No Grind Idlis

I love idlis but find the process of soaking and grinding the urad dal very daunting. I am quite lazy you see and am always looking for short cuts to cooking delicious, healthy and nutritious food. I did not make idlis for the longest time. I have idlis when we visit South Indian restaurants or just buy them from one of the many Sri Lankan joints selling South Indian snacks here. While setting up my cold room the other day I found a packet of urad dal flour which I had bought sometime back and completely forgotten about.

 I had bought this packet to make idlis and dosas the short cut way..without the soaking and grinding process. I had read about this long back on a couple of blogs and found the easy process quite fascinating. Without wasting any time, I rushed to the kitchen and put this flour to use. I mixed urad dal flour and rice flour added some water, mixed it well and left it overnight for fermenting. I made dosas the next day in the evening and they were great ! I was thrilled that the short cut worked. I however, did not take any pictures that day so will blog about the dosa another day. 

Inspired by my success with the dosas, I decided to try my luck with idlis. I followed the same process of mixing urad dal flour with idli rawa, added some water, mixed it well and left it for fermenting. I made idlis today and although I was skeptical the idlis came out great. The only thing I noticed with both the idli and dosa batter was that it took more than 8 hours to ferment properly. I am not sure if that was because of this short cut process or the cool spring Toronto weather. Here is the recipe for these easy no grind idlis.

Ingredients

• 1 cup urad dal flour
• 1.5 cups idli rawa
• Water for making the batter
• Salt to taste

Method

• Mix the urad dal flour and the idli rawa in a bowl.
• Add enough warm water to make a thick batter.
• Cover the bowl with a lid and leave it overnight for fermenting. I kept the bowl in the oven.
• Add salt and a little oil to the fermented batter.
• Add a little water if the batter is too thick.
• Lightly grease the idli moulds and pour the batter in them. 
• Steam for 15 minutes or till done. Use a pressure cooker without a whistle, a steamer or a rice cooker to steam idlis. 
• Enjoy with sambar and/or chutney.