Gayathri Pai's Food Bytes: Whole Urad Moong And Rava Idly.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Whole Urad Moong And Rava Idly.

Whole Black Urad (with skin) + Whole Green Moong (with skin) + Rava Idly .... With Coconut Coriander Roasted Gram (Putani) Chutney ... Dalitoy And Ginger Tea ......... A healthier breakfast ..........

I have posted many Idly's on similar methods before with different combinations like urad dal + whole green moong with rava, whole black urad + whole green moong + Idly rava ... etc. Here I just made some changes and prepared the Idly with Whole Black Urad + Whole Green Moong (both with skin) adding rava. These Idly's are healthier version to the rest as all the ingredients added are healthy ones. The Idly is also served with simple dalitoy (A very well know regular GSB / Konkani Saraswat's preparation of Dal) and coconut coriander roasted gram chutney which in itself is another healthier method of preparing chutney.

All said, this is a highly recommended breakfast for every individual young and old alike also for those who are health conscious and diabetic or BP Patients too. The Idly does have a little bit coarse texture, however once its dunked into hot Dalitoy, you will simple love this porous Idly. I recommend Dalitoy to Sambar / Kolumbo here,., coz., spices are already added to the batter and there is no need for much spicier accompaniment again. But then it's again an individual choice, you can serve the same with any dish of your choice.

Ingredients:

Whole Black Urad (With Skin) : 1/2 cup

Whole Green Moong (With Skin) 1/2 cup

Rava : 2 cups (1.5 if using mixer grinder)

Methid seeds : 1 tsp

Crushed Pepper Powder : 1 tsp

Green Chilly : 5-6 chopped

Ginger : 1 tblsp finely chopped.

Salt to taste.

Take 2 cups of rava, put it in a white muslin (Cotton) cloth and fold over and tie tightly into a bundle. Put it in a vessel and steam cook in pedavan / Idly steamer for 15 minutes. Remove and open the bundle gently. Spread the rava flatly and let cool completely. Loosen lumps if any. Leave it aside to cool completely. The rava should be completely cooled. Alternatively you can put the rava in a microwave safe bowl, cover with a paper plate and microwave on high for 4 minutes. Remove and let cool completely. I usually use the microwave method. This proceedure is followed to enable the Idly to remain soft. If rava is added directly to Idly batter, the Idly somehow gets hard. When about to grind the urad Just add enough water to the rava to just soak it for 25-30 minutes. The rava will have swollen well by the time the urad and moong gets ground. There should be no excess water whatsoever, so be very careful while adding water to rava.

Wash and soak 1/2 Cup whole black urad + 1/2 Cup whole green moong (both with skin) with 1tsp methi seeds for 2-3 hours. Rinse well and drain off all the excess water. Grind to a fine paste with about 1 cup of water. I use wet grinder you can use any method. Add more water if necessary only. But batter should become fluffy. Lastly add 1 tsp crushed pepper powder, 5-6 chopped green chillies and 1 tablespoon of finely chopped ginger. Grind for just another minute so that the pepper, chillies and ginger just gets finely crushed and blended. Remove and pour in a vessel.

Add the Rava to the urad + moong mixture in the vessel and mix well. See that there are no lumps. The batter should be of thick consistency. Lastly add salt to taste, cover with a tight lid and keep aside near a warm place to ferment for 6-8 hours or overnight. The fermentation process defers from place to place. Where the weather is hot it may take lesser time and vice versa.

Once the batter has fermented mix it well once again. Gently pour the batter with the help of a rounded spatua into the moulds to ¾ th level only. You should leave gap on top of the moulds as the batter will rise when getting steamed. I have used steel vati / katori here to get evenly small shaped Idly. Remember to apply oil to the moulds before adding in the batter. Applying of oil to the moulds ensures that the batter does not stick to it and comes off cleanly without crumbling once the Idly is steamed and cooled a bit.

Keep the Idly steamer with required amount of water to heat on high level. When it reaches full steam, lower the heat and gently place in the steel vaties / katori one by one and cover the lid tightly. Increase the heat and steam for 5-10 minutes or till you see steam passing through the sides of the lid, then lower the heat to medium and steam for 15 minutes.

Remove and cool a bit. Run a blunt knife through the edges on the inner side of the vati / katori and gently flip over and tap it a bit to bring out the steamed Idly in one go. Idly is usually served with sambar / dal / chutney or any spicy curry as an accompaniment. Idly is also served with Hinga (Asafoitida) water though this is almost a forgotten practice nowadays.

** Note:

The proportions mentioned above of Rava is when using the wet grinder method. If using mixer then you have got to adjust the proportions as the result of grinding urad dal in wet grinder and mixer are not the same. Wet grinder yields in softer and bulkier quantity of urad when ground were as the mixer does not do the same. So you can decrease the amount of Rava by half glass if using mixer grinder method. Ie. 1/2 cup of whole Black Urad : 1/2 cup Whole Green Moong : 1.5 Rava.