Ask someone from Malvan or Ratnagiri what they had for breakfast as a child and there's a good chance the answer is ghavan or amboli, with a bowl of chutney or last night's usal. Both start with rice flour, both are cooked on a tawa, and both are easy to confuse on a shop shelf, because the packs often just say "flour". Add tandul pith, vade peeth and kulith peeth, and the Konkan flour shelf starts to look like a puzzle.
The short answer: buy ghavan flour if you want thin, lacy rice crepes in fifteen minutes with no fermenting. Buy amboli flour if you want a thicker, spongy, slightly sour crepe and don't mind planning the night before. Buy plain tandul pith (rice flour) for tandlachi bhakri, ukadiche modak and chakli. Buy vade peeth for the puffed, fried vade served with kombdi (chicken) or mutton rassa. And buy kulith peeth for a quick kulthache pithle with rice. If you're new to all of it, start with a 500 g pack of ghavan flour: it's the easiest to get right.
This guide covers flours. For the rice itself, including ukda tandul for pej, see our guide to Maharashtra's rice and poha.
Ghavan flour: the no-wait rice crepe
Ghavan (also written ghavne or ghaavan) is a thin, soft, net-like crepe made from rice flour, water and salt. Nothing is fermented and nothing is ground at home, which is why it's the Konkan's fastest breakfast. It's eaten hot with coconut chutney, with pickle, or with usal. On some festival days, especially Gauri puja, it's made as ghavan-ghatle: ghavan served with ghatle, a sweet made from coconut milk and jaggery.
How to make it: whisk the flour with salt and water into a batter about as thin as buttermilk. A good starting point is 1 cup of flour to about 1½ cups of water, adding more until it pours easily. Let it rest for 10–15 minutes. Heat an iron or non-stick tawa well, grease it lightly, and pour the batter in a circle from the outside in. Cover with a lid for a minute or so, until the top turns from wet to matte and the edges lift. Most cooks don't flip it.
If your ghavan sticks, the tawa wasn't hot enough or wasn't greased. If it tears when you lift it, the batter is too thin, so add a spoon of flour.
- Sindhudurg-packed ghavan flour: RUNANUBAND, 500 g, ₹148 or 1 kg, ₹186.35, the best value per kilo here; OMSAI, 500 g, ₹150.40 or 1 kg, ₹192.34; SHRI VETOBA, 500 g, ₹144.40 or 1 kg, ₹228.29; Durga, 500 g, ₹166 or 1 kg, ₹238.
- From Ratnagiri: MEERA Ghavan Pith, 500 g, ₹228.29, Meera Gruh Udyog SHG. The listing calls it a rice flour mix made for ghavan.
Nachni ghavan is the same idea made with ragi (nachni) in the flour, giving a darker, earthier crepe. OMSAI Nachani Ghavan Flour, 500 g, ₹156.39 or 1 kg, ₹204.32, Sindhudurg. The listing doesn't give the ragi-to-rice ratio, so make your first one slightly thicker than plain ghavan and adjust. Our millet names guide explains nachni and its other names.
Amboli flour: the Malvani fermented crepe
Amboli is Malvan's answer to the dosa, but softer and thicker, with a spongy, holey top and a gentle sourness from fermenting. Home recipes usually grind rice with some urad dal and a little methi (fenugreek) seed, and some families add poha or other grains too. Amboli flour is that mix, already ground. It's traditionally eaten with kala vatana usal or with chicken rassa, and on a plain morning with chutney.
Recipes vary from family to family, and the amboli flours below don't list their ingredients on the product page. So read the pack before you start. In general, mix the flour with water into a thick, pourable batter, cover it and leave it in a warm spot for 8–12 hours or overnight, until it smells slightly sour and has risen a little. In winter it can take longer. Add salt, pour a thick round on a greased tawa, cover and cook on medium heat. You can flip it briefly to brown the top.
- RUNANUBAND Amboli Flour, 500 g, ₹158.79 or 1 kg, ₹209.12, Sindhudurg.
- OMSAI Amboli Flour, 500 g, ₹198.33 or 1 kg, ₹288.21, Sindhudurg.
Ghavan or amboli? If you decide on breakfast at 8 a.m., it's ghavan. If you decide the night before, try amboli.
Tandul pith: plain rice flour for bhakri and modak
Tandul pith is just rice flour, with nothing added. In the Konkan it's the everyday flour for tandlachi bhakri, the soft rice-flour bhakri eaten with fish curry, usal or pithle. It's also the flour for the outer shell of ukadiche modak, and it goes into tandul chakli and many papads. You can make ghavan with it too, though ghavan flour is usually ground for that job.
For bhakri and modak, rice flour is cooked before kneading, which is called making an ukad. Bring water to a boil with a pinch of salt (and a little ghee or oil for modak), stir in the flour all at once, cover and leave it off the heat for 5–10 minutes. Then knead it smooth while still warm, wetting your hands as you go. If the dough cracks when you pat it out, it needs a little more hot water and more kneading.
- RUNANUBAND Rice Flour, 500 g, ₹140.81 or 1 kg, ₹175.56, Sindhudurg, the lowest price per kilo on this page.
