More Indian Recipes
Sorghum Idli
Ingredients
- 1 cup sorghum (jowar) idli rawa: fine semolina made for idli, not flour, flakes or coarse upma rawa
- ½ cup husked urad dal, whole or split
- 300 ml water, for soaking urad dal
- 500 ml water, for soaking idli rawa
- 150 ml fresh water, for grinding and adjusting the batter; add gradually
- 3 g salt
- 5 ml neutral cold-pressed oil, for greasing moulds
- 500–750 ml water, for the steamer, or the amount specified by its manufacturer
Make it, step by step
- Use a 240 ml cup. Rinse urad dal and soak in 300 ml water for 8–10 hours until easily crushed; refrigerate in very warm kitchens.
- For the final 2 hours, rinse idli rawa through a fine sieve and soak in 500 ml water. Drain and gently squeeze; keep moist.
- Drain dal. Grind with 100 ml fresh water, added gradually, until light and smooth. Add up to 25 ml more if needed; pause if the grinder heats.
- Fold hydrated rawa into dal batter in a clean bowl with equal empty space above it. Add remaining water gradually only if needed for a thick ribbon.
- Cover loosely in a warm spot for 8–12 hours, checking after 6 hours in hot weather. Ready batter rises, bubbles and smells mildly sour.
- Gently fold in salt; grease moulds. Boil steamer water below the lowest mould and fill moulds three-quarters full.
- Cover and steam for 15–20 minutes after steady steam resumes, following the steamer instructions. A skewer should emerge without wet batter; steam longer if needed.
- Turn off heat and wait 3–5 minutes. Carefully remove the stand, loosen idlis with a wet spoon and serve warm.
Useful tips
- Drain the soaked rawa until moist, not dripping. Excess soaking water thins the batter and makes it harder to keep airy.
Cooking and storage
- Steam once fermented or refrigerate; do not taste uncooked batter.
- When using a pressure cooker as a steamer, leave the vent weight off.
Allergens: Urad dal (legume); peanut in groundnut oil; sesame in sesame oil. Check rawa and accompaniments.
