IDLI DOSA BATTER
Idli Dosa Batter is most common for the indian families in day to day life.Even though many of us know the preparation of this batter and simple to make. There may be slight variations with each other recipe. There will be some useful tips to get the soft idli and crispy dosa. This is my style of grinding the batter.Hope this helps you to gain some new tips.I use the same batter to prepare the idli,dosa and paniyaram. Lets look at the steps for grinding batter.
Ingredients :
Idli Rice / Par Boiled Rice - 4 cups
Whole Urad Dal - 1 cup ( without skin )
Fenugreek seeds - 2 tbspn
Salt / Rock Salt - 2 tbspn
Water - as required
Steps :
1. Measure the rice , urad dal , fenugreek seeds and take each in separate bowls. Wash the rice three or four times in water. Similarly wash the urad dal and fenugreek seeds just once. Then add the clean water to soak rice , urad dal , fenugreek seeds . Allow it to soak all for 4 hours. Then wash the grinder well. Add the fenugreek seeds along with soaked water and grind it to fine paste.
2. Drain the urad dal soaked water to a separate bowl and add the urad dal to the grinder. Dont throw the soaked water. Use that for grinding batter. Add water little by little in regular intervals of 5 mints and grind the urad dal to a smooth paste. Remove the urad dal sticking at the sides by hands.The batter should be thrice of quantity. It should be fluffy. I added nearly half cup of water to grind the urad dal. Grind nearly 25 mints to get soft batter.
3. Once the urad dal is grinded well remove from grinder and collect it in a vessel. Then strain the water from rice and add the rice to the grinder and grind it to a fine paste. You can add nearly 1.5 to 2 cups of water to grind rice. Use the strained water to grind . But don't pour at the beginning itself. Add at regular intervals. Remove the rice sticks at the sides with hands.
4. Once the rice is 3/4 th done add the salt/rock salt to the batter. Grind it well.Once the smooth batter is ready. Turn off the grinder and remove the batter from grinder and add it to the urad dal batter vessel.
5. Once added the rice batter to the urad dal batter. Beat it well with hands and split it to two vessels. Because while fermenting it need space to raise. Close the lid and allow it to ferment it for 6-8 hours. After fermenting it would have raised well. Beat the batter. Now the batter is ready for making idli,dosa. Use the batter to make idli for first two times. Then use the batter for dosa. Bottom batter can be used for paniyaram.
Idli & dosa batter is ready. Same dosa batter consistency is used for paniyaram.
My Notes :
1. The batter quality varies based on the quality of rice and urad dal. So select the best quality.
2. Water measurements may be varied slightly based on the rice and dal. Similarly some uses 3:1 ratio of rice and dal. I have not tried with that ratio.
3. I added salt while grinding rice,you may also add while mixing the batter. I used salt today.Instead you can add rock salt too.
4. You can also add 2 tbspn of soaked poha and grind it while grinding rice.
5. Fermenting time varies if you are in cool places. If you are in such are keep the batter in oven without turning on. It helps you to get fermentation soon.
6. Use the batter to make idli for first two times. Then use the batter for dosa. Bottom batter can be used for paniyaram.
