Category: Kerala

Ingredients
1 cup black gram (urad) dal, skinned
1 teaspoon methi (fenugreek) seed (optional)
1/4 cup flattened rice (poha) (optional)
3 cups idli rice
1 cup Kerala matta rice (or long grain rice of your choice)
1 tsp salt
spray oil, melted butter, or ghee for greasing steaming plate

Equipment
Pressure cooker with weight removed
Powerful blender or specialized idli grinder such as Ultra Grind+
Idli steaming plates

Method
Lightly wash dal, and cover with water and allow to soak for 4 – 6 hours. Wash the rice, cover with water, and allow to soak 4 – 6 hours as well. If using methi and/or flattened rice, add to rice.

Grind rice to the consistency of cream of rice in blender or Ultra Grind.

Grind urad to a fine paste, and then grind together until mixed well. You can simply add the dal to the ground rice mix in an Ultra Grinder, but I don’t recommend this trick in a blender. Stir in the salt with a spoon.

Ideally, ferment the batter in an Instant Pot with a yogurt setting. Instant Pot slow cookers (the Aura Pro) with yogurt settings work as well as the pressure cookers. Don’t fill more than half full to allow for fermentation rise, and cover with glass lid. Instant Pot is indispensable for Indian cooking, so get a good one (not the Lux, it has no yogurt setting) from Amazon, Costco, Walmart, or wherever.  I have three of them.

Note: Beware that the yogurt button on the Aura Pro has a memory, so make sure it doesn’t default to yogurt boil. Push the button again to change from boil to regular yogurt if this is the case.

Note: Alternate method for people who don’t have Instant Pots: If you don’t have a yogurt maker, place batter in a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap or foil, and put in a warm place to ferment until double in bulk. A good place is an oven pre-warmed to 130-160 degrees Fahrenheit and kept warm by a 40 watt light bulb in an automotive trouble light. An ice chest warmed with the trouble light will work as well.

The process is similar to making sourdough bread or yogurt. The amount of time the rising will take depends on the temperature: The batter will double in 8 hours if the temperature in the container is over 95 F, and at lower temperatures it can take as long as 30 hours. If the batter doesn’t rise, don’t despair, just find a warmer place. Under no conditions should the batter be allowed to get hotter than 110 F.

Some people substitute rava (sooji, cream of wheat) for rice, especially in colder climates like the Frisco Bay Area, because their batter doesn’t rise. This is an unnecessary compromise, and people so inclined may just has well go to the Pasand Restaurant and eat their idli bricks.

The fermentation process depends on the presence of wild yeast, which comes from the air. It appears to stick well to the urad dal and to the methi.

Don’t use baking soda, baking powder, yeast, or yogurt to “help” fermentation. I’ve conducted controlled experiments on these agents, and methi outperforms them. Baking soda, baking powder, and yogurt retard fermentation, but a little baking soda or powder added just before cooking makes for a fluffier idli if you didn’t get a vigorous ferment.

Salt is essential to the fermentation process because it kills microbes that compete with the yeasts that make good flavor and good rise. This scientific paper explains idli fermentation: Ghosh D, Chattopadhyay P. Preparation of idli batter, its properties and nutritional improvement during fermentation. J Food Sci Technol. 2011;48(5):610–615. doi:10.1007/s13197-010-0148-4

After your batter has gone nuts, you are ready to make idlis. If your fermentation was weak (batter didn’t double insize) you can add baking soda or powder and stir it into the batter slightly, just enough to evenly distribute the powder and not enough to make the bubbles completely subside.

Put an inch or so of water in the pressure cooker and let it heat to boiling while you load the idli plates with batter. Grease idli plates (you can probably use egg poachers if you want, but I never have) with spray-on oil, butter, or ghee and fill them (almost full) with the idli batter. It’s best to leave a gap of 1/4 to 1/8 inch. After all are loaded, place the plate in the pressure cooker and lock the lid on with the weight removed, as you want to steam the idlis, not pressure cook them.

Set the temp high enough for a steady stream of steam, but not so high that it spits. The idlis need to steam for 12-16 minutes.

Eat with coconut chutney, idli chutney powder, or sambar. Extras can be refrigerated or even frozen and re-heated in a microwave, but they won’t be as fluffy. The same idli batter can be use to make dosa (fry like pancakes) and sannan (steam.) It’s best to thin the batter to make paper dosa.

