Mini Idli – Sambar

Another of V's favourite. He loves to hold the small idlis and gobble them up. We try our best to make him eat slowly. But he somehow manages to eat them really fast.

Its such a pleasure to see him eat like that. I think why cant he eat everything like that???

I make this once in 10 to 15 days. He gets excited when he sees the idli cooker and the mini idli stand on the counter.

For the idlis, grease the mini idli stand and keep it to the side. Add water in the idli cooker and get it to a rolling boil.

In the mean time, take sufficient amount of Idli / Dosa batter in a bowl. If you need, add boiling water to get the consistency for idli batter. Now add enough salt and a pinch of Soda-bi-carbonate and mix well. You will notice that the batter rises almost immediately. Spoon out the batter into the idli stand. Put this in an idli cooker and steam for around 20 mins.

Look at the mini idli stand ready to go into the idli cooker.

This sambar is a little different (and easy) from the regular sambar. This is how they make at my house when they make idlis (every day). Its more watery than the usual sambar. You can make it thick if that’s how you like.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Toor Dal washed
1/2 Onion sliced thinly
3 Red Chillies torn in the middle
3 tsp Chopped Tomato
¼ tsp Fenugreek Seeds
½ tsp Mustard Seeds
½ tsp Cumin Seeds
10 to 15 Curry Leaves
½ tsp Tamarind Concentrate
¼ tsp Hing
2 tbsp Oil
Salt to Taste
Chopped Coriander Leaves for garnish

Method

1. Pressure cook Toor Dal, Onion, Red Chillies, Chopped Tomato, Hing in 1 and a half cup of water till done (it takes about 3 whistles for me). Mash it well.
2. In a separate pan, heat Oil.
3. When hot, add the Fenugreek Seeds, Mustard Seeds and Cumin Seeds and let them crackle.
4. Add the Curry Leaves and fry for a minute.
5. Add the Tamarind Concentrate and cook for 2 minutes. Add a little water if necessary.
6. Transfer this to the pressure cooker along with 1 and a half cup of water and Salt.
7. Mix well and bring to a rolling boil and turn off the stove.
8. Garnish with Coriander Leaves and serve hot with idlis.

Note 1: If you haven’t made idlis till date, I would suggest you watch it (either live or on the web) to know the consistency of the batter. It will be a trial and error later. But atleast you have a base to work on.
Note 2: If you want the sambar to be thick, add less water when mixing the salt.
Note 3: I like to put my idlis in a bowl, add the sambar and leave it for some time to cool and soak.
Note 4: If there’s any left over, I mix the idlis and sambar and put in the fridge. It tastes much better when the idlis are soaked well.

This goes to the following events:

Srivalli's Breakfast Mela

Suma's Cooking with Whole Foods (Legumes / Beans) - Toor Dal / Pegion Peas that was started by Kiran.

Idli / Dosa Batter

This is something I wanted to post when I get the fermentation process right. I've never been able to get it right. Especially in winters. I've tried this method twice till now and it has come out right both the times.

When I was due to deliver, my parents came to Glasgow about a month is advance. My father stayed for about 2 weeks and left before my delivery. He came back after my delivery. Since he was coming back in such a short time, he didn’t have much luggage. He asked me if I wanted anything. I thought I might never get this chance again and told him to get the Ultra table top grinder.

Its been with me ever since (about 2 and a half years now) and makes my life easy when I have to make Idli / Dosa batter. To top it, my mother gave me a recipe so I can use the same batter for Idlis and Dosas. I've been using this recipe for a while now and the idlis and dosas come out really well.

I used to use yeast for fermentation. But I didn't like the taste. We did get used to it as we wanted to have dosas, but I wasn't satisfied as V was not enjoying his dosas. He loved them when we went to India in October. But here, we had to force him to eat.

Recently, I thought I should try not using yeast. When I made dosas, me, P and even V saw the huge difference in taste. We didn’t force V to eat. It was more like the dosas they make at home in India. Although the fermentation process takes a longer, we decided we will not use yeast anymore.

That's the dish I use for fermentation. The batter is fermented in this photo.

Here's how I make my batter:

Ingredients:
1 cup Urad Dal
5 cups Rice – I use long grain
1 cup Thick Poha
2 tsp Fenugreek Seeds

Method

1. Soak Poha and Fenugreek Seeds together in about 3 cups of water for 4 to 6 hours. Wash Rice and Urad Dal and soak them together for 4 to 6 hours. I sometimes soak for around 8 hours also.
2. Grind the Poha and Fenugreek Seeds first.
3. Once they are ground to a smooth paste, add the Rice and Urad Dal. Add 2 cups of water and let it grind to a smooth batter. This takes me about 40 mins.
4. Preheat the oven to 100 deg C.
5. Once the batter is done, remove into a huge dish. Remember, once fermented, it’ll more than double in volume.
6. Put the dish in the oven and keep the oven light switched on over night or for atleast 10 hours.
7. Try to refrain from opening the oven door frequently as this will cause the heat loss.
8. Your batter is fermented once it has become 2 and a half to 3 times in volume.
9. If you take out the top layer, you should see the batter is light and fluffy.
10. Mix well so the air comes out from the batter.
11. You can remove and put it in the fridge now.
12. I like my batter to be a bit sour. So I put it back into the pre heated oven with the light on for another 10 hours or so.

