IDILY/FERMENTED CAKES OF RICE AND LENTILS

 This is our Thursday  morning breakfast. Idily with sambar. My mother has a weird combination for idily, with coconut chutney and sugar. She loves it.

RECIPE: When I want a smaller quantity I use the 1:3 ratio or else the 1:4 ratio. I use the same batter for dosa.

Over the years of making idily,  I tried out different ratios. 

The ratio of urad dal to rice is 1:3

1. 1/2 cup urad dal
2. 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
3. 1- 1/2 cups idly rice or sona masoori rice
4. 1/2 cup cooked rice or 1/2  cup avval (poha)(1/2 cup avval plus 1/4 cup water is equivalent to  1/2 cup cooked rice)
5. 2 cups very cold water  water( all inclusive of washing out the batter in the mixie)
6. salt to taste(1 tsp)

For urad dal to rice ratio 1:4

1. 1/2 cup urad dal 
2. 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
3. 2 cups idily rice
4. 1/2 cup cooked rice or 1/2  cup avval (poha)(1/2 cup avval plus 1/4 cup water is equivalent to  1/2 cup cooked rice)
5. water as required(2-1/2 cups)
6. salt to taste(1-1/4 tsp)

For urad dal to rice ratio 1: 2

1. 1 cup urad dal 
2. 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
3. 2 cups idily rice
4. 1/2 cup cooked rice or 1/2  cup avval (poha)(1/2 cup avval plus 1/4 cup water is equivalent to  1/2 cup cooked rice)
5. 3 cups cold water
6. salt to taste( 1-1/2  tsp)

For urad dal to rice ratio 1: 1(not preferred, too much urad dal taste )

1. 2 cups urad dal 
2. 2 tsp fenugreek seeds
3. 2 cups idily rice
4. 1/2 cup cooked rice or 1/2  cup avval (poha)(1/2 cup avval plus 1/4 cup water is equivalent to  1/2 cup cooked rice)
5. 3-1/2 cups cold water
6. salt to taste( 2  tsp)

METHOD: This method is for the 1:3 ratio, just increase the amount of water and salt for the rest of the propotions.

• Soak the urad dal and fenugreek seeds together and  soak rice in another bowl for about 4-6 hours.
• When you soak the rice and lentils ,that time itself keep 2 cups of water in the fridge(lest you forget).

                                     



• Grind in steps . In the first step grind urad dal ,cooked rice(or poha) ,fenugreek seeds, 3/4  cup water into a fine paste.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

           

• Transfer 1/2  of the batter  into a bowl. Do not transfer the whole batter . Leave some of the urad dal batter in the mixie. This helps to grind the next batch of rice well.
  
• In the mixie with the urad dal mixture , add 1/2 of the washed and drained rice , 1/2 cup of water and grind. Too much water will not help to grind the rice nicely.  Grind into as fine a  paste as you can . There is 1 and 1/2 cup of soaked rice , so I need to grind in two batches. Again leave some batter in the mixie for the next batch of rice. Grind the rest of the rice with 1/2 cup of water and half of the already ground batter.
• Grinding in small batches will yield a fine ground batter. 
• Pour 1/4 cup water into the mixie and washed out the remaining batter and pour it into the bowl.
•  Add 1 tsp salt  and whip it up with your hands for a minute. Sit down and using your hands, gently whip the batter for about 5 minutes. This step is important, especially in colder weather. The whipping helps jump start the fermentation. 
  

FERMENTATION

• The batter requires at most 12 hours of fermentation.
• In Kerala (India) the batter (salted), I would soak the dal and rice in the morning and gind by about 2 pm. The batter would be kept overnight on the countertop and would be perfectly fermented in the morning, making very soft idilys.
• When I was in Texas, US, I grind the batter at around 8 pm in the night, add salt and keep it in the microwave, closed and turned off. It was well fermented the next day morning.
• Salting the batter keeps the batter from fermenting too much and becoming sour (pullichu ).
• In Seattle, US, I had to try out a lot of things to get perfectly fermented batter. This is what worked for me finally: I soak the dal and rice overnight. Early in the morning, by around 5 am, first I would preheat the oven to 170℉ for 5 minutes and turn off. Meanwhile I would grind, first the urad dal. Transfer that to the bowl, whip the urad dal nicely for about 5 minutes, then grind the rice, mix it with the urad batter and salt and then nicely whip it with hands once more for 5 minutes. Keep it in the warm oven till around 7 pm. The batter if perfectly fermented and this method is foolproof. 
•  During the summer months less time is required for fermentation. During summer months, keep it on the countertop for 12 hours.

