Sowbaghya Wet Grinders

Wet Grinders are an indispensable part of south Indian kitchens. To make delicious “dosas”, or steaming hot “idlies”, the primary requirement is the batter. Wet Grinders are labelled so as they grind water, dal and rice and produce the batter used for preparing south Indian delicacies.

Few decades ago, electric grinders were still unheard of. People used stone grinders where manual work was involved to prepare the batter. A sample pic is shown below. Click on the image to enlarge.

Image Courtesy: songbirdgardens.co.nz

But times have now changed. People realized that simple mixer grinders were not powerful enough to handle rice, dal combination. Companies saw an opportunity here and the modern wet grinder was born. Every year new innovations and patents are happening in this field. The product that is being reviewed here is “Ultra Grinder” from ELGI industries. The picture is shown below. Please click on it to enlarge.

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Back home, a breakfast is still a breakfast. It is not brunch, lunch or supper. Breakfast items are few, and everyday one of them is prepared and eaten by 9 AM. My mother never uttered the words - “I’m not feeling well today and not making any breakfast for you”. As a grown up, living in a silent world with plenty of time to reflect back, now I realise, my mother like me, must had several reasons to slack off, if she wanted to. But she never did. I am sure many of you can relate to what I am talking about. That kind of devotion was given to us when we were children. This is the reason why I often mention ‘amma (mother)’ as recipe source. If I have the courtesy to write a cookbook author’s name as recipe source for a blogged recipe, why shouldn�t I return the same courtesy to amma, from whom I learned most of my cooking from.

Colorful idly with carrots and chana dal aka masala idly is one of her recipes. Finely grated carrots and chana dal along with green chillies and cumin etc. are added to the leftover idly batter for a next day morning breakfast. Imagine the taste of upma, and these idlies almost taste like that. Steam cooked in round shape, they are a pleasure when served hot with chutney and sambar. Though they are a breakfast item back home, here I often make them on a weekend for brunch, lunch or for supper.

Recipe:
This is same as idly preparation except that we add bunch of other ingredients and change the lilly white, cloud like plain idlies into colorful, somewhat dense masala idlies.

(for 16 idlies)
3 cups of Idly batter
(urad dal and rice ravva(cream of rice) in 1:2 ratio, soaked, grind into smooth batter and kept overnight for fermentation)
Ingredients to add to idly batter
1 cup of grated carrot (1 big carrot)
¼ cup of chana dal (soaked in water for atleast an hour)
¼ cup of coarsely crushed, roasted peanuts or cashews
¼ cup of finely chopped cilantro
2 to 4 finely chopped or minced green chillies
1 teaspoon of cumin and few curry leaves
¼ teaspoon of salt or to taste

Mix the ingredients with idly batter thoroughly. Fill the round impressions of idly plates with this batter. Place the idly stand in an idly cooker and steam cook them for about 20 minutes or until the batter sets completely. Remove the idly stand from the cooker, run a spoon under each impression and separate the cooked idlies from the impressions. Serve them hot with peanut or coconut chutney and sambhar.

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Idli Dosa Love

I am big on breakfasts, and strongly believe in equal opportunity for breakfast foods- so you will often catch me serving them for lunch, tea and dinner as well. This month (or what’s left of it), I decided to give some thought to including more whole grains into breakfast. I do love my so-not-whole-grain poha, sabudana, rava dosa and baguettes, but let me add some whole grains to my repertoire too.

Today’s whole-grain tweak: Brown rice in idlis and dosas. The idli-dosa family of breakfast foods has got to be one of the most strongest contenders in the “nutritious meets delicious” department. There is something about the whole ritual of soaking rice and lentils, grinding them, fermenting the batter and churning out fluffy idlis and crispy dosas that is just very fulfilling. Makes me feel like a real proper cook

Until a month or two ago, the biggest challenge for me was the grinding of the batter; I had to manage with my KitchenAid food processor. Just for the record, the food processor was able to gring soaked rice and urad dal (separately) quite well, but was an utter failure when it came to grinding soaked parboiled rice. I would bite my lip nervously every time I made batter wondering if today was the day when my delicate machine would decide that it was not built for such arduous tasks and die on me. The best way to grind these batters at home is to buy one of those heavy-duty wet grinders (developed and manufactured in India) that are uniquely designed for this purpose. But you know what- they are quite expensive and I was quite sure that one was never going to fit into my budget at this time. Then I got one of these wet grinders as a gift! V’s cousin bought a newer, smaller version and generously let me have her wet grinder. This is one impressive machine. A huge metal drum with a stone floor holds two huge grinding stones (scroll down in that link to take a look at them). Start the heavy-duty motor, and even the most unyielding dal and rice is churned into a buttery paste.

