Ingredients:
Set 1:
- Parboiled Rice – 4 cups
- Whole Urad Dal – 1 cup
- Fenugreek seeds – 1/4 tsp
- Salt – 1 1/2 tbsp
Set 2:
- Green chillies – 3 (finely chopped)
- Ginger – 1/4 inch (finely chopped)
- Gram Dal – 1/2 tbsp
- Split Cashews – 8 (chopped)
- Split Urad Dal – 1/2 tsp
- Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
- Curry Leaves – a few (chopped)
- Oil – 1 tbsp
Method:
Soak all the ingredients from set 1 (except salt), rice and dal+fenugreek separately for about 4 hours. Then wet grind them separately pouring enough water to make a thick batter. Then, mix both batters (from rice & dal) and add the salt and mix well and set aside to ferment (the batter will rise about 1/2 inch to an inch). Under normal tropical weather conditions, this should take around 10-12 hrs. In colder conditions, it might take longer. Dont allow to ferment longer. The batter will turn sour.
Once the batter is fermented, mix well again, adding a pinch of baking soda dissolved in few tsp of water.
Soak the gram dal in water for 1/2 hr (till soft). In a small pan, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dal, curry leaves, green chillies, ginger and cashews and saute for a few minutes. Add this mixture and soaked gram dal to the batter and mix well.
Pour the batter into the idli moulds and steam them in a pressure cooker (without putting the weight in the cooker) for about 10 min. Remove from cooker and keep aside for a few minutes and then remove the idlis from the moulds and serve. Alternatively instead of pouring into the round idli moulds, can pour into other fancy containers like tumblers, round bowls, etc to get the appropriate shape. Then, can cut the idlis into pieces and serve.
Can be served with all chutneys or sambhar.
