How to make batter for idly and dosa!

Idly/Dosa is a traditional and popular South Indian breakfast. Idly has been voted the healthiest Asian meal of the century. This batter is pretty handy, as it can be stored for a few days.

I have seen my mother prepare this batter. It seemed pretty hard and I never gave it a try until my husband asked for it. My first try was ok but the idlies were hard :(. This post would help newbies who are trying to make this batter for the first time or if you are trying to get soft idlies. Now here we go with the recipe... 

Ingredients

Idly rice is different from the rice what we all eat in our routine day. Idly rice is a parboiled rice and the regular rice is a raw rice. 

Idly rice (parboiled rice)	3 cups
Whole urad dal (Ulundhu)	1 cup
Fenugreek seeds/vendhayam	½ tsp
Water	As needed
Salt	3tsp

Method 

• Measure each ingredients separately and keep it aside. 
• Now soak rice + fenugreek seeds and urad dal separately for 3-4 hours.
• After 4 hours or so,  wash the dal and rice separately for several times to remove the impurities. 

                                 

• First grind urad dal by sprinkling water in regular intervals - when you do that the urad dal will get fluffy in texture and increase in quantity. It will make the idly softer.
•  The grinding time of urad dal is 35- 40 min max. ( How will you find that urad dal is ground completely? Take little urad dal batter in your hand and put it in a bowl of water. When you do this the dal should float in the water)
• After grinding the urad dal take it in a separate bowl and keep it aside.

                         

• Now add the rice + fenugreek seeds in the grinder with 1/2 cup of water. 
• Grind to a smooth paste.
• At this time, add salt so that it mixes well with entire batter in a right proportion. It will be  thick in texture once complete.
• Now mix both the batters together.

                             

 

• Add little water and mix the batter well with your hand
• Transfer the batter to a container. Keep the container in a warm place for fermentation process, that will take upto 12-14 hours (overnight).
• You will see the batter fermented and raised in quantity the next day. A good fermented batter will give a soft and tasty idly.

                             

 Tips

Idly:

• Don't stir the batter when making idly.
• If you want your idly to be soft add a fist full of cooked rice or sago or poha, while grinding the batter.
• I prefer doing idly for first 2 days only, then rest of the batter I do uttappam or dosa.

Dosa:

• Remember to add 1/4 cup of water and mix the batter well to make dosa. 
• Dosa will be crispy if cooked with close lid.
• While grinding rice ensure that the batter is not too thin.

                            

 

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