Fluffy batter

Note 1: This is a long process and this is the way I follow it to get the taste we like.
Note 2: If you are using a mixie, you might not want to use so much rice as this might burn your mixie.
Note 3: Some friends replace rice with rice flour for dosas. In such cases, the ratio should be 1:6 for Urad Dal to Rice Flour. I am not sure about this as I haven't tried it. But my friends who have used this combination say it works fine for dosas. I do not know anything for Idlis.
Note 4: In another option, you can use Urad Dal Flour and Rice Flour.The ratio should be 1:2. Again, I haven't tried this and this method is mainly for dosas.

Rava Idli

We are going to Manchester this weekend to visit my husband's brother and his wife. I am looking forward to meet them as its been almost 7 months since we've met them.

I love the Traffod Centre in Manchester. Its one of the most beautiful malls I've seen. We generally go to the mall every time we go to Manchester. How the whole day flies there, I still don't understand. Anyways, its just the weekend we are going for, so there won't be any breaks in blogging (as it is I blog once in 3 - 4 days).

Here's the Rava Idli recipe that I make with my Homemade Mix. Remember the veggies are totally optional. You can add more or avoid them totally. I did not add carrots when I clicked these photos. Hope you enjoy this as much as we enjoy it.

Ingredients:
1 cup Homemade Rava Idli Mix
1 cup curd
1 tsp Chilli Paste / 1 Chilli finely chopped
1 tsp Ginger Paste
1 Carrot - grated
1/2 cup Frozen Peas
1 tsp Eno Fruit Salt
Water - as needed
Salt to taste

Method

1. In a bowl, take the curd and beat it with a fork.
2. Mix in the Salt, Green Chilli Paste, Ginger, grated Carrot and Peas.
3. Add the Homemade Rava Idli Mix and mix well so no lumps are formed.
4. Add water to get the consistency of idli batter. Instead of water, you can also use more curd. Remember that Semolina soaks up a lot of water / curd.
5. Leave it for about 20 mins to rest.
6. In the meantime, grease the idli stand with oil.
7. Add Eno Fruit Salt to the idli batter, mix well and pour into the idli moulds. Do not fill till the top as the idlies will rise.
8. Steam it for about 20 mins.
9. Serve hot with chutney or on their own.

This goes to Veggie Platter's Cooking With Seeds - Wheat. Cooking With Seeds was started by Priya.

This also goes to ARS B For Breakfast.

Rava Idli Mix

Before you draw your own conclusions, let me tell you this is not a ready made (read store bought) mix. This is a mix that you can make at home and use it when you need it.

I was tired of the regular idlies and wanted a change. I was also trying to include some veggies in our food. That's when the idea of rava idli hit me. Though this was never made at home in India, I knew that we could use veggies in this. So I thought I'll try it.

As usual, my first call went to my pinni who gave me the step by step recipe. In this post, I am giving you the procedure to make the mix. If done (roasted) and stored correctly, this mix can stay good for atleast 3 months.

I make the mix with about 1kg of Semolina at a time. I am writing the recipe for 1 cup semolina. You just multiply the quantities depending on the number of cups you are making. Most of the time, this is present in our house as its almost like instant idli.

This doesn't take much time - especially if you are making only 1 cup. 1 cup makes approx 10 to 12 idlies. So you might want to make accordingly.

Ingredients:
1 cup Semolina
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
A Pinch Hing / Asafoetida
10 Curry Leaves
1 Red Chilli torn in pieces
1 tsp Chana Dal
1 tsp Urad Dal
1 tbsp Oil

Method

1. Heat Oil in a pan. When hot, add the Mustard Seeds and Hing.
2. When the Mustard Seeds start to splutter, add the Red Chilli pieces, Curry Leaves, Chana Dal and Urad Dal and fry till Chana Dal changes colour.
3. Now add the Semolina. Roast till the semolina gets a nice golden brown colour and you get the aroma of Semolina.
4. Remove it from the pan, cool it and store it in an air tight jar.

Note 1: Make sure the jar you are storing in is clean and dry.
Note 2: Its important to remove the mix from the pan, else there are chances that it will burn.