The dish I ate most in India – and enjoy almost every time I go to a south Indian restaurant – is masala dosa. Dosa is a think crispy pancake made with rice flour and a little bit of dhal. The masala (spice) part is a mild, tangy potato curry, which is wrapped in the middle of the dosa, vaguely akin to a christmas cracker, but much tastier!

So, having found a packet of instant dosa mix, I was keen to try it. I found a recipe for the filling here and a recipe for the coconut chatni such dishes should be served with here.

My filling ended up a lot more mashed than the illustration (and my memory) show, but tasting just how I remember. The chatni tasted just right to me, even though I used desiccated coconut and hence a lot of water. The only problems were using a hand-blender without a lid – stuff ended up everywhere and not having a proper tav (a flat griddle: think of a large frying pan but without any walls). So it was difficult to pick up and flip over the dosa – they ended up in shreds. However, they were together enough to dip into the ‘filling’ and chatni, and provide a crisp and tasty counterpoint to smooth yet spicy food.

There’s plenty of chatni left over so I’m making a brown chickpea dhal tomorrow to go with it.