Idli

Although there are a lot brands of readymade idli and dosa batter in the grocery stores these days, i like to make it at home. There is something different about the taste. You can also put a lot of things in the batter to make different style of idlis. For now I am posting the most basic recipe. The key to making soft idlis is that the batter should be fermented properly. Also if you whip the batter a little bit before steaming them they come out to be real soft. There are different ratios of urad daal and idli rava but to me 1:1 ratio works perfectly fine.
Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

1C urad daal
1C idli rava (store bought)
oil for greasing the mould
salt to taste


Method:

1) Soak the urad daal and idli rava separately in water for about 6-8 hours.

2) Urad daal will swell a bit after soaking. Drain the water and In a grinder , add urad daal first and grind it to a fine paste. Add water little by little to the grinder to make the consistency of a cake batter.

3) Drain water from the soaked idli rava and add to the grinder. Mix well. Pour the batter into a large bowl so that the batter fills half of it. This is because, when the batter ferments, it doubles in size and the bowl should have enough space.

4) Cover the bowl with a lid and keep covered in towels in a warm place in the kitchen. I usually keep it in the pantry or in a recently used oven.

5) Ferment for about 10 hours. By this time the batter should have formed a lot of small bubbles and it should have doubled in size.

6) If it did not, then you can make dosas with batter or try keeping it for some more time to ferment in a warmer place.

7) Add salt to taste in the batter. Grease the idli mould with little oil and pour the batter in each mould.

8) boil about an inch or two of water in a large pan which can accomodate the mould. Keep the mould in the pan of boiling water and cover the lid so that the steam is trapped and it cooks the idlis.

9) Steam for about 12 mins and they are ready to take out of the mould.

Serves: This amount of batter will make 24 idlis so decide for yourself ;-)