Dosas Aren’t Lentil Pancakes
Image description: A dosa lies on a white plate stuffed with potatoes, coconut chutney sits on the right side of the plate. Photograph: Pragadish Kalaivanan.
Words by Pragadish Kalaivanan.
TikTok is the latest social media app to explode in popularity. No matter how much you may have tried to avoid it, it has found a way into your life through memeable content, popular sounds, or just references your friends make. Hidden with the layers of quick consumable content is the age-old concept of whitewashing that has now grown exponentially in popularity and seeped into topics surrounding Indian food, and in particular, its recipes. So, what’s happened? Content creators have managed to kick start another round of cultural erasure in the name of promoting a healthy lifestyle. A perfect example of this is the ‘lentil pancake’.
Wait a minute, pancakes are made with flour, eggs, sugar and butter. How are lentils incorporated into the mix? The short answer is that they aren’t. The recipe was rebranded so that non-Indian fitness and health fanatic content creators could take credit for its invention and market it to others who resemble them, all the while ignoring the voices of people who do not want to see their history erased.
It’s a tactic we see all too commonly with dishes often minimised to a Western alternative or counterpart that mildly imitates that dish. We’ve seen namas (a dish from the Torres Strait) likened to ceviche, Alison Roman rebrand dal as ‘gentle lentils’ and za jiang mien likened to Asian bolognese all in a bid to make it more palatable to a white audience.
The only way to fight back is by spreading the history and education surrounding our beloved dishes. So let me tell you more about the dosa.
A dosa is a thin (often fermented) batter-based dish made with lentils, grains or a combination of the two originating from South India. Traditionally it is eaten for breakfast or dinner since it can be paired with a wide variety of South Indian staples, and the most popular version of dosa is made with a fermented batter consisting of rice and black gram. This version was first mentioned in Tamil writing (as dosai) around the eighth century but is thought to go as far back as the first century.
On an average day at home, my mother would pair it with one of the classic coconut chutneys, and I prayed it was anything but the coconut peanut. It was gritty and tasted like it took on the worst qualities of the coconut and peanut, leaving all the good stuff in the blender. Dosas came to be a special treat every time we visited my grandmother. She not only made my favourite yellow chutney (I still don't know what goes into it) but on weekends spent an extra hour making the best mutton curry to dip the crispiest dosas in. Though dosas can be found in practically every restaurant in South India and have become the latest fast food trend in the North, nothing can come close to the anticipation of hearing the sizzle in the kitchen as my mom would sweep away my empty plate to top it with dosa and a generous side of chutney.
Identifying a dosa is way easier than trying to define one. Let’s start by tackling the common misconceptions. The first thing you will hear, sometimes even from Indians, is that a dosa has to be fermented. This is simply not true. While the most common version is fermented, if rice isn’t used as a base for the batter, fermentation isn’t needed. Traditionally a variety of grains and lentils were used to make dosas including ragi, wheat, moong dal, toor dal and chana dal. If it’s any soaked lentil or grain mixed with water to create a batter which is then poured onto a hot pan and cooked until crispy on at least one side, it is a version of dosa. These might seem like extremely large parameters to some, but since the first century, every version of dosa has been made in India at some point in history. Trying to rework the recipe would basically be like reinventing the wheel. This doesn’t mean you can’t make your own version or have fun with the topping you put on dosa. It just means that no matter what you do, it will continue to remain a dosa and thus should be called by that very name.
Knowing what a dosa is comes with the responsibility of protecting its legacy that has been carved out through centuries. ‘Lentil pancake’ may be the latest attempt at rebranding dosa, but it won’t be the last one.
The name ‘dosa’ continues to be a reminder of a common thread that connects us to all of our ancestors no matter how far away from home we may be. The thought of knowing that this simple dish was eaten through generations serves as an anchor to our identities in a world where we have to fight to reclaim ourselves. It isn’t just food. It isn’t just a name. It is a representation of who we are and where we come from.