Idli / Dosa Batter

Making of Idli/Dosa batter is easy when we understand how and why it is fermenting or not.
I love Idli /Dosas. Making a good spongy idly is like making a trick for me since I started using Mixer grinder for grinding the batter. The batter got heat up and urad dhal batter was not as fluffy as expected. These two are very big foul in making good idlies.
Also the consistency and how to handle the batter while mixing or scooping the fermented batter while preparing idlies is an art, I felt later.,when my mother showed me how and why the idlies depend on these attributes. Everyone who understands baking a fluffy cake can easily understands making good idlies too.
Idly/dosa batter can be prepared with urad dhal and rice. I also use fenugreek seeds., and rice puffs(Poha).
Also I use wet grinder to grind my batter these days.

Ingredients:

Rice (sona masoori / Idli rice) - 4 cup. Sometimes I mix both in the ratio 1:3 respectively.
Urad dhal - 11/2 cup
Fenugreek seeds (Mathi seeds) - 1 fist full
Poha(thick) -1/2 fist
salt - 2 tsp

Procedure:

• Soak urad dhal and fenugreek seeds in a bowl and rice in a seperate bowl for atleast 3 hours. I also noted some saying soaking urad dhal for more than 3 hours wont work good.

• Prepare ur grinder. Wash urad dhal, fenugreek seeds and start grinding them. Add some water at first. Then add water little by little when necessary in the middle of grinding. 
• Meanwhile wash poha once and soak it in water. Wash rice and keep it ready to go next in the grinder.

• Once the urad dhal is done fluffy take it out in a bowl big enough to mix batter and add poha first for grinding, since it eascapes when we add it along with the rice.

• Add rice along with ground poha. Run some water necessary for grinding rice initially. Add water in between grinding as it needs.
• Once the rice is done finely, add it with urad dhal batter.

• Now mix them adding some salt with little water to the batter with your clean hand as it helps in fermenting. Mixing well means slowly incorporating the rice batter in dhal batter without breaking the fluffiness. Since urad dhal batter has air filled in, we don't want to break the air blocks built inside the fluffy batter.

• Keep the batter aside for fermenting. It takes atleast 8 hours. I usually put the batter inside my oven with the oven light switched ON. Even in cold temperature that will work good. In India fermenting never became a problem for me atleast. 
• When the batter is fermented, it comes up. Like double the time your batter is. It looks more light, more fluffy and airy. Hence, if necessary pour batter in two vessels till their half capacity for fermenting.

• While scooping the batter for preparing idlies, just mix the batter once or twice with the scoop gently and softly scoop them for idlies. We don't want to break air blocks inside the batter, which is the main cause for the sponge idlies.

• And cook them to get your dream spongy rice cakes.

• The same batter I use to prepare dosas by adding little water to get the dosa batter consistency

Process of fermenting: 

• It requires normal temperature slightly higher than room temperature (the oven light provides it), the yeast (supplied from your clean hand and from the atmosphere) and air blocks built inside the batter.

Using Mixer grinder:

• To grind the batter using a mixer grinder, its enough to soak urad dhal for an hour and rice got to be soaked for 3 hours.
• Always use ice cold water while grinding, since mixer grinder emits more heat and that's not good for the good batter. 
• Some times the mixer grinder becomes overloaded and press the reset button at its back a little while, say 2-3 minutes later.
• Properly keep the batter consistency by adding necessary water at times to avoid overloading. Also mind about our batter consistency too.
• Always grind them in batches.

Hint: The ratio of rice and dhal sometimes varies depending upon the dhal quality. Just go by trial and error for 1 or 2 times when you start using a new packet of dhal every time. Most of the times ,the ratio, I have given here works good.


Dosa for Kids:

My Little Tiger likes Tiger. I used raisins to bring up the face.