Hi folks -

I'm trying to recreate the dosa masala I had in Mysore. I am a pretty good cook, but non-Indian and not super experienced with Indian techniques outside of a few basic dishes.

I read a few recipes and settled on this one to start with: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017153-classic-masala-dosa

However it does not appear that my dosa batter has really fermented much. I live in Seattle where it isn't especially warm, but even parked in a warm spot I don't see a ton of bubbling in the batter. I've given it (much) more time, thinned out the batter a little, and added a little bit of kasoori methi powder to try to inoculate the batter more. It's starting to gain volume a little now.

But I started reading about dosa batters while troubleshooting this and now have even more questions!

1. Is the dosa batter fermentation time truly a fermentation in the sense that I'm allowing bacteria to build up and consume sugars? Or is it actually an attempt to rise the batter with wild yeast? I am reading conflicting information on this depending on where I look.
2. If it's a true fermentation, what type of fermentation is it? If it's lactobacillus there are lots of ways that I can kickstart the process.
3. If it's wild yeast leavening the batter, can I bump it up through the addition of some bloomed yeast?
4. How thick should the batter be? My recipe tells me medium-thick, though I vaguely recall the dosa batters I saw in Mysore being pretty runny. My first attempt at cooking up a dosa resulted in more of a crepe that was thicker that I want (and not crispy on bottom) so I suspect I need to thin it out further.
5. How delicate is the dosa batter? Do I need to handle it gently to preserve all the bubbles, or does that not really matter?

I've read lots of articles and forum posts online with traditional cooking suggestions (including the scary "stir vigorously with your unwashed hands to get microbes into it") but I'd prefer to get down to brass tacks on what processes I actually need to happen in my batter so I can reliably reproduce it.

thanks!