Make soft cooked entrees — idlis, dosas primarily (9)
I believe the answer is:
tenderise
'make soft' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are verbs in their base form.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'cooked entrees idlis dosas primarily' is the wordplay.
'cooked' indicates an anagram.
'primarily' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letters of 'idlis dosas' is 'id'.
'entrees'+'id'='entreesid'
'entreesid' anagrammed gives 'TENDERISE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tenderise that I've seen before include "pound" , "soften flesh" .)