IDLIS

[Oldposts]

Topic started by Mandodari (@ 162.42.203.201) on Thu Jul 20 10:49:59 .


I would like to prepare nice soft idli's like the ones in tamilnadu. What Kind of rice is the most appropriate to use?? (IS it the enriched rice, parboiled rice, long grain rice.......which one?)
I live in the US and it will help me to know which rice I should get?

[Oldposts]

We are also in USa. The following formula gives rise to very good dlis:-
1 portion Basmati rice,
1/4 portion par boiled rice
1 portion black gram Dal.
Grind them well the previous day .Heat the oven for 200 degrees and switch it off. Keep the batter after 5 minutes in the oven for 12 hours. Take the batter out . It would have risen properly and gives Idli of very good quality.

[Oldposts]

I also live in USA But in California. I use royal basmati rice for making idlis.
1 portion of that rice and 1 portion of the same rice which should be washed well and should be kept in microwave for 3 to 4 min.(to get it as boiled rice) 1/4th portion of black gram dhal and little fenugreek(vendhayam) but that is optional. soak all these things for 5 to 6 hours grind well.you can use oven for the batter to rise or else you can use dry yeast also. but here in california the batter rises without doing all these things. next day if you want you can add baking with it. Now I think you can get very soft iddlies.

[Oldposts]

I also live in U.S.A A simpler way to make soft idlis is to use the following proportion:

RICE FLOUR (available in Indian Stores) - 2 1/2 cups

WHITE URAD DAL - 1 cup

Just grind urad dal and mix it with rice flour and salt and leave it overnight to ferment. You get very good Idlis.

[Oldposts]

Thangam Shankar,
Is it rice flour or idli rava ?
We tried with idli rava, it came out okay but we were told we should soak the idli rava and then add it to the ground urad dal.
Will try next time and get back.

[Oldposts]

Very interested in THANGAM SHANKAR's posting. However, no mention of water etc - excuse the ignorance of this Bengali Babu!! So - can you please give me a little more detail.

Also, do the idlis come really nice and fluffy like the 'REAL' idlis I've only had in Tamil homes in India & in some fine S. Indian restaurants in India?

Robin

[Oldposts]

Hi guys

I also live in USA - California and we get parboiled rice in Indian grocery stores.

I make idli's with a ratio of 2 rice: 1 urad dal, soak in the morning, grind in the evening, ferment it overnite and next morning you have steaming soft idli's enjoy

[Oldposts]

Hi all,

Now we are getting "Ponni Puzhungal arisi" or better known as idli rice in most of the indian stores.....and the idlis come out quite good....The propotion which I follow is 3 cups of rice to 1 cup of urad dal. Try it out!!

[Oldposts]

I have observed a very strange (for me) thing.
After grinding the rice etc. we add salt and
mix with hand the dough, and is kept over-night
so that it raises. Well, the strange thing is
the amount of raising depends on the person who
is doing the mixing with hand. When I do it the
dough raises more, when my wife does it, the
dough does not raise much. Can anybody explain
the secret behind this. The better the raising
the tastier the idly, as everyone knows!

[Oldposts]

Hello Ramdas,
The reason is very simple.When you mix the ingredients in the dough with bare hands, what you actually are doing is adding Bacteria and other micro-organisms which are found on the human skin surface and the space in between nails of your fingers, to the dough.
Since you are going out more than your wife, or may be your wife trims her nails and keeps a very clean pair of hands, the dough does not rise more.
This is true of getting the dough ground at public maavu machines.Many in Madras and other places would have noted that when they get the Idly/dosai maavu ground at public grinding machines, the dough rises beautifully , where as, if the same is done at home, it does not rise similarly.The reason is that the cleanliness at the public machines takes a back seat so the grinder and the grinding man already have a lot of yeast and other bacterias in the system and they are added to your stuff. The result is predictable.
So simple !!!!