Making Idlis

When I was 10 or 11 we went to Malaysia for the first time to visit my father's family. They are Tamil, and my Grandma Pati cooked wonderful food for us. One thing I still so clearly remember was the soft white dosa, a pancake like bread that she gave us for breakfast with coconut chutney, coarse sugar and chai. It was so so good. The dosa is made from rice and white dahl, which is soaked, ground into a batter and then fermented to a sour dough. For dosa it is fried like a crepe or a pancake. The venders sell crispy golden ones, but my grandma's was white, soft and delicate, slightly elastic.
I've been wanting to make it myself, and have tried from time to time. The first problem is grinding the whole rice and dahl into a smooth batter. My grandma did it in a stone mortar. I hadn't had much luck with a blender, but then my father sent me a super powerful blender and it could handle the job, with a little help from a transformer a friend gave me. The next thing was getting it to ferment. My father was helping me out on my quest and called my Auntie Kamala in Malaysia to ask for directions, as my Grandma is no longer living. I was thinking that maybe Auntie Kamala had learned from my Grandma. She had some very specific advice about the proportions: 3 parts dahl to 8 parts rice, plus a little fenugreek seed. Once the batter is ground, add a little yogurt. And then the most interesting part, whip it by slapping your splayed hand back and forth in the bowl. My theory about this is that it exposes the batter to air, and thus the microorganisms it needs to ferment. The raw dough is a little bitter and "beany", but fermented it is a little sour and very nice.

Anyway I followed the directions carefully several times. Once the batter got sour and tasted more or less right, but it didn't rise. Next time it rose, but did not sour, and when I left it longer, it spoiled. But finally, last time, success. It soured and rose and tasted right to me. Instead of frying it like pancakes I steamed it to make idlis. My friend "Nana" lent me a stand to steam them in (see below) I think if I can get into the habit of making them regularly, it won't be much trouble, and they will be a great food for Lil and for her parents too.

The next step is to figure out what to make to go with them. I've given her some plain and she seemed to like them. She even learned to say "idlis".

Thanks to everybody helping us with this project.




Here is a cute video showing how to make them.