Kancheepuram Idli
(from Nandini’s recipe box)
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 2 minutes
Serves 3 people
Categories: Idli
Ingredients
- Raw rice: 1 cup
- Par-boiled rice: 1 cup
- (alternately, you can take 2 cups of raw rice)
- Urad dal - 1 cup
- Curds - 1/2 cup
- Masala: Black pepper, cumin seeds, 1-inch ginger piece, 1 sprig curry leaves and salt to taste
- Mustard, black gram and bengal gram for seasoning,green chillies.
- Gingelly oil - about 5 teaspoons
Directions
-
Soak the urad dal and rice separately for about two hours. Grind the urad dal (I use a food processor or mixie, since the quantity is small and doesn’t require the wet grinder) to a fine paste. This takes about 3 minutes. Remove this and then grind the rice to a coarse paste, which takes about 3 minutes again. Do not add salt at this stage, as it tends to dilute the batter. Mix the ground urad dal and rice and store.
-
After about 8 hours, your Kancheepuram idli batter is ready. Grind the black pepper, cumin seeds, ginger, curry leaves and salt to a coarse powder. Heat the gingelly oil and add mustard. When it sputters, add the black gram and bengal gram and toss till golden brown. Now switch off the stove and immediately add the ground masala powder and turn till it gives off a nice flavor. Add this to the batter with the curds.