IDLY

INGREDIENTS:

Rice                    - 4 Cups
Urad dhal           - 1 Cup White whole urad dhal
Fenugreek seeds - 1 Tsp
Salt                     - as needed

HOW TO MAKE:

Soak rice 6 to 7 hours or soak it overnight.  For urad dhal & fenugreek seeds together more than 3 hours is enough.   Wash rice well in the water and drain it throughly.  Grind soaked rice in the grinder into neither smooth or grains by adding water in regular intervals.  Take out rice batter in the large container and keep aside.  Next grind urad dhal and fenugreek by adding water in regular intervals as same like we did for rice batter.  The urad dhal batter will come as fluffy and the correct consistency is the urad batter quantity will become as twice amount of rice batter.  That consistency only will give soft idlies.  Adding water only will determine to make soft idlies.

Add needed salt and mix well with your hands.  The rice and urad batter should get mix well together. Allow the batter to ferment for 8 to 10 hours.  First picture is once i mixed the salt and the 2nd one is once it got fermented.  You could see the difference between 1 & 2.

When you want to make idlies just add little bit water to make batter like not too thick consistency.  When you check the batter consistency by the ladle it should not flow easily like dosa batter.

Grease idly plates with gingelly oil.  If you are using the holes plate then wet the idly cloth spread out well on the plate.  Boil 2 cups of water in the idly pan.  Take a ladle full of idly batter and start to make idlies on the plate as shown in the fig.  Steam idlies for 8 to 10 mins.  Within 8 mins the steam will start to come out and by that time you can check the idlies whether it got cooked.

Take out the idly plate and just sprinkle water on it.  Use spoon to take out the idlies from the plate and store it in the hot pack.

Soft idlies are ready to have with Sambar and chutneys :-)

Click below for Sambar and Coconut Chutney recipe:

IDLY SAMBAR / TIFFIN SAMBAR

COCONUT CHUTNEY / THENGAI CHUTNEY

TIPS:

Adding water only will determine to get soft idlies and more or less water will result either idly will be harder or it will give flat idlies.

Urad dhal ratio should be 4:1 and excess urad dhal will result, the idlies will get stick with the cloth or the plate.

Baking soda is not advisable to use for making fluffy idlies, but if the idlies are harder then you can add a pinch of baking soda in the batter.

If you want to grind it for a week with large quantity then once you grind just mix well the batter and do not add salt.  Take a batchwise batter daily and add salt and mix well.

Add 1 tsp of fenugreek seeds for the above measurement.  Do not add more than 1 tsp and adding more will give bitter taste.

In winter or people stays in cold place ferment will get longer time.  To get a good fermentation keep the container inside the oven (Do not turn on) and that will give good fermentation.