How to make spongy idlys/idlis

Ingredients needed

Par Boiled Idly rice -3 tumblers or 3 cups ((Pulungal Arisi meant for making idli)

Urad dal (whole urad dal/mulu ulundu) -1 tumbler or 1 cup

You can use any cup for measurement but the ratio of par boiled rice and urad dal should be 3:1 or 4:1 (ie 4 cups idly par boiled rice and 1 cup urad dal). Both measurements works well.

Crystal Salt – 4 – 4 1/2 tsp (or as required)

Method

Wash urad dal and rice and soak it separately for 4-5 hours.

Grind urad dal in the wet grinder (advisable for soft idlies) until fluffy. Add ice cold water/ordinary water when needed. Add water little at a time.

Transfer it to a container.

Then grind rice well for 20-30 minutes.

After that add the ground urad dal to the ground rice in the grinder and grind for another 5 minutes.This is done for mixing the batter well.

Add salt to the batter and mix well with your hands.

The consistency of the batter should neither be thick nor watery. It should be medium. You can master it with practice.

Transfer the batter to 2 containers. It should be filled only up to 3/4 th, so as to allow space for fermenting.

Leave it for 6-7 hours in a warm place undisturbed to ferment. You could see that the batter would have risen after 7 hours.

If you are not using it immedietely, refrigerate it .

For making spongy idlis

Mix the fermented batter well. (Some advise not to mix it but I mix it well )

Grease idly moulds. Take a scoop of batter and fill it in each idly mould.

Use pressure cooker or any vessel and steam cook the idlis. But the water should be heated well first.

Boil water in a kadai/pressure cooker/any vessel which could hold the idli moulds and place the idly mould with batter in it and cover it with a lid.

Steam cook for 10 -15 minutes.

Prick a fork inside the idly, if it comes out clean – idly is ready .

Have it with any chutney or sambar or milagai podi.

Note -The quality of rice and dal is important to make spongy idlis.

If the idly is hard

• The consistency of the batter might be thick.
• the quality of the dal might be poor.
• The batter would not have been properly fermented.

  If the idly is too flat or thin

• the consistency of the batter might be watery or thin.
• the quality of urad dal might be excellent.In that case slightly reduce the amount of urad dal while soaking the next time.
• The batter would not have been fermented.

So with trial and error and practice, anybody can make spongy idlis. Check out my more detailed post on Soft Idli Secrets