One of the first recipes I tried in the wet grinder was Jugalbandi’s Whole-Grain Idlis. Yes, I finally have some gorgeous rosematta rice in my pantry.

Some time ago, I whined in a post about not being able to find rosematta rice around here. Two kind souls responded: my friend Madhu came over with rosematta rice for me to try and the one and only Linda mailed me a beautiful glass jar of rosematta from far, far away! Now this is when you soberly realize what a lucky girl you are- when even your petulant whining leads kind friends to help you.

I followed Bee and Jai’s recipe except that I skipped the 2 T of cooked rice/poha/soaked bread. I like this recipe because (a) it combines brown rice and parboiled rice (the latter, although not technically a whole grain, does retain a great many of its nutrients, if I understand correctly), (b) makes a small batch of 12-15 idlis which is nice because most idli recipes are designed to make enough idlis to feed a small village, (c) includes a tip for soaking the rice and lentils in filtered water and not chlorinated tap water (I never thought of that!).

The batter fermented beautifully without the need for any interventions such as the surreptitious addition of fruit salt :D. I am lucky in that respect; fermentation has never been a problem in my present kitchen. Still, whenever I ferment something overnight, I do tend to worry about it and obsess over it. The first thought as I cross the hazy land of half-sleep is, did the batter ferment? It is enough to jerk me wide awake and get me to stumble in the darkness to the kitchen and check on the bowl of batter. A whiff of the sweet-sour aroma of fermented batter and a look at the bubbling mass in the half-light, and I am able to heave a sigh of relief.

Here are the idlis, served with huli (now updated with a link to Latha’s secret family recipe for vibrant huli powder). See all those holes that the yeasty beasties so obligingly made?

And if steamed whole-grain idlis feel a little too healthy, you can always find creative ways to convert them into a guilty pleasure. Exhibit A: fried idli. Idlis cut into 4-5 slices, then fried in a T or so of oil until crispy.

Now that I have the wet grinder, I am like a kid with her new toy- can’t stop playing with it. Here’s another recipe I tried: Ashwini’s Mushti Polo. Her engaging write-up tells us the origin of the name of this dosa. Adding poha (flattened rice flakes) to dosa is something new to me. I did follow the recipe exactly, except to use 1 C brown rice and 1 C white rice in place of 2 C white rice. I figured, with the white poha being refined, I would add some brown rice and split the difference in terms of whole grains. It has worked beautifully for me every time I sub brown rice for white rice in a dosa recipe. Next time, I will try all brown rice in this recipe.

The poha really helps the fermentation along, and this was the laciest and airiest dosa I have ever made in my life. It was great in the lunch-box too! I served this with pearl-onion sambar and parsley chutney (the normal coconut-cilantro-green chillies chutney but using parsley instead of cilantro because it was what I had on hand).

Poha dosas are very popular in the food blog world:
Sharmi’s Atukula Attlu looks incredibly spongy and uses sour yogurt or buttermilk to help the fermentation along.
Shilpa prefers to call her poha dosa Masti Dosa- that’s how much fun it is to make and eat!
Namratha’s Set Dosa comes with a great story of how that name came about.

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I’m an all-american white girl born and raised in California and I am married an Indian from the state of Kerala. I am not very good at making Indian food, and that may be an understatement. Unfortunately my husband isn’t on good terms with my in-laws so that leaves me to turn to you all for much need help! Anyone have any delicious south Indian recipes? He particularly misses Dosa…which doesn’t seem like it would be too hard to make but I have NO CLUE what to make with them. He also reminicises about fish fry….apparently some fish without scales and it gets all black on the outside. Anyways like I said I don’t know much about the cuisine. I have eaten a great deal of Indian food via restraunts in Cali the past 3-4 years of our courtship and marriage….but eating it and making it are totally different things! Every time I try to make something it just never turns out right . But I am getting better. If anyone has any tips, recipes, etc, etc I would be SO HAPPY To have them!

