Idly (How to grind idly/dosa batter in mixie)

     
     Idly is the most common comfort food of South Indians and is also the most convenient one to make. It is good for health as it is a steamed dish. As a recipe, Idly has never failed me :P always the softer and softest it turns out to be... Whenever we have to head for important meetings in the mornings or plan to go for an outing, Idly would be topping the menu, with each person getting their separate pack of idlis dipped in chilli powder and gingelly oil !!! As I don't prepare separate batter for idly & dosa, everytime the routine follows making idlis twice, then dosa, followed by onion oothapam or kuzhi paniyaram.
     Though it is a common recipe, how can it be called a food blog without this !!! Plus, I wanted it to be documented, as I often get a confusion as to whether the rice is 3 parts or the urad dal is 3 parts :P Every time I get confused, I recollect my mom's saying "If you put 3 parts of urad dal, then you wont get idlis but you will have to be sitting and making only medhu vadais the whole day" 

Prep Time: 3 hours soaking time + 30 mins grinding || Cook Time: 25 mins || Yields: 15 || Category: Breakfast/Tiffin, Steamed dishes

Ingredients:
1. Raw rice (Idly rice) - 3 cups
2. Whole urad dal - 1 cup
3. Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
4. Salt - as required
5. Hing - 3 tsp

Method:
1. Wash idli rice and whole urad dal separately and soak for a minimum of 3 hours.

2. Soak 2 tsp of fenugreek along with urad dal. Adding fenugreek gives softness and good flavour to the idly/dosa.

3.If you find in the meantime, that the grains are short of water, add some more water as required.  After 3 hours, the rice and urad dal would have bulged in size absorbing water. Drain the water from urad dal and add it into a mixie jar. Add little amount of water to assist smooth grinding.

4. Keep checking the consistency of urad batter for every 2 mins. Open the mixie jar and add water if necessary and give a stir with the spatula. Continue grinding to get a smooth paste. It took around 5-6 mins for me to get a smooth batter with 2 breaks in between to avoid overheating of the mixie's motor.

5. Transfer the ground urad dal batter to a large container and add some salt and hing to it. In the same mixie jar, add the drained rice to more than half and less than three fourths of the jar's capacity. Add less water and grind slowly into a smooth paste, in multiple batches. (I ground the soaked rice in 2 batches for a total of 6 rounds, with 3 rounds of grinding and intermittent checking for each batch)

6. Keep checking for the consistency of the ground rice batter. The batter tends to become dry sooner. But if the batter becomes too runny, it will take longer time to grind. So, add water accordingly.

7. Once it is ground to a smooth paste, transfer it to the same container in which the urad dal batter has been poured into. Mix both the batters well with clean hand. (Mixing with hand is preferable, as it helps in better fermentation of the batter. (But I always use a spatula or a long laddle to avoid messy hands. It still gets fermented overnight may be taking a little extra time)

8. Keep the batter covered overnight  for 8-10 hours or more/less hours depending on the climatic conditions of the region where you live. After the resting period, the batter would have fermented and risen towards the brim of the container. Before using it for making idlis, mix well with a long laddle and check for the consistency and add salt if required.

9. Grease the idly plates generously with gingelly oil and pour the batter into each mould a little less than its level or just equal to the level. (If using cloth for making idlis, make the cloth damp and squeeze the water from it. Spread the cloth on the idly plates and pour the batter onto the dents.) Add water in the idly steamer sufficiently and stack the plates inside the container and close the lid.

10. Keep in high flame initially for 5 mins and then switch to medium flame for 6-7 mins. Once the idlis are cooked, the aroma starts coming out of the steamer. The cooked idlis, will get cracks on their top surface. If you still want to check for the doneness, insert a spoon or a knife which should come out without the dough sticking to it.

Suggestions:

• Rather than mixie, using grinder for making the batter, yields softer idlis. (As I dont have a grinder here, I rely on mixie ground batter)
• Mixing the rice and urad dal batter with hand, instead of a laddle or spatula, helps in quicker fermentation.
• Do not fill the entire container with idly batter. Leave some space between the surface of the flour and the lid of the container giving room for the batter to ferment and rise.
• There is also a practice of adding a long spoon or laddle into the container having idly batter, as it avoids the flour overflowing after fermentaion (Should be working fine but I have not tested it though, as I use a considerably larger container for storage).
• At any point during steaming, if you find a burning smell or a noise from the steamer, take out the plates and check for the level of water in the container.
• I generally grind the urad dal first and rice at the last, as washing the mixie jar is easier with remnants of rice batter than the sticky remains of urad dal batter.
• Keeping the batter filled container in a large plate helps in collecting the fermented and overflown batter overnight, if any. It also makes cleaning the outer part of the container and the resting platform/table mess free.
• Some have the practice of adding a handful of poha while grinding the batter, as it gives softer idlis. (I have not tried this, as the without poha version itself works great for me.)
• Comparing the cloth version with the non-cloth version, softer idlis are undoubtedly guaranteed with the cloth version.
• Though there may be many different ratios, I follow the ratio of 3:1 for Rice:Urad dal always and it has been yielding softer idlis.

     I gulped the idlis with red chilly chutney, milagai podi & milagu kuzhambu !!! With a drizzle of gingelly oil over the hot idlis.