Tale of two idlis

This post is long overdue. The words have been formed in my mind for a long time but never got time to put them on paper err.. web I mean. I made the most amazing find...well it is really amazing atleast to me because I now make idlis and dosas from scratch in a jiffy (minus the fermenting time). As you would know idlis are a traditional part of the South Indian meal. We would make a big batch of batter every week waiting to be made into dosai, idli or uthappam. Its usually idlis the first two days, I guess that's when the batter is most fresh, then dosas for the rest of the week, and finally uthappam when there is very little batter because then you can add all the veggies into it to make up. I remember my grandmother using this mammoth device, the ammi kal, to make the batter. Little wonder she is still fit (God bless he heart!) even at this age.  The way this apparatus worked is you use your sheer arm strength to rotate the oblong stone in circular motion grind the soaked rice and dal into batter. It takes hours but results in the most fantastic crispy dosas and fluffy idlis. The ammi kal was a permament fixture in our kitchen when I was in grade school.

Then came the era of wet grinders (the late 80s I think). It automated the batter making process but it was quite a challenge to remove the batter from the grinder as you had to do it by hand.

Then in the 90s came the tilt and table top grinders. These were compact little things and you could clean them very easily.

 Now in this millennium in India you don't have to grind the batter at home anymore. You get ready made batters at the corner of every street. They make good idlis and dosas that taste home made.

Now in the US its a different story. As a grad student you hardly make idlis as you know it is a lot of work.  Dosas don't need much work - you could mix wheat flour, maida and rava to make a good dosa .Ofcourse as a student you are also relying on the blender to grind the batter. It results in stony idlis and sticky potholed dosas. If you are lucky enough you may posses the table top grinder. The result of a kind parent agreeing to substitute the grinder for one piece of their allowed 23 kg baggage.

In our house we are not big idli eaters. We still don't have a grinder and I hate to use my prized Sumeet mixie/blender for the batter. Because it gets heated very fast and crash out on you. Sometimes we get the readymade batter from Devon street but ummm.... its not the real thing. Also you get the Gits mix but again way way far from the real deal. So we don't make idlis. With my parents here and now my my mother in law we are back on a dosa idle schedule just like childhood days. But alas no wet grinder still!  We made my Sumeet work. Also it is quite a challenge because you cannot grind when the baby is sleeping. Also you cannot grind when he is awake because he does not like the noise. So you can grind only when he is out of the house which is not very often because he is only 8 months old and still pretty dependent :).

As you already know smart reader, idli/dosai is made from whole urad dal and rice. So I put two and two together and said why not try with urad flour and rice flour? Duh! there must be other people who have tried this. I googled and googled and found lotsa recipes for dosa (ofcourse - because it is easy to make as I pointed out earlier) but never idlis. Why? Because the batter never ferments well, many say. The Phd in me was now challenged. Hey! This is not rocket science so why not give it a try? And so I did. With help from fellow bloggers who gave me good tips what not to do. See Jugalbandhi's post on a primer for idli making. And here's the result of my experiments with just urad and rice flours. Voila! Fluffy white idlis. Just like Saravana Bhavan's. I did try different tricks and now presenting the steps that worked.

• Take 1 cup of urad flour and 3 cups of rice flour in a steel vessel. Add 1/4 tsp of active yeast in warm water. Add required  water to get a smooth batter. The batter should be close to a thick cake batter (before you put in the oven). Better err on the side of thicker batter than watery one. It is important to use a small spatula or better yet your hand to mix. Because this helps aerate the batter which is key for yeast formation. Do not add salt now.
• Now preheat the oven to the lowest setting ~180 F. Once oven preheats, turn off and place the steel container inside. If you are in a hot climate you can skip this step. If your room temperature is below 70F I would advise you to do this.
• After 3-4 hours repeat step 2 again. You can leave the container inside while oven preheats.
• I repeated step 2 a third time. I live in Chicago where the temperature ranges between 10 - 40 F during winter, so I needed to do the oven heating atleast 3 times. I also keep the oven light on to maintain some warmth.
•  After 12 - 18 hours you should find the batter risen to double the original. 
• If it does not here is what you can do the next time:
• Increase the amount of yeast. 
• Add a tablespoon of cooked rice or bread to the mix. Same thing - helps yeast gets started.
• If that does not work add a spoon of Eno salt to the batter just before making the idlis. I do this every time. Makes idli fluffy!

So here's to a new era of no-grind idlis!

p.s: Wish I had more pics of the batter and the process. But my camera is always filled with photos of the lil one and no place for blog pictures :). Will update as I make more batter next week.