Idlis are soft, round flat balls made of rice and urad dal. These originate from Southern part of India but are very commonly available across the country. In fact, Idlis are one of the most common Indian food I’ve seen in foreign countries as well. I have eaten Idlis in Australia, Dubai and Thailand too.
Good part is that it has minimal ingredients and a very specific and simple style of cooking due to which it tastes the same no matter from where you eat it. The only difference lies in the softness of the Idlis which can be very easily obtained by the process of fermentation.
Idlis are also made using Rava (Sooji) but the typical south Indian ones are made using dal and rice. The rice used to make idli are different than the usual rice we eat. We need not use basmati or any long grain rice here; in fact it’s best to use small broken rice for making idlis.
Idlis can be eaten with Coconut chutney or Tomato garlic chutney apart from Sambhar off course. Let’s see how we cook this.
Servings
2 Person
Kitchen Standing Time
10 minutes
Ingredients
| S.No. | Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Urad Dal | 1 Cup |
| 2. | Rice | 3 Cups |
| 3. | Salt | 2 TBSP |
Method
Step 1: Wash and soak 1 cup Urad dal and 3 cups rice in a bowl. Soak overnight.
Step 2: To prepare the batter, drain off the excess water and add the soaked rice and dal in a mixer grinder. Grind to a fine paste and transfer to a bowl.
Step 3: Add salt to the batter and allow it to rest for fermentation at a warm place. The process of fermentation is very important here. If the batter doesn’t ferment properly, the idlis will not fluff and will not be soft either. The fermentation process takes about 6-10 hours. And so Idli making requires proper planning.
Step 4: You will get to know the batter is fermented when you feel the batter has risen above the initial level. This rise will be due to the air that will be filled inside the batter as a part of the fermentation process.
Step 5: The final step involves steeming the idlis. You can choose to use a gas steamer or you can use microwave to prepare the idlis.
Step 6: Serve hot with coconut chutney or tomato garlic chutney or Sambhar.
Have a great meal!