Idli/Dosa batter

Uttampam

Mom's food beats everything in the world.My Mom makes wonderful dosas and idli. I grew up eating idli and dosa.The most important part of making fluffy idli and crispy dosas is the proportion of rice and dal. This is the secret of her recipe.

Ingredients

1 measure parboiled rice/idli rice (don't use idli rawa)

½ measure urad dal (white lentils/ split black lentils without the skin)

Salt as per taste

Soak dal and rice overnight or atleast 4 hours in water.

Method (For Idli):

First grind dal to smooth paste by adding minimal amount of water, transfer to a container. Now grind parboiled rice/idli rice to slight rough texture by adding minimal amount of water. Mix it will the grinded dal. Add salt as per taste and leave it overnight or whole day. Making idli once the batter is fermented, so that it becomes fluffy. Steam for 15 mins on medium flame while making idli.

Method (For Dosa):

First grind dal to smooth paste by adding minimal amount of water, transfer to a container. Now grind parboiled rice/idli rice to smooth paste by adding minimal amount of water. Mix it will the grinded dal. The batter should be semi-liquid so that it is easy to spread when you make dosas. Add salt as per taste and you can make dosas right away. If you leave it overnight or whole day to ferment, you can make crispy dosas. Take the batter into a flat bottomed round spoon, pour it in the center of the pan (tava) and evenly spread it into a thin layer. Add little oil and turn it when cooked. Cook on both side. Do not cover with a lid.

Tips:

1. I usually grind the rice to very slight rough texture so that I can use the same batter for both idli and dosa
2. Grinding the dal first and then rice makes it easier to clean the food-mixer/blender. The dal gets stuck, but if u grind rice later then the dal comes out easily.
3. You can also make uttapam      with the same batter by adding some chopped onions + tomatoes + green chillies + coriander leaves
4. You can make masala dosa with potato/paneer filling/left over sabzi
   
5. If you don't have idli stand, you can make idli in microwave small bowl and keeping it for 1 minute.