Idli Sambar Chutney - 1

This week I am going to post some of the very basic recipes. So these posts are here to help newbie cooks in some small way. These will have more details than the normal posts to make cooking easy for newbies. Idli is one thing that I didn’t get right so many times. After continued efforts and focus, finally I am proud to say I can prepare good, soft yummy idlis .

I have seen in most of non-Konkani homes, idli is usually served with both sambar and chutney . But in Konkani homes(atleast in those which I have seen), it is served either with sambar or chutney. At my home, aayi would prepare both to keep the house calm. I liked sambar and my brother liked chutney , if one of these was not prepared, we would start fighting. So it became a habit and now we want sambar and chutney both with idlis (I think this is the difficulty of having two kids :D).

Idlis

Idli – sambar - 2 Idli – sambar - 3 Idli – sambar - 4

Idli

Ingredients

  • 1 cup urad dal
  • 2 cups idli rava rice sooji or 2 cups rice
  • Salt

Instructions

  • Soak dal for around 4-5 hours.
  • Grind it to a very smooth paste (Do not add too much water, just add as much as needed). Touch the batter and no pieces of dal should be felt. The more it is ground, the better. Once it is ground very soft, some bubbles can be found on the surface, the more the bubbles, the better is the batter.
  • Wash the rava with water(if rava is prepared at home, no need to wash it again) and grind it for 5-6 seconds, do not grind more than that, just to make the rava a bit fine. Some people, do not grind the rava, but most of the times the ready made rava is too coarse and grinding it makes the idlis turn out softer.
  • If idli rava is not available, use 2 cups of rice instead. Soak rice for around 4-5 hrs. Then let the water go by spreading it on cloth for around 30mins. When all water is gone, grind(without any water) to a coarse powder (of coarse sand consistency).
  • If you have more time in hand, grind the dal previous day afternoon and mix the rava in the night. Add salt and mix well (When dal is completely ground, the rava can be added to mixer and ground 5-6 seconds as explained earlier to speed up the process. But make sure the dal is completely ground before adding the rava).
  • Keep the batter in a warm place overnight. I keep it on warm gas stove, after all the cooking is been finished.
  • Check in the morning if the batter is fermented. The volume would have increased. If it looks same as the previous day, it is better not to steam it, the idlis become like stone and everything has to be discarded. Instead make some dosas with the batter. There is no point in keeping it for one more night, because the idlis will become sour.
  • Grease the idli stand with oil. Steam them for around 10mins (if using cooker, do not use the weight). Leave it for around 5-10mins before opening the steamer/cooker (or else, the steam falls on idlis and make them mushy).

Few more tips: – If you are on a higher altitude(mountain regions) and the idlis are not coming out as expected, try using dal , rice rava in 1:3(1 dal 3 rava ) proportion. This is the tip I got from Manisha while talking to her a few days back. Read Manisha’s comment below for more details. – If the batter becomes too thick or too watery, the idlis might not come as expected. Do a bit of trial and error to know the correct consistency. – If nothing works, try using dal : rava in 1:1 proportion, this was the tip I got from few people when I was not getting the proper idlis . – Sudha has mentioned a nice way to speed up fermentation. – Add a little cooked rice (say 1-2 tbsps) while grinding urad dal (once the urad dal is ground finely)in order to make the idlis softer & fluffier (Thanks Suchita for the tip).

Sambar

Idli – sambar - 5 Idli – sambar - 6

Prepare sambar as explained here .

Chutney:

Idli – sambar - 7 Idli – sambar - 8

Prepare the chutney as explained here .

Sometimes I make mini idlis and serve them dipped in sambar with a dollop of ghee on top.

