Idli / Dosa Batter

The most favorite South Indian breakfast is Idli - Sambar. But preparing a soft idli will be a headache for new cooks.. Even i had this problem initially, so here is the recipe for preparing idli batter which i learnt from my mom.

Ingredients:

Idli Rice - 1 cup
Whole Urad Dhal(uruttu ulundhu) - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Water
Fenugreek(Venthayam)- 1/2tsp(if u wish)

Method:

Soak Rice and Dhal(with fenugreek) separately for atleast 2 hours before u grind.

First wash the urad dhal and drain the water completely. Put drained urad dhal in the grinder. While grinding,sprinkle water(cool refrigerated water gives better result)then and there and grind it for 40mins. Keep sprinkling water in between at regular intervals. When the batter becomes fluffy it is ready to be collected from grinder. Collect it in a big container.

Now wash and drain the idli rice and add it to the grinder. Sprinkle little water and start grinding. It may take nearly 30mins to grind this rice. Add water in between to get a smooth batter. It has to be little thicker than dhal batter.

Collect this rice batter in the container in which u've stored dhal batter. Add required amount of salt and mix it well. Keep in out in a warm place for atleast 10hours to get fermented. After fermenting the level of batter would have raised and then u can store in a refrigerator and use it for preparing idli/dosa.

For Idli, the batter should be thick and the first batter will give soft and white idlis.

For Dosa, the batter has to be little liquid, so its better to take batter separately for dosa and add little water to bring it to a pouring consistency.

Hot Hot soft idlis right out from steam with ghee on it and tomato chutney as side dish.. OMG, thinking abt this brings water in my mouth.. Lemme post the recipe of tomato chutney next. So u can have soft idlis with a tasty chutney. This tomato chutney will go with dosa too.. :)