Idli, Sambar & Chutney

Presenting a delicious South Indian breakfast.....or it could be a snack for you !
Idli is steam cooked. Steaming the batter made from urad dal (black lentil) and rice to a smooth paste and fermented over night. Its often served with chutney, sambar or the idli podi. This is a great breakfast to start off the day. Very filling and satisfying meal.
Ingredients

1.5 cup - Long grain rice

1/2 cup - par-boil rice
1 cups - Urad dal
1/4 cup - cooked rice
Salt to taste

Method

1) Soak separately rice and urad dal in enough water for atleast 6 hours.

2 ) Grind urad dal in a grinder or blender. Add water little at a time and grind to a smooth paste. Add cooked rice when grinding urad dal .

3) Then grind soaked rice to a smooth paste with water. Mix all the paste together in a utensil and add little salt.

4 ) Rest the batter in a warm place to ferment overnight. The fermented batter will rise 2 to 3 times it's original volume.

5 ) Use the fermented batter to steam idli's in a greased molds of an idli tray.

Serve idli with sambar and chutney.

Sambar recipe without the coconut

Ingredients

1/2 cup - Tuvar dal

1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

Juice extracted from lemon size ball of tamarind

3 tbsp - Sambar powder ( see below for recipe)

Salt as per taste

Vegetables

2 - drumsticks

6 - lady's finger

2 - brinjals

For Seasoning

1 tsp - mustard seeds

1/2 tsp - Asafoetida

Sesame oil

For garnishing

A few coriander leaves and curry leaves

Ingredients for sambar powder

10 - whole red chilli

1/2 tsp - fenugreek seeds

2 tbsp - coriander seeds

1/2 tsp - asafoetida

1 tsp - Channa dal / bengal gram

1 tsp - Urad dal

Roast all the ingredients together and grind to a fine powder. Store and use as per use.

Method to make sambar

1 ) Pressure cook dal with turmeric powder till done. Mash well and add chopped vegetables. Add salt and let it simmer.

2 ) When the vegetables are almost done add the tamarind juice. Add the sambar powder,when it begins to boil .

3 ) Meanwhile, heat oil and add mustard and asafoetida to it. When seeds begin to sputter pour over the sambar.

Garnish with coriander and curry leaves. Serve with idli, dosa or rice.

Chutney for idli or dosa

Ingredients

1/2 cup - grated coconut

2 tbsp - channa dal

3 - green chilli, slit in center

5 - curry leaves

3 tbsp - curds

For Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard

4 - curry leaves

3- whole red chilli

sesame oil

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a pan and fry green chilli's. Then add curry leaves and channa dal and fry channa dal till crisp. Take off stove and cool.

2 ) In a grinder, add grated coconut and the fried ingredients. Grind adding curd to it and a little water to a smooth paste. Pour to a serving dish.

3 ) Heat oil and add mustard, curry leaves and whole red chilli. Pour the seasoning over the chutney and serve with idli.