Idli plates can be purchased at your local Indian grocery or on-line. I prefer the teflon coated plates. If you don’t have a fancy grinder, you can buy pre-ground rice and dal, prepared idli mix, and ready-made batter from the better Indian grocery stores. You can also buy pretty decent frozen coconut chutney and idli podi (AKA chutney powder) at the same shops, but you may as well make your own Sambar because it’s not that hard. A pre-made sambar powder will save time.

Ingredients
1 or 2 Raw mango, cucumber, chayote squash, cut into small cubical pieces
1/2 onion, cut into small pieces
2/ or 3 green chile, cut round, 1cm thick
2 tsp. Dessicated or shredded coconut, or 7 oz. coconut milk
1/4 tsp. fenugreek powder
1 shallots, cut into round, thin slices
1 red whole chile, cut into round pieces, 2cm thick (optional)
oil
salt
mustard seeds
Curry leaves (optional)
Yogurt – you need to add only if you are using cucumber or squash; if using
mango, don’t add yogurt.

Method
Put veg., onion, green chile, coconut, coconut milk, fenugreek powder, and salt
in a vessel, add a cup of water, stir well, cover it and cook in a medium flame,
until it is well cooked. Heat oil in a pan, fry mustard seeds, then add shallots
and red whole chile & curry leaves, and add to the above mixture when shallots
turn brown and chile is well fried. Whip the yogurt well and add that too. Stir
well, and pachadi is ready!

Source: Mareena Yesudas

Ingredients
1/2 cup (heaped) thur dal (papu)
2 Tbs. coconut gratings
1 Tbs. bengal gram dal
2 sprig curry leaves
1 tsp. mustard seeds
tamarind lump (the size of a marble)
2 tsp. (heaped) coriander seeds
2 Tbs. oil
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 bunch coriander leaves
1/2 tsp. fenugreek
seeds salt to taste
8 pepper corns
chunks of vegetables (tomato, turmeric, onion, squash, potato, asafoetida (ingua) okra, raw banana, 6 red chilies (just about anything))

Method
Wash thur dal thoroughly. Boil 1 liter of water. Drop dal in boiling water. Cook until soft.

Take a little oil in a frying pan on another flame. Roast mustard, coriander, fenugreek, cumin, pepper, turmeric, red chilies, asafoetida, bengal gram dal, coconut gratings and 1 sprig of curry leaves – all in the same sequence, until brown.

Grind all the roasted ingredients with tamarind to a fairly smooth paste. To the cooked thur dal, add vegetable pieces and a few coriander leaves.

Cook until tender. Then add salt along with ground masala (paste made above) and some water.

Boil well. When done, remove from flame.

Garnish with bits of coriander leaves. This is usually served with idli or rice.

Ingredients
1 lb. Potato or kadachakka (bread fruit), cut into small cubes
1/2 tsp. chile powder
1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
2 tsp. coriander powder
1 tsp. garam masala
3 oz. coconut milk (optional)
1/3 onion, cut into small pieces
2 green chile (optional), cut long
oil, salt, mustard seeds
Curry leaves (optional)

Method
Heat oil, fry mustard seeds, add onion, green chile & curry leaves, stir until it turns light brown. Then add salt, all the powders and masala, stir until it turns brown, then add coconut milk and veg., stir well, cover it and cook until well cooked. (If not adding coconut milk, add a cup of water instead). It is ready to serve! (In fact, it should be made by roasting coconut and all the spices, and blending them very nicely, but it is not easy to do it here. So I made up this version.)

You can cook kadala too the same way. For kadala, you can use just the garam masala and chile powder only. Either way, it tastes good.

Source: Mareena Yesudas

Ingredients
1 – 2 c. yellow mung dal or yellow split peas
1 potato (optional), cut into cubes
1/4 onion, cut long
2 or 3 green chile, cut long
1 shallot, cut into small thin pieces
oil
salt
crushed chile or red whole chile
Mustard seeds and curry leaves are optional.

Method
Cook parippu with onion, green chile, potato, and a few drops of oil. When
cooked, add salt, stir well. Smash the potato pieces well. Heat oil, fry mustard
seeds, add shallots, then red chile and curry leaves, add it to the parippu when
the shallots turn brown. Stir well, and it is ready!

