Idly and thoughts about cooking

The weather is getting warmer. That also means, time to try idly and dosa in kitchen.
The fermented foods of Kerala needs warm weather. 
I made it in the easy way. Got the raw rice flour and Urad dal from SpiceLand. Socked the urad dal and ground to a paste. Then mixed with the raw rice flour. 
1 cup of urad dal and two cups of raw rice flour was my ratio. 

There is a trick to the mixing:
first you grind the dal. Add the raw rice flour to the dal, adding water little by little to make the desired consistency.  If more water added at the beginning, the rice flour tend to give lumps. 

That is when idly taken out of the mold. I packed some in hubby's lunch box. It was placed on a bed of chickpea curry.

The traditional method is to serve with sambar or coconut chutney. I wanted to have some protein also in the dish.That is why the chickpeas. Maybe with egg or meat next time...

The funny thing is to make idly or dosa you have to think ahead. The dal and rice should be socked for atleast 8 hours before grinding. The mixed flour has to sit for another 8 hours to ferment. So, to make  a breakfast tomorrow, you should start acting in the morning today. You need to remember to grind the dal and rice in the evening. You have to mix it and let it stand overnight. make sure it is fermented enough to cook in the morning. 
Whoever discovered that one it may not be a woman. I believe puttu and idiappam/string hoppers were discovered by women. You can make the rice flour and roast it ahead. The roasted rice flour is good to store for longer times. That frees up your brain to think of other things, just saying...
Do you agree or disagree with me? You know, you can post comments.