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1. Oomapodi
besan 1 cup
salt to taste
oomam (ajwain) - 1 1/2 tsp
turmeric - 1 pinch
oil for frying
Mix all the ingredients to make a soft dough. Transfer it to the achchhu and fry in batches

2. Boondi:
Besan - 1 cup
salt to taste
chilli pwd - 2 tsp
turmeric - a pinch
hing - a pinch
Soda-bi-carb - a pinch
Make a batter using water with the above ingredients. You can use a boondi karandi (a big flat ladel with holes) or a plate/colander if you dont have one. th eholes should be about 2-3 mm in diameter. Hold it over the hot oil and pour a spoonful of batter on it. Now spread the batter on the karandi as if making a dosa and the drops that fall down should fry up into nice round boondis. For checking the consistancy, test fry with little batter first. If the boondis turn out pear shaped, then more water needs to be added and if they are too big and stuck together, you may need to add more besan. Trial and error is the way to go

3. Maida biscuit:
I am not sure if it has any other name, but that’s what we call this at our place. This is the best part of mixture in my opinion
Maida - 1 cup
rice pwd - 2 tbsp
salt - to taste
Oil for frying
Make a soft dough with the roti dough consistency and roll it out to the thickness of a thin roti. You do not have to be precise about the shape here. Use a knife or a pizza cutter and cut out diamond shapes. Deep fry the biscuits and make sure they are crisp before removing them from the oil
Deep fry (4) 2 cups of Poha, (5)1/2 cup of curry leaves and (6) 1 cup peanuts. Crumble the oomapodi and add together items 1 through 6. Heat up 1 tbsp oil. Mix salt, chilli pwd and hing on a plate and pour the hot oil over it. Now, add this to the mixture and season it uniformly.
Thattai: I was not around whan MIL made these, but got the recipe from her.

Rice pwd – 1 cup
Udad pwd – 1 tbsp
Chilli pwd – 2 tsp
Til – 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter – ¼ cup
Mix the Rice and Udad pwd. Add softened butter and mix it well with you hands till you get a crumbly mix. Add the chilli pwd, til and salt and make a soft dough with water. Heat up the oil for frying and make small flat discs with the dough. The best way to do it is to use a thick plastic sheet or cloth. Deep fry in batches of 5-6 and store in an airtight container.

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Jangiri is a traditional Indian sweet made with Urad dal and maida.
Jangri is deep fried in oil/ghee and soaked in sugar syrup.
Jangiri has a flavour of Saffron and Rose.

Ingredients Needed:
1. Urad dal 1 cup
2. Raw Rice 1 table spoons
3. Maida flour 2 tablespoons.
4. Food colour (Orange ) 3 pinch
5. Sugar 1-1/2 cups
6. Water 1/2 cup
7. Saffron 4 to 5 strings
8. Oil or Ghee for deep frying
9. Jangiri Rit (Thick, Square cloth with small hole in Center)
10. Rose essence or Rose Water little.

Jangiri Frying

Method:
1. Wash and soak Rice and Urad dal for 20 minutes.
2. Grind it, in Wet grinder without adding water. (Just sprinkle water).Minimum for 30 mins.
3. Lastly add food colour and maida.
4. Take a bowl of water and put this mixture in water. (It will float.)
5. Heat Oil/Ghee in a flat pan in moderate heat.
6. Make sugar syrup, 1/2 string consistency, add food colour, Saffron and Rose essence and keep it aside.
7. Take Jangiri rit, put some grinded batter and make one big circle and in that circle make small continuous rings.
8. Deep fry in oil, without changing its colour and tansfer this jangiri to sugar syrup.
9. Make another Jangiri and when putting this batch in the sugar syrup, take out the earlier batch of Jangiri and keep aside.
10. Serve Hot or Cold.

Idli and Dosa…
I haven’t written much about the food here, and it’s probably high time that I did. A month of vegetarian cuisine, punctuated by an occasional meal with fish, is about to come to an end as the Carnivore (otherwise known as Marty) returns to Madras tomorrow morning from a month in the States. He made one last run to Costco to stock up on packaged corned beef, but alas–they were out. The two staples of South Indian cuisine are dosa–rice and lentil (dal) pancakes– and idli, which are made from similar mix but are thicker dumplings or cakes. South Indians eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner, but I confess I haven’t progressed to eating anything other than fruit and yogurt for breakfast. Leela (who’s back —I’ll write about that in a separate post) makes both of these often. Above, you can see what a dosa looks like. Idli are steamed in a special pot with little depressions that you put the idli mix in. They’re a bit more healthy than dosa, which are lightly fried. Dosa are eaten with the hands—you tear off a bit of the pancake, and roll it or dip in the sauces and vegetables that accompany it. The sauces and vegetables (and yes, you can get meat as well) for both dosa and idli come in myriad varieties. Sambar is a spicy lentil sauce (it’s the orange stuff in the yellow bowl above) , and dosa can also be served with various fillings such as mashed potatoes. In restaurants, dosa may be brought to you in a huge roll– the ones served at the Madras Club (for 55 rupees, which is on the high side) are a good one and half feet long. To make dosa and idli from scratch, it’s best to have something called a wet grinder, which pulverizes the rice and lentil mixture that you’ve soaked. But many cooks, including Leela, buy a ready made mix that’s available in any grocery store. There are also mixes for the sambar and other sauces, but Leela makes these herself using various spices, vegetables and lentils. As lentils are the main protein for vegetarians here, they’re used in a variety of cuisine and come in many colors and shapes. Personally, I prefer dosa to idli, though I like both of them. Usually, you’ll see idli listed first (idli-dosa not dosa-idli). I’m not sure why that is, but it clearly isn’t alphabetical! If you’re interested in trying your hand at either of these, see the link below for some recipes. Of course you can also just “Google” idli dosa recipes and it will bring up a number of other recipes as well.

