It’s here! “Snack talks”

A little bit of an intro/background just as you get settled in. I am a working mom trying to make as many fresh meals for our family as possible. I am trying to chronicle all the recipes I know here so that I can pass these down to the next generation.

I cook vegetarian food, primarily South Indian. I love an occasional good cake for Sunday tea and a nice omelette for Saturday breakfast. Listen, if eggs had eyes I would not be eating them. So, I am an egg-etarian then? yes? Agreed? I am not vegan, I tried it, did not last long, most of my food comes from moods, it maybe best to play this as we go along? Awesome, lets move on!

First stop, idli/dosa batter! You may need to make a run to the nearest Indian store or Indian neighbor for this one.

Also, Grab the best possible quality ingredient you can get your hands on, this is the universal rule, with ALL cooking!

Ingredients We will need

a. Idli rice (Indian stores have them in a bag. It is a tiny short grained, starchy rice) – 4 cups

b. Whole urad dal (I get mine from Costco) – 2 cups dry

c. Fenugreek seeds (methi seeds) – a Tablespoon

d. Poha (Flattened rice) – a fistful

Utensils, etc.

A medium Mixing Bowl.

A Large mixing bowl

Water – running water to wash, soaking water to rest the grains – couple liters.

Grain Grinder – a Vitamix smoothie works, Preethi mixie works, a regular Indian grinder works, old school ammi kallu also works. The goal is for grain grinder to mush up the soaked grains to make a smooth batter!

(Optional: A potted plant or garden – To pour out the washed out rice water,)

A lot of patience.

What to do

If you are like me, am sure you all lead busy lives that need attention. So here it is, typically, on Saturday morning, I collect the rice and urad dal in the medium bowl and wash it well till it almost runs clear. Some moms, including mine, laugh when I tell them I soak rice and urad together, but I’ve been doing this for eight years now and my idlis turn out ice and flully regardless, so dont worry. Look, if there is a shortcut to the cooking process, I will take it. I do not want to spend my entire day in the kitchen.

Right, back to the rice. After it is washed, add fresh soaking water that cover the rice and urad to at least an inch above the top line. This helps the grains soak up the liquid and expand. I also soak the fenugreek seeds, it looks nice and brown in the collected grain bowl. Cover it with a lid or cloth, leave it in a corner in the kitchen, get to your coffee and toast.

oh! We forgot to put the poha in the water, we should remember to give poha at least 15 minutes to soak before grinding. Do it now or after your evening chai. That box now is looming in front of you to be checked, ignore it and move on. Poha is added to batter only for the color, no biggie if you skip it too! 🙂

Once your Saturday is done, return to the kitchen and scoop out the soaked grains into the grinder and blitz till smooth batter is formed. As you go through the batch, the batter can be collected in the large bowl. Keep checking the grinder and include water to adjust the consistency to enable smoothness. The batter is ready when a small rub feels non-grainy and smooth to touch. Keep running the mixer till this is achieved.

Take the large bowl of freshly ground batter and put it in the oven with the light on, or keep it in a warm place that lets the batter ferment. This is similar to sourdough making but without the yeast. The batter in the oven (with only the light on) is a standard Indian immigrant hack to consistently get fermented and well risen dosa/idli batter, every single time! I usually cover my bowl with a glass lid, i see a better distribution of heat under the oven light. I summer this has good effect on the fermentation, in the fall, it definitely helps. Now, rest, Good night!

Good morning, its Saturday, your kitchen should smell slightly sour from the fermented batter, you should see the rise in the batter. Congratulations! This is idli/dosa batter! I should include many recipes with this batter, but this is it for now.

Store this batter in another container, you can add salt to taste. The trick is not to deflate the air bubbles that have emerged to ferment. If you use a whisk to mix the salt in, you can make fresh idlis immediately, thats all there it to it.

Please note: if you do soak and grind the rice and urad separately, the batters need to be uniformly mixed before it is fermented, that way you can get good air pockets to get fluffly idlis. In this separate soak and grind method, you will get more batter quantity.