Avantika's Kitchen Delights: December 2018

Poha Idli, as the name goes are soft, light and fluffy idlis made with Poha (Flattened rice), Rice and Urad Dal (Split Black Gram). We prepare them in the same way as we prepared regular idli, the only difference being that in this idli while preparing batter, we also add Poha as we see later. This causes the idli to become more soft.

We can have them as a breakfast item along with Coconut Chutney and Sambar.

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

(3) 125 gms of Poha (Flattened Rice)

(4) 1/4 teaspoon or 3 pinches of Methi dana / Fenugreek seeds

(5) 1 teaspoon of Salt or as per taste required

(6) Water for grinding

Here are the pictures of the ingredients used.

250 gms of Rice

85 gms of Urad dal

125 gms of Poha

1/4 teaspoon or 3 pinches of Fenugreek seeds / Methi dana

All ingredients set aside

METHOD :

SOAKING :

(1) Take 250 gms of Rice in a utensil and in another utensil take 85 gms of Urad dal along with 1/4 teaspoon Methi dana / Fenugreek seeds as shown.

I have shown the special ingredient that makes this Idli different here separately in a measuring cup, that’s 125 gms Poha. I will show this too in a separate utensil in later steps.

Rice, Urad dal and Poha

(2) Wash the Rice and Urad dal separately until the water runs clean.

(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.

Washed Rice, Urad dal

(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 Urad dal

Soaked Rice

(5) When you are about to start grinding the batter, rinse the Poha once or twice with water in a separate utensil. Drain the water and keep the washed Poha aside.

Poha

Washing Poha

Drain water from washed Poha

Washed Poha

GRINDING :

(6) Take the soaked Urad dal in the grinding jar of the Indian Mixer Grinder.

(6) Add 75 ml of water to it.

(7) Grind until very smooth paste is formed.

(8) Add the washed Poha to this Urad dal paste now. Add 75 ml of more water.

(9) Grind again till the Poha is ground into a paste along with Urad dal.

(10) Now add the soaked Rice to this paste of Urad dal and Poha.

(11) Add Salt to taste or atleast 1 teaspoon.

(12) Add 100 ml of water and grind until the rice is ground into a coarse paste.

(13) Add 50 ml of water and grind for few more seconds. We added 300 ml of water in all.

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

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

(16) Here is the picture of the batter after grinding.

And a video that shows the consistency of the batter.

FERMENTATION :

(17) 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 or more depending on the temperature conditions in your city), covering the utensil with a lid.

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 ….

STEAMING IDLI :

(18) Take an Idli Steamer as shown below.

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

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

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

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