Idli Recipe

1 Soak urad daal in water for 3-4 hours. You can either soak the idli rava or not. My grandmother used to soak it in lukewarm water. I have tried both methods and have not found any difference in the idlis. After at least 3 hours drain the urad daal, reserving some of the water.

2 If using a wet grinder, switch it on, add 1/2 cup of the water and let the grinder run. Then slowly add the urad daal. Grind it atleast for 25-30 minutes until it’s nice and fluffy.

3 Add the idli rava to the urad daal batter while it’s still in the grinder and let the grinder run a couple of minutes more so that everything is combined well.

4 Transfer the batter to a bowl, add salt and the oil and mix it well. Use a big size bowl so that there is enough room for the batter to rise while it ferments. Ferment it for at least 12-15 hours and use it the next day.

1If using rice instead of idli rava, the measurement I follow is 2 cups of par boiled rice, 1 cup of raw rice and 3/4th-1 cup of urad daal. Soak the rice together. Soak the urad daal separately. First grind the urad daal as mentioned above and transfer it to the bowl. Then grind the rice to a coarse consistency. It should take only 5-8 minutes if grinding it in a wet grinder. Then mix both the batters, salt and oil and combine it well.

2 I also soak for adai whenever I’m going to grind for idlis. First I grind daal and rice for idlis, transfer the batter and in the same grinder grind for adai. So we have adai for dinner and idli/dosa for the next 2 days. So with extra 10 minutes of work 3-4 days’ dinner/breakfast is taken care off. Also less clean up, because you have to wash the grinder only once as against twice if you soak for adai and idlis on two separate days.

Chutney Recipes

I had a dried red chili at home which is not at all spicy but gives only the color. I used that in addition to the spicy chillies to get the red color. So I did not use tomato. Grind everything together to a smooth paste. Usually I fry this chutney in little oil to get rid of the raw smell from onions. I didn’t do it this time because anyway I was going to steam it with the idlis.

Grind everything together adding little water as needed.

Grind everything together adding little water as needed.

Procedure 1 Soak the cracked wheat in 1 cup water. Soak the daals and chilies together in another bowl with 1 and 1/2 cups water. I used the fine variety of cracked wheat. It had the texture of semolina. If you happen to have only the coarse variety run it in a blender/processor for a couple minutes before soaking. Soak everything for at least 3-4 hours.

2 Drain the dal in a colander and reserve the water. Blend together the daals and chilies with some of the reserved water until smooth.

3 Then add the soaked cracked wheat, coconut, ginger, tomato puree. Add water as needed to get a smooth batter.

4 Tranfer the batter to a bowl, add salt and mix well. The batter is ready to make the dosas. No need to ferment it.

5 Heat a tava. Sprinkle some water to check if the tava is hot enough. Take the batter in a ladle and pour it on the pan and spread it into a thin circle with the back of the ladle.

6 It takes about 2 minutes for the batter to cook. If you want it crisp you can wait for another minute or until you see a reddish thin crust in the middle. You could either use little oil to top the dosa or use a non stick spray like Pam and spray it lightly in a circular motion on top of the dosa. Using the non stick spray effectively requires some practice. You have to press the nozzle with very light pressure, otherwise there’s going to be an “oil rain” on the dosa. Since the batter is thin, unlike the regular adai batter this one cooks well even without oil. Flip it and cook the other side for another minute.

7 Turn it over once again and roll it just like shown in the picture or serve it as it is.

My Notes 1 You could use 3/4 cup of moong dal itself instead of 1/2 cup moong dal and 1/4 cup masoor daal. I usually do it like that but this time changed it a little bit.

2The tomato puree in the batter is optional. I got this idea from another blogger Ashwini. I usually prepare this adai without tomato and that’s good too. But the tomato makes it little tangy and also gives a nice color to the dosa. You could use one small tomato chopped instead of the puree. If adding chopped tomatoes grind it together with the daals itself, otherwise it may not blend properly.

3 This dosa is good either soft or crispy. If you want it soft take it a minute early.