Kanchipuram Idly

Ingredients

Raw rice (pachcharisi) - 3 cup

Urid dhal (ulutham paruppu) - 1 cup

Pepper (milagu) - 1 teaspoon

Jeera - 1 teaspoon

Dry ginger (sukku) - 1 small piece

Asafoetida - 1/2 teaspoon

Gingely oil (nallennai) - 1 tablespoon

Sunflower oil- 1 tablespoon

Ghee - 1 tablespoon

Whichever cup you use, maintain the above ratio

Maavu (Batter) Preparation

1. Soak raw rice and urid dhal in same vessel for 4 hours
2. Wash this thoroughly 4 times and drain the water
3. Coarsely grind the rice and urid dhal in a mixer grinder
4. Transfer this to a vessel
5. Add salt and mix
6. Allow this to ferment for 8 hours. If the initial batter occupies half the vessel, after fermentation the batter must occupy three fourths of the vessel.
7. Coarsely grind the pepper, jeera and dry ginger in a mixer grinder. (Just grind for few seconds)
8. Mix this with batter
9. Lightly heat gingely oil,  sunflower oil, ghee and mix this with batter
10. Store the batter in fridge

Idly Preparation

Idly can be made using a regular idly plate (OR) For making large sized idly, use a cooker vessel. After cooking you can make pieces of idly.

If using idly plate :

1. Fill the idly plates with batter
2. Keep the plate in a pressure cooker
3. Add 2 tumblers of water in the cooker and steam for 10 minutes (without using a whistle)
4. During cooking, after five or six minutes, check whether water is present in cooker. If not add 2 tumblers of water again in the cooker

If using cooker vessel :

1. For making idly for 2 persons, use 6 ladles (kuzhi karandi) of batter
2. Fill the batter in a vessel. Vessel must be able to hold double the size of batter quantity, as the batter size will double when idly is prepared.
3. Keep this inside a pressure cooker
4. Stove must be in low flame
5. Add 2 tumblers of water in the cooker and steam for 20 minutes (without using a whistle)
6. During cooking, every 5 minutes, check whether water is present in cooker. If not add 2 tumblers of water again in the cooker
7. Cut the idly into cakes of required size
8. For preparing idly for 4 or 6 people, you can use 2 or 3 vessels of same size in the pressure cooker