Mini Idli Sambar Chutney - 9 Idli – sambar - 10

Idli

Ingredients

  • 1 cup urad dal
  • 2 cups idli rava rice sooji or 2 cups rice
  • Salt

Instructions

  • Soak dal for around 4-5 hours.
  • Grind it to a very smooth paste (Do not add too much water, just add as much as needed). Touch the batter and no pieces of dal should be felt. The more it is ground, the better. Once it is ground very soft, some bubbles can be found on the surface, the more the bubbles, the better is the batter.
  • Wash the rava with water(if rava is prepared at home, no need to wash it again) and grind it for 5-6 seconds, do not grind more than that, just to make the rava a bit fine. Some people, do not grind the rava, but most of the times the ready made rava is too coarse and grinding it makes the idlis turn out softer.
  • If idli rava is not available, use 2 cups of rice instead. Soak rice for around 4-5 hrs. Then let the water go by spreading it on cloth for around 30mins. When all water is gone, grind(without any water) to a coarse powder (of coarse sand consistency).
  • If you have more time in hand, grind the dal previous day afternoon and mix the rava in the night. Add salt and mix well (When dal is completely ground, the rava can be added to mixer and ground 5-6 seconds as explained earlier to speed up the process. But make sure the dal is completely ground before adding the rava).
  • Keep the batter in a warm place overnight. I keep it on warm gas stove, after all the cooking is been finished.
  • Check in the morning if the batter is fermented. The volume would have increased. If it looks same as the previous day, it is better not to steam it, the idlis become like stone and everything has to be discarded. Instead make some dosas with the batter. There is no point in keeping it for one more night, because the idlis will become sour.
  • Grease the idli stand with oil. Steam them for around 10mins (if using cooker, do not use the weight). Leave it for around 5-10mins before opening the steamer/cooker (or else, the steam falls on idlis and make them mushy).

Here I am posting sidedishes prepared with 3 kind of beans. I clubbed them because all the three have the same procedure. But they have very different tastes because of the different kind of beans used. These are very tasty and can be mastered easily (recommended for newbies).

Most of my Kannada friends didn’t know this kind of sidedish. They usually fried beans instead of cooking them. I loved this procedure because, it retains the aroma of beans and gave a distinguishing taste to the sidedish. Following are the differnt types of beans I used and the pictures of the sidedishes(called as ‘upkari’ in konkani).

Green beans (we call them as beans in Konkani also) but some people call them as French beans or Farasbee (This name I got from Lakshmi’s comment and Vaishali’s post )

Idli – sambar - 11

Beans upkari

Idli – sambar - 12

Valasangi(Konkani) is also called as alsande, chawlichya shenga, yardlong beans or cow pea beans (Thanks Vaishali for the different names of this vegetable ).

Idli – sambar - 13

Valasangi upkari

Idli – sambar - 14

Chitmitki(Konkani) is also called as mitkesaang or Gawar/Gaur or Cluster beans. These have a slight tinge of bitter taste to them. Unlike the other beans (which are usually cut using a knife), these are broken into pieces by hand to remove the threads (which are usually found along the sides of these beans).

Idli – sambar - 15

Chitmitki upkari

Idli – sambar - 16

Ingredients: Beans or valasangi or chitmitki 2 cups Potato (cut into small squares) 1 cup Mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn Jaggery(optional) 1/2 tea spn Green chillies 4-5 Curry leaves(optional) 4-5 Asafoetida a pinch Oil 1/2 tea spn Coconut(fresh/frozen)(optional) 1 tbl spn Turmeric (optional) a pinch Salt

As far as I know, turmeric is not added to this dish. But since it is good for health and usually does not affect the taste, I add a pinch whenever I remember.

Method: Cook beans and potato in pressure cooker (this speeds up the cooking process). Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add asafoetida, turmeric, curry leaves and green chilli slits. Fry for around 4-5 seconds and add the cooked beans-potatos. (alternatively, add the uncooked beans and potatoes at this step, add 1/2 cup of water, close the vessel and let it cook. If this method is used, the vegetables take a longer time to cook). Add jaggery, salt and mix well. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Garnish with coconut and mix well. Serve as a side dish with rice and any gravy or dal.

Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 10-15mins

Note: If planning to cook rice, daal and vegetables at a time using the cooker vessels, keep the daal in the bottommost vessel, rice in the middle and vegetables in the top. Any other combination will leave daal or rice uncooked and vegetables mashed. I recommend to purchase the cooker vessels (3 vessels which fit into cooker, with one vessel slightly bigger than other two. This speeds up cooking).