Multi-purpose batter

My north Indian friends are used to making idlis with Idli rava and dosa’s with the ready made batter. I shared the recipe of idli and dosa, made by my mother-in-law with them. Now they rave about the fluffier idli’s and moist dosa’s they make.

Here is the recipe, the way my mother-in-law makes.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

Parboiled rice/ Idli rice – 4 cups
whole de-skinned urad dal ----3/4 cup
1 table spoon methi seeds (optional)
Salt to taste

Soak the above ingredients separately (except salt) for atleast 6 hours.
Grind the methi seeds first in a grinder.
Then add urad dal into the grinder and grind till it doubles in quantity. The grinding of the urad dal determines the softness of the idlis, so the urad dal should be ground in the grinder till it gets foamier.
After this , remove the batter from the grinder. Now add the soaked rice into the grinder and grind it finely .
Put all the batter together ,add crystal salt/table salt and mix the batter well .
Allow it to ferment overnight in a tall container, other wise due to fermentation, there is a chance of spill over of the batter.
Next morning, the batter ferments and raises to the top of the vessel.
On the first day, ladle out the fermented batter into the idli moulds to get softer idlis.
Crisp dosa’s can be made on the second day, though this is not advisable for tiffin box, since they get dried because of crispness. It is best savoured from the griddle to the plate. So slightly thicker version can be made for tiffin box.
On the third day, thick dosa’s called uttappam’s can be made. We can make variations of uttapams by changing the toppings like onion uttappam, tomato uttapam, vegetable uttapam etc.,
On the fourth day, you may be left with some batter. To this batter, add chopped onions, grated carrots(optional), chopped coriander, chillies and curry leaf. Add 1 teaspoon of channa dal(optional).
Mix well. Spoon the batter / pour into appam moulds to make kuzhi paniyaram.
With one batter, we can enjoy many tiffins through the week.

The above food items are any time meal. It can be eaten for breakfast/lunch or dinner.