Idly - Idly

Ingredients:

Idly rice - Idly arisi - 6 cups
Black gram dal - Ulutham paruppu - 1 cup
Fenugreek seeds - Vendayam - 3 table spoons
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Soak idly rice and fenugreek seeds in a small cup for 5 hours. Soak black gram dal for 1 hour.
2. Grind black gram dal along with fenugreek, first in a grinder, remove the contents, now grind rice. Dal takes some 25 minutes to grind and rice takes some 40 minutes to grind.
3. Transfer all the flour into a plastic box add 2 table spoons of salt, mix it well with hand. Keep it for 8 to 10 hours.

Idly batter is ready to be used. It can be used for 2 to 3 days in a week.

Note: Rice flakes can be soaked and added to rice while grinding. It makes the flour even more soft. Fenugreek seeds makes the flour very soft and it is good for health. It will take off heat from the body. A pinch of baking soda can be added so that idlys will look pluffy.

Optional: Measurement said above is for good quality dal. If dal is of medium or low quality the measurement for dal has to be increased. It should be 2 cups. Always mix the batter after grinding using hand and the plastic box should be big enough to allow the batter to become sour. It shouldn't be of equal size or lesser size. Plastic box is good for these kinds of flours. Always use plastic containers to be kept in refrigerator.

Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.

G.K. Chesterton