Review: Gits Instant Rava Dosa Mix

As described in Wikipedia, a dosa (sometimes called dosai) is “ a fermented crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils. It is indigenous to and is a staple dish in the southern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.”  It also features as a part of the Indo Malaysian and Singaporean cuisines and can come in many ‘flavours’.

 

In New Zealand, the typical Indian restaurant/takeaway caters North-Indian styled-modified-to-Kiwi tastes-curries served with rice and naan. Besides Butter Chicken, Tikka masala Korma Rogan josh and Madras would feature as the most popular curries ordered.  These days people are getting a lot more adventurous and enjoying so very many other varieties of Indian cuisine. I’ve already got a couple of good dosa places in New Zealand recommended by my non-Indian friends!

 

Before I go on, here’s what I want to share: my brief experience using an instant dosa mix at a friend’s kitchen. These are easily available from any Indian grocery store and are priced at NZ$2.50-$4.50. Though cooked in the same manner, dosa made from scratch takes many hours of preparation. This mix requires simply an addition of water to form the batter and you’re set to go.

So as per instructions:

1.       I mixed the pack contents in 340 ml water. Stirred to a smooth batter and set it aside for 5 minutes.

 

2.       I lightly greased a cold flat non-stick pan /tava with oil. I’ve seen mum use a half onion dipped in oil to do this. I poured batter (about 75 ml that’s two lots of the spoon pictured) in centre of the pan, and spread it in outward circular motion to get a thin dosa of around 8 inches in diameter. This step is much like a pancake, with the diameter based on the pan size. Most restaurants serve very large paper thin dosas.

 

3.   I sprinkled the centre with a few drops of oil, and let it fry till it looked like the edges were peeling of the sides of the pan. Traditionally stuffed with ‘masala’ i.e. a type of curried potato, I used a vegetable curry prepared by my host which was a mix with potato, carrots and broccoli to make it a bit healthier.

4.   I placed the vegetable filling in the centre and folded it to form a pancake. Pictured to the side is sambar also prepared by my host i.e. a South Indian lentil, vegetable and tamarind curry.

 

The verdict: The sambar and vegetable curry aside, it took a total of 15 minutes to prepare 9 dosas out of this pack. When not familiar with the method of spreading the batter/consistency on a pan, the initial dosas are likely to crumble. The taste though gave no hint of being part of a pre-packed/dried mixture. Overall it’s not a replacement for batter made the traditional way, but given the low price and short time required for preparation, I recommend this as a budget friendly way to easily satisfy your dosa desires at home.

Lil Sis J