3 in 1 Batter for Idly (Idli), Dosa & Uttappam - Indian Recipes - Andhra Telugu Food

Preparations:

Wash black gram and add sufficient water to soak. Similarly wash the parboiled rice well and add sufficient water to soak. Soak the black gram and parboiled rice for 8 hours. Here I have used a wet grinder to grind the batter. To grind the batter even blender works fine. Add some water to the wet grinder bowl & switch on the machine. Add the soaked dal and add some water and grind. When the dal is crushed, add the soaked rice little by little. Add sufficient water to grind the mixture well. Also add in the salt while grinding the batter. In between scrape the sides of the wet grinder bowl to clean the grinding mixture sticking. When dal and rice are ground to a smooth texture, transfer the batter to a bowl. Place the bowl in a plate so that after fermentation if the batter spills over it would fall into the plate. Ferment the batter for 8 hours or overnight.

Method:

After 8 hours of fermenting the batter, take a ladle and mix it well. If the batter is too thick, add some water, little by little and mix well to get spreadable consistency batter. Remember if the batter is too thick, idlis would be dense and solid and wouldn’t be tasty and also it would be difficult to spread while making dosas. So add water little by little to get the right consistency.

Idlis:

Add water to the steamer or idli patra and heat it. Wash the idli plates under running water tap to coat a layer of water on the plate. Using a ladle take some batter and fill the idli plate with sufficient batter and carefully place the plate in steamer. Cover the steamer and cook on high flame till pressure is fully developed in the steamer. Then lower the flame and cook for 7 minutes. With a wet finger touch the prepared idli and observe. If batter sticks to the finger steam for few more minutes and if it doesn’t stick it indicates that idlis are done. Remove the plate from the steamer and wait for 5 minutes. wet a flat spoon and take out the idlis and serve them hot with any chutney or powder of your choice.

Dosas:

Heat a flat griddle and add few drops of oil. Crumple a paper napkin and spread the oil with it on the flat griddle. Lower the flame. Take a ladleful of batter and pour it in the centre of the griddle. With the back of the ladle spread the batter in circular motion to spread evenly on the griddle. Then increase the flame and add oil. Take a flat ladle and spread the oil evenly to all parts of the dosa by rubbing it on the dosa gently. Fry the dosa till crisp. When the underside of the dosa is fried well, observe some light brown spots on the top of the dosa. Then with the help of the flat ladle remove the dosa from the griddle and fold it and serve hot with ginger chutney or idli podi with some ghee. Observe that these dosas are too thin and crisp and remain crisp for a longer time as we have used parboiled rice in the batter.

Utappam:

To the batter add some ginger green chili paste and mix well. Spread some batter thickly on the hot griddle. Sprinkle some chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped coriander leaves and some crushed black pepper. Spread oil all around the utappam and also on the utappam. Cover the utappam with a lid and cook on low flame for few minutes till the underside is golden in color. Remove the lid and flip the utappam carefully and fry till crisp. Turn and transfer the prepared utappam into a serving plate and serve hot with any chutney or powder of your choice.

Points To Remember:

Soak black gram and rice for minimum 8 hours to get better quality of batter.

Use sufficient water to be able to grind the dal and rice so that the batter would not turn runny---later one can add water to get the right consistency.

While making idlis, dosas and utappams add water to the batter to get right consistency. Remember if the batter is too thick, idlis would be dense and solid and wouldn’t be tasty and also it would be difficult to spread while making dosas. So add water little by little to get the right consistency.

Ferment the batter for 8 hours or overnight or till the batter rises sufficiently so that when used the batter should not be dense and heavy but should be light.

Heat the griddle properly before making dosas and utappams.

Use a crumpled paper napkin or a cut onion to smear the oil while seasoning the griddle.

After adding batter on the griddle spread it evenly---do this process a bit faster or else the batter forms a lump and sticks to the ladle and makes a mess.