- MEERA Tandul Pith, 500 g, ₹156.39, Meera Gruh Udyog SHG, Ratnagiri.
- EKATA Sadha Rice Flour, 1 kg, ₹274, Sindhudurg. "Sadha" means plain.
- EKATA Basmati Rice Flour, 1 kg, ₹286, Sindhudurg. Many cooks prefer flour from a fragrant rice for ukadiche modak, because the shell smells better. For bhakri, plain rice flour is fine.
If you're making chakli, our chakli guide explains how tandul chakli differs from bhajani chakli.
Vade peeth: for kombdi vade and Malvani vade
Malvani vade (sometimes called kombdi vade, after the chicken curry they come with) aren't the lentil vadas of South India. They're small, round, puffed fried breads, a bit like a thick puri, made from a flour of rice with some urad and spices such as coriander seed and methi, roasted and ground. Recipes vary by house. They're served with Malvani chicken or mutton rassa, and vegetarians eat them with kala vatana usal.
To use the flour, knead it with hot water into a soft dough and let it rest for at least 30 minutes (follow the pack if it says otherwise). Pat small balls into rounds on a greased plastic sheet or banana leaf, and slide them into hot oil. They should puff within seconds. If they don't, the oil isn't hot enough, or the rounds are too thick.
- JHANVI Malvani Vade Peeth, 400 g, ₹192.34, Maitri SHG, Satara. "Malvani" here names the style. It's packed in Satara, not Malvan.
- SWAMINI Kombadi Vade Peeth, 500 g, ₹228, Swamini Bachat Gat, Pune.
Vade use a lot of oil. Our wood-pressed oil guide covers which oils are worth using for deep frying.
Kulith peeth: horse gram flour for pithle
Kulith (kulthi, horse gram) is a small, flat, brown pulse with a long place in Konkan kitchens. Kulith peeth is the roasted, ground flour, and its main job is kulthache pithle, a pourable, garlicky gravy eaten with rice or tandlachi bhakri. It has a deeper, nuttier taste than besan pithle.
Whisk 3–4 tablespoons of the flour into a cup or so of water so there are no lumps. Make a tadka of oil, mustard, garlic, green chilli and onion, pour in the mixture and stir as it thickens, adding water until it's the consistency you like. Add salt, and if you have them, a couple of kokum petals or a little grated coconut at the end.
- MAHER Kulith Peeth, 200 g, ₹180.36, Bramhandev SHG, Sindhudurg.
- MAHESHWAR Kulith Peeth, 250 g, ₹364, Ratnagiri. Noticeably more per gram than MAHER, so compare before you buy.
Which flour for which dish
| You're making | Buy | Plan ahead? |
|---|---|---|
| Thin, lacy crepes with chutney, or ghavan-ghatle | Ghavan flour | No, 15 minutes |
| A darker, earthier ghavan | Nachni ghavan flour | No |
| Thick, spongy, slightly sour crepes with usal or rassa | Amboli flour | Yes, ferment overnight |
| Tandlachi bhakri, ukadiche modak, tandul chakli | Tandul pith (rice flour) | No, but make an ukad first |
| Puffed fried vade with chicken or mutton rassa | Vade peeth | Rest the dough 30 minutes |
| Kulthache pithle with rice | Kulith peeth | No, 10 minutes |
Storing these flours
- Airtight and dry. Rice flour picks up moisture and smells easily. Keep it in a sealed steel dabba or jar, away from the stove and the spice shelf.
- Smaller packs for mixes. Amboli, vade and kulith flours contain roasted pulses or spices and lose flavour faster than plain rice flour. Buy 200–500 g unless you cook them every week.
- Watch for insects in the monsoon. Sieve the flour before use. If you find any, use that batch soon and don't mix it into a fresh pack.
- Expect small differences between packs. SHG flours are ground in small lots, so the water each batch needs can vary a little. Hold back some water and add it as you go.
Quick questions
Is ghavan the same as neer dosa?
They're close cousins. Both are thin rice crepes that aren't fermented. Neer dosa from coastal Karnataka is usually made from soaked, freshly ground rice and folded. Ghavan is more often made from rice flour and served flat or folded in half. If you know one, you'll manage the other.
Can I make ghavan with ordinary rice flour?
Yes. Many homes do. Packs sold as ghavan flour are ground for a smooth batter, so they're a little more forgiving, but plain tandul pith works if you rest the batter and keep the tawa hot.
Is amboli the same as ghavan?
No. Ghavan is unfermented and thin. Amboli is fermented, thicker and spongy, and its flour usually includes urad and methi as well as rice.
Why do my rice bhakris crack?
The dough is usually too dry or wasn't kneaded enough while warm. Make the ukad with boiling water, rest it covered, then knead well with wet hands. Patting the bhakri out on a damp cloth or between sheets also helps.
Do I need vade peeth for kombdi vade, or can I use rice flour?
Plain rice flour gives you a puffed rice puri, not a Malvani vada. The roasted urad and spices in vade peeth give it its taste, so use a vade peeth mix.
Prices and availability above were checked on 7 October 2026 and can change.
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