Eat East Indian

For Idli:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup urad dal
• 2 cups idli rava (rice sooji) or 2 cups rice
• Salt

Idli rava, also called as rice rava or rice sooji, is available in market with the name “Idli rava(Cream of rice)”.
If idly rava is not available, use 2 cups of rice instead. Soak rice for around 4-5 hrs. Then let the water go by spreading it on cloth for around 30mins. When all water is gone, grind(without any water) to a coarse powder (of coarse sand consistency).

Method:

• Soak dal for around 4-5 hours.
• Grind it to a very smooth paste (Do not add too much water, just add as much as needed). Touch the batter and no pieces of dal should be felt. The more it is ground, the better. Once it is ground very soft, some bubbles can be found on the surface, the more the bubbles, the better is the batter.
• Wash the rava with water(if rava is prepared at home, no need to wash it again) and grind it for 5-6 seconds, do not grind more than that, just to make the rava a bit fine. Some people, do not grind the rava, but most of the times the readymade rava is too coarse and grinding it makes the idlis turn out softer.
• If you have more time in hand, grind the dal previous day afternoon and mix the rava in the night. Add salt and mix well (When dal is completely gound, the rava can be added to mixer and ground 5-6 seconds as explained earlier to speed up the process. But make sure the dal is completely ground before adding the rava).
Keep the batter in a warm place overnight.
• Check in the morning if the batter is fermented. The volume would have increased. If it looks same as the previous day, it is better not to steam it, theidlis become like stone and everything has to be discarded. Instead make some dosas with the batter. There is no point in keeping it for one more night, because the idlis would become sour.
• Grease the idli stand with oil (I do not grease the idli stand. Still I can easily remove them once they are steamed). Steam them for around 10mins (if using cooker, do not use the weight). Leave it for around 5-10mins before opening the steamer/cooker (or else, the steam falls on idlis and make them mushy).

For Samabhar:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup toor dal
• 1/2 cup onion
• 1/4 cup tomato
• 1/4 cup potato
• 1 tea spn sambar powder
• A pinch turmeric
• Oil
• 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
• A pinch asafetida
• 4-5 curry leaves
• 2-3 strands coriander leaves
• Salt

Method:

• Cook toor dal with turmeric. Cook potato, tomato and onion separately, I mean do not mix them with dal while cooking. (If you have the cooker vessels, use the down one for the dal and the upper one for vegetables. This way thedal cooks faster than the vegetables). Around 3-4 whistles are enough in cooker. (If using microwave, cook both separately one after the other).
• Mash the dal with a spoon. Add the vegetables to dal and add sufficient water (this sambar tastes good when the dal is cooked well and mashed well).
• Heat the dal, vegetables mixture. Add salt. When it starts boiling, add thesambar powder (Do not hold the entire packet of sambar powder on boilingsambar. The steam gets into the packet and the powder gets spoiled. So use spoon to take out the powder away from the boiling sambar and then add the powder).
• Add the chopped coriander leaves and cook for 2-3mins.
• Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add asafoetida and curry leaves (tear the curry leaves into two to increase the aroma). Add this seasoning to Sambar and immediately close the lid.

For Chutney:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh/frozen coconut
• 1″ piece ginger
• 1/4th tea spn tamarind extract
• 4 green chilis
• Salt

For seasoning:
• Oil
• 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
• 1/2 tea spn urad dal
• 3-4 curry leaves
• 1 red chili

Method:

• Grind coconut, ginger, tamarind, salt and chilies to a smooth paste adding required amount of water.
• Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add urad dal. When dal turns slightly brownish, add curry leaves, broken red chilies. Fry for a little while. Pour this seasoning over chutney.

Serve the chutney with sambhar and idli.

Recipe taken from Aayi Recipe
Pictures taken from Indo Base , Maria menu and Salt and Spice