Breakfast
Fermented rice-and-urad crepe, crisp or soft, eaten with chutney and sambar.
About
Dosa (Malayalam: ദോശ; also dosai, dose) is a thin savoury crepe of fermented rice and black gram. English Wikipedia records it in Sangam Tamil country by the first century and in the 12th-century Sanskrit encyclopedia Manasollasa; a later Udupi restaurant style made the crisp, paper-thin roast famous across India. Malayalam Wikipedia treats it as a Kerala morning plate in two house forms: a thin crepe cooked on one side, and a smaller, thicker dosa — from Ernakulam south to Thiruvananthapuram — browned on both. It is breakfast and tiffin food, served hot with coconut chutney, sambar, and often a potato masala.
Rice and urad dal are soaked, usually in a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio, with a few fenugreek seeds, then ground and left to ferment overnight with salt. Water thins the batter to a pourable cream. Malayalam Wikipedia also lists onion-dried-chilli chammanthi and oil-mixed chutney powder beside the usual coconut chutney and sambar. Wheat, rava, oats, and millets make separate batters; masala dosa and ghee roast still start from the rice-and-urad mix.
A ladle of batter is spread on a hot, lightly oiled tava in a widening circle. Cooked thick it stays spongy; spread thin with extra oil it crisps into a paper roast. It is served folded in half or rolled. Street and hotel kitchens cook many at once on a large thattu. Southern Kerala’s thicker dosa is browned on both sides; the thin statewide crepe is often cooked on one face only.
Eat it hot. Tear a piece and dip it in sambar or coconut chutney. Masala dosa wraps a spiced potato filling. Kerala tables also pour vegetable stew beside a cone of roast dosa. Pickle and idli podi (chutney powder mixed with oil) sit on the same plate. It is a tiffin as often as a breakfast.
Masala dosa, ghee roast (nei dosa), paper roast, and set dosa — a small spongy stack of two or three — are the everyday restaurant names. Kal dosa is thicker still, cooked on a stone tava. Rava dosa uses semolina and needs more oil. Uttapam is a related thick pancake with onion and tomato on top, not this thin crepe. Pizza, cheese, and Schezwan dosas are later hotel fusions; they are not the Kerala morning plate.
Gallery
How it is steamed, served, and varied — open any image for a larger view.
7 photos
More dishes
Other famous plates from Kerala’s kitchen.