MAKING IDILY (FINALLY!!!)

• I Prepare idily the first day and the second day ,dosa.
• To prepare idily just oil the idily moulds so that the idily releases properly.
  
• Put the idily cooker , pour water and bring to boil on high heat.
• Give a gentle stir to the fermented batter .

• Pour the batter into the moulds. There are 4 of these plates. I do not pour in the lowest plate.



• Now  lower the heat to medium high heat  and steam for 8 minutes, for three thattus , I don't pour batter in the last thattu.
  
• For a minimum of one thattu , its five minutes , 2 thattu   - 7 minutes.
• Keep the idily in the mould for 5 minutes before removing them.
• Slide them out using a spoon.

NOTES

•  I have tried the batter with the black urad dal i.e with the black color skin of the urad dal not removed. Its good. The taste is the same but the color is greyish.
  
  
  
  

• Because I am grinding the batter in a mixie , which tends to heat up very fast and the overload button trips , using cold water helps to lessen the heating up.
• The coarser the batter , the softer and fluffier the idilys. The finer, the batter the crisper the dosas. I use the batter for both idily and dosa , so grind it somewhere in between.
• The leftover idilys can be kept in the fridge. Steaming it makes it soft again. Microwaving idilies never works for me.
• If you do want to reheat idily kept in the fridge , in the microwave , then microwave on power 2  for 2 minutes or until soft. These are good for consuming immediately.
• I use the same batter for idily and dosa. Ideally the rice for the idily batter needs to be a bit coarse and for dosa batter ,the rice has to be ground into a fine paste. So I grind the rice into a consistency that is somewhere in between.
• If the batter is kept in the fridge ,then for making idillies,  increase the steaming time by 1 minute accordingly. So if its 8 minutes for 3 plates , keep it for 9 minutes etc.
• Idily and puttu never becomes soft when reheated in the microwave. Always reheat idily and puttu in the steamer.
• Red or white poha(avval) can be used. The avval(poha),beaten rice need not be soaked in water . It can be put directly into the blender. Just use extra water . For 1/2 cup avval , use 1/4 extra water.
• If the batter gets very hot while grinding in the mixie , then use ice cold water.
• Ever wondered about skipping the cooked rice or the avval(poha) in the batter? I did that and this was the result: The idily was soft as usual on the first day but harder when made , on the second day. The dosa didn't come out well. It was pale in color unlike the dosas made with batter ground with red avval or kuthari (kerala) cooked rice, which usually gives a reddish hue to the dosas. So , lesson learnt: adding cooked rice(red matta) or avval(red matta) makes the batter moist and gives the dosa , a nice reddish hue and some body.
• I have noticed that when the batter doesn't rise/ferment well , the idilies are not that soft but the dosas come out crisp and soft.
• Adding channa dal while grinding the batter makes nice crisp dosas but the idilys are not soft . So after making the idilys , when it's time to make the dosas , I add kadalammav/besan diluted in water to the flour.
• 1:4 ratio of the urad to rice batter makes very soft idilies but I don't need that much amount of batter , so I stick to the 1:3 ratio and also that's what my mom follows.
• For 1:1 ratio of urad dal to rice add 1-1/4 tsp salt. The amount of water remains the same.Because the content of urad dal is more than the above ratios, in seattle weather , it rises well , in the sense ,turning on the oven light for 2 hours is sufficient to kickstart the fermentation process and it ferments well. The idilies are soft and crumbles fast. The taste is good. If you are adept in making idilies, try this ratio also.
• Do not want to grind the idily rice??Buy the idily podi.For the 1:3 idily ratio , take 1/4 cup urad dal and 3 and 1/3 cup idily podi. Mix as instructed .
• Don't take a very big bowl for the batter . A small compact bowl that will accommodate the risen batter is just right . The bigger the bowl , the less chances of fermentation.
• I have tried all the possible proportions of urad dal to rice. 1:1 , 1:2, 1:3, 1:4. The batters (1:1 and 1:2) in which the amount of urad dal is more makes good dosas. The batters(1:3 and 1:4) in which the rice is more makes spongy idilys.
• Idily Rava: I tried idily with Idily rava , but it just did'nt didn't work for me , the batter didn't ferment , idilies were not soft and it was difficult to spread the dosa batter on the tawa.
• 1/2 cup of sona masoori rice is 66 gms. 
• 1/2 cup of Idily rice is 100 gms.
• 1/2 cup of Kerala Matta Rice is 100 gms.