Source: Mareena Yesudas

Ingredients
half cup tuar dal or yellow split peas
2 onions
10 or 12 medium okra – (fresh or frozen)
3 large (or one can) tomatoes (optional)
quartered tamarind extract (available in Indian stores)
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon chili powder (more if manaassukhum illa)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon methi powder
1/2 teaspoon hing powder
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon methi seeds
1/4 teaspoon veg. Oil
1 tablespoon salt to taste
4 tablespoons coriander leaves, chopped
a few curry leaves

Method
Cook the dal with chopped onions, turmeric powder, chili powder and sufficient water.

Cut the okra in two inch pieces and saute them in a frying pan with one teaspoon oil till dry and slightly browned.

Mash the cooked dal with a wooden spoon and add the salt, coriander powder, methi powder, hing and the tamarind extract.

Simmer for a few minutes and add the tomatoes and okra and half of the coriander leaves. When the vegetables are cooked, heat oil in a fry pan with a splatter screen or a lid and pop the mustard seeds.

Remove pan from the fire, add the curry leaves and methi seeds. Add this seasoning to the sambar and garnish with the rest of the coriander leaves.

Hint: Other vegetables that can be added to sambar are potatoes (which do not freeze well), shallots, pearl onions (available frozen), cucumber, Indian or oriental eggplant (baingan), beans, carrots, lima beans or squash.

Source: Maya Nair, modified.

Ingredients
2 or 3 Potato, cut into round slices, 5mm thick
1 tsp. Chile powder
1/4 tsp. plain flour
oil, salt

Method
Mix the potato slices with chile powder, plain flour, and salt. And then heat
the oil and fry them (like you fry fish) in low flame. That is it! It is so
yummy!!

Source: Mareena Yesudas

Ingredients
tuar dal – 1/4 cup
masoor dal – 1/4 cup
tomatoes – 1 16 oz.can or 4 large tomatoes
tamarind extract – 1/2 teaspoon
black pepper powder – 1/2 teaspoon
saunf – 1/2 teaspoon (optional)
whole red pepper (dry red chili) – 2 or 3
chili powder – 1/2 teaspoon
turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
hing powder – 1/2 teaspoon
methi seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
garlic cloves – 3 cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
coriander and curry leaves – a bunch salt to taste

Method
Cook the dal well with sufficient water. Add the tomatoes,salt, chili powder, turmeric powder and tamarind extract.

Crush the cumin and garlic and add to the rasam with the black pepper.

Simmer for a few minutes and add the hing powder. Heat a little oil in a fry
pan and pop the mustard seeds.

Add the methi seeds, saunf, and curry leaves after removing from the heat source and add to the rasam. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Source: Maya Nair

Ingredients
1 lb. Potato or kadachakka (bread fruit), cut into small cubes
1/2 tsp. chile powder
1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
2 tsp. coriander powder
1 tsp. garam masala
3 oz. coconut milk (optional)
1/3 onion, cut into small pieces
2 green chile (optional), cut long
oil, salt, mustard seeds
Curry leaves (optional)

Method
Heat oil, fry mustard seeds, add onion, green chile & curry leaves, stir until
it turns light brown. Then add salt, all the powders and masala, stir until it
turns brown, then add coconut milk and veg., stir well, cover it and cook until
well cooked. (If not adding coconut milk, add a cup of water instead). It is
ready to serve! (In fact, it should be made by roasting coconut and all the
spices, and blending them very nicely, but it is not easy to do it here. So I
made up this version.) (You can cook kadala too the same way. For kadala,
you can use just the garam masala and chile powder only. Either way, it tastes
good.)

Source: Mareena Yesudas

Ingredients
moong dal – 1 cup
turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
cumin seeds, crushed – 1 teaspoon
garlic clove, crushed – 1 (optional)
desiccated coconut – 1/2 cup
(optional) curry leaves – a few
salt to taste

Method
Dry roast the moong dal on medium heat for ten minutes. Cook it with sufficient water and turmeric.

Grind the coconut with a little water and cumin seeds.

Add to the boiling dal along with the curry leaves and salt.

Source: Maya Nair