Idli with chicken curry

After long long time i decided to prepare Idli. My friend who is south Indian has been giving me many tips to prepare the fluffiest of all the Idli. I followed her tips and few of my own instinct to achieve the fluffy  Idli.
The basic idea is to ferment the batter. Fermentation requires a warm temperature and few catalyst enzymes. In this episode i used fenugreek as the catalyst and for warm temperature i warmed a bowl of water in the microwave, took it out and then placed the batter inside and allowed it to rise. In around 8 hours i received the excellent rised batter.

The Inspiration!!....
During my job interview in the year 2010, i was travelling to Chennai from Hyderabad with the famous Indian Railways. In my compartment the fellow passengers were from Chennai. For the dinner they were carrying with them the idli with fragrant chicken curry. For the first time i realised that idli is just not about chutney and sambar it can go very well with chicken curry. That day i decided that whenever i am going to prepare the Idli the conventional way i am definitely gonna pair it up with chicken curry.

And today was the day when i accomplished what i decided. Ladies and gentlemen with immense pleasure i would like to let you know that this recipe was a super duper hit. I loved it and i am planning to prepare this more often.

So presenting here tried and tested Idli recipe.

Ingredients:

• Urad daal - 1 Cup
• Arwa Chawal, pooni rice or basmati rice- 2 Cups
• Ukri chawal, idli rice or boiled rice- 1 Cup
• Poha, Flattened rice- 1/4 Cup
• Fenugreek seeds - 10
• Salt as per taste
•  Oil 

Direction:

• Soak Urad daal and the rice seperately. 
• Soak urad daal with fenugreek seeds in a vessel for minimum 5 to 6 hours.
• Soak rice(arwa chawal and the boiled rice) together for the same time.
• Once daal and the rice are soaked its time to grind them into fine paste. Grind the daal into fine paste. while grinding rice add flattened rice 5 minutes before grinding into the dame rice vessel.
• Grind the rice into fine paste as well.
• Mix both the rice and daal and place this batter in a warm place and allow it to ferment. This may take as long as 8 hours. Once the batter is fermented you can see it rise as well.

Steaming idli's

• you can steam the idlis in two ways. One of the way is to use pressure cooker and the steel Idli mold. Other method is to use the microwave.
• Before preparing Idli add salt to the batter as per taste. Now grease the idli mold and place 1 Tbsp of batter in the given area in the mold. 
• Microwave method: Add 1/2 Inch of water in the base vessel. Place the idli trays with batter on the base vessel. Next microwave in full power for exactly 3 minutes. Let this stand inside for 1 minute. after 1 minute take out and serve.
• Pressure cooker method: Remove the whistle of the pressure cooker. Place 1 inch of water. Similarly grease the idli trays with oil and place 1Tbsp of the idli batter. place this mold inside the pressure cooker and cover the cooker and cook for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes pork a fork or tooth pick inside the Idli if it comes out clean your Idli is done.

Idli is usually served with sambhar and chutneys. But for a change it is also served with poultry and meat at times.

Prepare your idli this way and serve with what ever side dish that you like.

Kadai Chicken curry for idli over here

Peanut chutney recipe over here.

Enjoy and Happy cooking :-)

By- Sushmita Pandit