Idlis and Dosas - apparently not that hard!

Yaaay~ we're sooooo onto it man.. this is brilliant.. yep definately need to churn out that coffee table book for the continuity of the sisterhood :)

Idlis/dosas.. yep am making from scratch.. its pretty easy actually.. Gist of it is: u just soak stuff overnight and grind it to a paste the next day..

Idlis: 1 cup whole whole urad dal (pref without the green skin on top), 2 cups idli rava, 1 tsp fenugreek (methi) seeds
Soak the urad dal & fenugreek seeds together and the rava separately in lots of water for atleast 5-6 hours.. then, using as little water as possible, grind the dal (+fenugreek seeds) using as little water as possible (if it is too runny, idlis will come out wet). Then mix in the rava (squeeze out all the water from the soaked rava before adding it to idly batter to minimize water). Leave this batter in a warm place overnight to ferment.. it'll, ideally, double in quantity when fermented enough. Add salt, mix and its ready to use.

Dosas: 1 cup whole urad dal (pref no green skin), 2 cups rice (now it can be any white rice (telugu style) or parboiled white rice (tamil style).. if u're using parboiled rice, u can soak 3 cups of it for every cup of urad dal and u can use this batter to make both idlis & dosas..
Soak the urad dal & fenugreek seeds together and the rice separately in lots of water for atleast 5-6 hours.. After this, grind them separately into a *very* smooth paste. mix and leave O/N to ferment. Add salt and check the consistency of the batter.. needs to be as runny as pancake batter before using.. For dosas, grinding the rice can be an arse if u dont have a wet grinder.. If you're using a mixie/blender, it can take a lonnng time.. so just be patient and have lots of entertainment on hand :D

On that note, like Megs said, maybe a food processor is good if u want to use it for everything.. although i'm not sure of batters..I've heard a lot about the magic bullet too and it sounds like a great option!!! I so wanted to get one but dont wanna fill my small cupboards up if i can help it :(  At home here, I have an indian mixie thingee that Ram's parents had when they were here.. and it is pretty awesome, it comes with 3 jars.. small one for dry pwders etc.. medium for wet/dry gravy/batters etc and a large one for wet batters.. the medium one especially is awesome and i'm able to use it for EVERYTHING actually.. but i"m not sure how much it'll cost.. so yeah.. Wet grinder is basically big and chunky and can be used for all batters requiring grinding.. like the idly/dosa batters.. you just chuk in the dal/rice and a bit of water, switch it on and it does the batter all by itself. Its a godsend if you plan on making dosas often esp (cos of the rice) and apparently u can use i to make dal and stuff on a larger scale (aunty was saying..i never tried).

The best chutney to go with idli/dosa.. well my fav is peanut chutney.. toast some peanuts, leave to cool. In a wee bit of oil, fry up some garlic cloves (say 3-4 for a cup of peanuts), a few green chillies (halved lengthwise) and some jeera.. Take these and peanuts together and grind it to a paste with a bit of tamarind water and some salt. You can add water to make it as runny as you want. It is yummy! Same applies (without the tamarind) to coconut too for a chutney.

:) :)