Onion uthappam

Uthappam / oothappam is a typical Tamil dish, but celebrated all over India. I have seen many people eagerly buying this batter in Indian grocery stores. These batters come as 'ready to make' oothappam mix in dry form or wet batter (fridge isle). That is a very good idea too. But traditionally most of us make it using a few days old dosa batter. Baking soda is added to the dosa batter, just minutes before cooking. It makes the oothappam more porous and soft, just like the way it should be. If we are more concerned we can add 'enos fruit salt' also. The secret to any good idli, dosa, oothapam is bringing the batter to room temperature by leaving it in kitchen counter for few hours (say 2 - 3 hours in cold countries).  If our batter is very good, there won't be any need to add baking soda or fruit salt.  We can find out the fineness of the batter while making the first oothapam :) Click to see my vegetable uthappam too.

'Camp chef' brand cast iron 14 "pizza pan from ebay is the best tawa for dosa too.

Ingredients:

Dosa / idly batter - 2 cup
baking soda - 2 pinch
ghee - 2 tsp (or smart balance butterlike product)
sesame oil - 2 tbsp
onion - a handful for 1 dosa
green chilly - 1 finely chopped 
idly podi - 2 tbsp
curry leaf , cilantro - a handful

Method:

Take required quantity of sour idly batter from fridge. Add baking soda and mix the batter briskly for few times. Let it sit for 1 - 3 hours to bring to room temperature. 
Heat a dosa tawa. Coat the tawa with 2 drops of sesame oil . Sprinkle little water over it.
Using a clean cloth wipe the tawa.
Take a ladle of batter and pour it gently over the tawa and let it spread to a thick but small dosa (6 inch dia. approximately). Reduce the flame to medium heat.
Spread the finely chopped onion, chilly, curry leaf, cilantro over the uthappam. Pour some sesame oil + ghee around and over the dosa.
Strew a tsp idly milagai podi over the uthappam.
(Place a dome shaped lid to cover it. The uthappam should be cooked in that steam to get a spongy texture inside. This step is optional, but I prefer this)

// If needed ,  flip the uthappam and let it cook the other side for less than 30 seconds. Mostly it is not necessary to flip oothappam, as it gets cooked by that cover and steam//. Take out the dosa Again increase the flame, apply oil and repeat the above process to make as many uthappam as we need.

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot with Coconut chutney and sambar.
Once we start making the uthappam, we have to serve it immediately to get that true taste. 

Tips:

Batter : Add a tbsp of besan flour for  every cup of dosa batter to get a golden red uthappam.
Sour dosa batter can only give a delicious uthappam. If its not so, then add some desi yogurt/ buttermilk and leave for a few hours or start preparing immediately.