IDLY

Our south Indian breakfast is not complete without soft spongy idly. Since it is a steamed food it is easily digestible . I bought my grinder along with me (thought i had to leave lot of my items back in India )just because of my love for Idly and medhu vadai.But i found that many of them found it difficult to get soft idly here in US. I had mails from couple of them asking about this.
Normally everyone uses the proper measurement but there are very small thing that are important to make soft idly.
INGREDIENTS:
Idly rice(Idly puzhungal)-3 cup
Urad dhal-1 cup
Fenugreek-1/4 tsp(optional.this give good texture but idly is whiter without this. Not much of difference without this)
Salt- to taste
METHOD:
1)Soak rice and urad (along with fenugreek) separately for 6-7 hrs.
2)Grind Urad to smooth soft batter adding water little by little.(you can see the batter increasing in quantity when we grind properly)
3)Remove the urad batter and then start grinding rice. grind this to smooth batter adding enough water.(grinding rice after urad helps urad get better quantity and also cleaning the machine is much easier after grinding rice)
4)Mix rice with urad batter along with salt.Add water if necessary to get correct consistency(it should not be too watery or too thick).
5)Let it ferment overnight.
6)Pour in idly mould and steam for 5- 10 minutes(check by pricking with a toothpick,or you can also find by the good aroma of idly)
Serve hot with, sambar, chutney or vadacurry.

NOTE: It may be hard to ferment during winter... so preheat the oven for 5 min and then switch it off and leave the batter overnight.
Idly may also be slightly hard if we cook idly immediately after taking the batter from the fridge. so please bring the batter to room temperature before using.
Idly will not be soft when we use the final batter. so we can use that for dosa.
Hope this helps all the friend who had doubts about mallipoo(soft as jasmine)idly