Avantika's Kitchen Delights: Idli

Idli is a savory dish that is popular in the southern part of India and is made by grinding rice, urad dal (skinned or skinless black lentils) along with water. This mixture is then left to ferment overnight before being steamed in an idli steamer.

While they were eaten as a regular breakfast item along with sambar and chutney in every household of southern India, during the last couple of decades, it has become a popular snack item in every part of India.

Idlis served with Sambar and Coriander Coconut chutney

EQUIPMENTS NEEDED :

(1) Stone Wet Grinder or Indian Mixer Grinder ( I used Indian Mixer Grinder)

(2) Idli Steamer

INGREDIENTS :

(1) 250 gms of Idli Rice / Regular Rice (I used Basmati rice that was already there for daily cooking in the house. It gave good results too.)

(2) 125 gms of Urad dal (Whole Skinless Black gram / Split Skinless Black gram)

(3) 25 Methi dana / Fenugreek seeds

(4) 1 teaspoon of Salt or as per taste required

(5) Water for grinding

Here are the pictures of the ingredients used.

250 gms of Rice

125 gms of Urad dal (Split skinless black gram)

Fenugreek seeds / Methi Dana

Rice, Urad dal and Fenugreek seeds

METHOD :

SOAKING :

(1) Take 250 gms of Rice in a utensil and in another utensil take 125 gms of Urad dal along with 25 Methi dana / Fenugreek seeds as shown.

Rice - 250 gms

Urad dal - 125 gms and 25 Methi dana / Fenugreek seeds

(2) Wash them separately until the water runs clean.

Rice and Urad Dal washed

(3) Now once they are washed, add water in each utensil and soak the Rice and Urad dal for 4-6 hours separately and for the same amount of time.

Rice and Urad dal soaked in water for 4-6 hours

(4) After the completion of 4-6 hours, drain the water from each utensil and you get the soaked Rice and soaked Urad dal (With methi dana).

Soaked Rice

Soaked Ural Dal

Soaked Rice and Urad Dal

GRINDING :

(5) Take the soaked Urad dal in a grinding jar of an Indian Mixer Grinder.

(6) Add 50 ml of water to it.

(7) Grind until very smooth paste is formed along with bubbles as shown.

(8) To this add the soaked Rice.

(9) Add 150 ml of water and grind until the rice is ground into a coarse paste.

(10) Add salt as per taste required or at least 1 teaspoon.

(11) Add 100 ml of water and grind for few more seconds just to mix the salt and water to the rice urad dal paste.

We added 300 ml of water in all.

(12) We could have grinded the urad dal and rice separately and then mixed them, but with experience one can learn to do it together.

(13) Once the Rice Urad dal batter is ready for preparing Idli, transfer the batter from the grinding jar into a utensil.

(14) Here is the picture of the batter after grinding. And a video that shows the consistency of the batter.

FERMENTATION :

(15) Make sure the Utensil in which we took the batter is large enough.

This is because, we will be keeping the batter to ferment overnight (about 12 hours), covering the utensil.

When the batter ferments, it rises and so we need that space in the utensil to allow the batter to rise and not overflow from the utensil.

Once the batter ferments, it looks like this ….

Here is the video of the fermented batter.

STEAMING IDLI :

(16) Take an Idli Steamer as shown below.

Fill the Idli Steamer with water upto a level as shown in the figure.

(17) Grease the moulds of the three idli stands with oil.

(18) Pour ladleful of idli batter in each of the moulds.

(19) Place the steamer on the gas stove and turn on the gas stove and heat the water in the steamer. Once the water is hot, place the idli stands in the steamer. Cover the lid of the idli steamer.