids and their friends over the holidays. I’m thinking red strawberries, powdered sugar, a drizzle of melted dark chocolate all encased in my Roti Jalas. Anyone wants a quenelle of vanilla bean ice cream with that?