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I’m always excited to find new international food staples that are naturally gluten free. My first encounter with idli, the traditional south indian snack, was at a South Indian restaurant in Boulder, Colorado. Unlike North India, South India bases many traditional dishes on rice and urad dal, even their “breads”- uppatham (vegetable pancakes), dosa (crepes), and idli (steamed rice/dosa cakes). According to Wikipedia cookbook “Idli is a round, fluffy bread roughly eight centimetres in diameter. Idli is made from ground rice or rice flour mixed with ground urad dal, salt, methi (fenugreek seeds) and water. The mixture is allowed to ferment prior to being steamed in an idli steamer. They are traditional to Southern India and are most often eaten with sambar.”(Wikipedia Cookbook Entry for Idli) I was ecstatic when I realized that South India had many naturally gluten free offerings. First I tried the buttery, crisp dosa crepes filled with an assortment of fillings like masala potato filling. After my success with the dosa, I tried the other offerings like idli and uppatham. I was so crazy about dosa that I ended up rarely ordering the steamed idli rice cakes, as I found them a bit plain. However, on another message board I’m on I read about stuffed idli with a flavorful filling like tomato chutney steamed inside the disc. I was intrigued, so I gave idli another shot using some premade fermented idli batter from a local indian market in Mountain View, California. I was thrilled to find that these stuffed idli were delicious, especially served with spicy sambar soup and a homemade Cashew Nut Chutney, a mint chutney, or a coconut green chili chutney.Tiffin Shop at Bangalore Market It was easy to make the idli using my idli mold* that I had bought at the City Market in Bangalore, India, but you could also use an egg poacher for larger idli. I put the mold with idli batter, Trader Joe’s tomato chutney, and more idli batter covering the filling, into a steamer basket in a large soup pot and steamed the idli for around 12 minutes. Then I carefully placed them on a wire rack to cool and enjoyed these tasty snacks with sambar and chutney. Even DH, who sometimes find Indian food too spicy for his taste, gobbled them up. They were terrific reheated briefly in the microwave as a little snack, too. After having such good success with premade idli batter, and a few experiments with powdered idli batter, I was eager to try making idli from scratch. After consulting an expert on all things fermented on the Yahoo Vegetarian GF board, I set out on my first experiment. *Note: the dish pictured above may actually be intended for appam, but it works FABULOUSLY for idli if placed in a steamer basket.* The first time I made the recipe, I soaked the urad dal for the same amount of time as the rice, and it acquired a “beany” fragrance. It wasn’t a bad smell exactly, just a little strong. I went ahead and used it for my recipe and found that the later fermentation covered the smell a bit, and the taste was fine. However, I adjusted the recipe to avoid this issue. After soaking, I achieved a very pleasing texture with the batter using a food processor, although traditionally a Wet Grinder is used to make perfect Idli. However, with my strong Kitchenaid food processor, I was able to achieve the texture of a thick coconut chutney, if that makes sense. I’m relieved, as my former experiment with homemade dosa batter was very chunky- but that was about 8 or more years ago. Basmati doesn’t swell and soften like a short grain, glutinous rice, so next time I will try another rice. Actually, I picked up some Idli rice from our local Indian market after I started my experiment, so next time I may try this recipe using idli rice. After the idli batter sat out overnight, it was a little gloopy, but didn’t achieve a nice sourdough tinge like pre-made idli batter I’ve bought before… Due to the cooler climate here in the bay area, I let the batter ferment for about two days and eventually it acquired a faint pleasant sourdough aroma. I stirred it fairly regularly. I read in several sources that in climates cooler than the recipe’s native South India, you can turn on the oven light (NOT the oven) and leave the batter in the oven overnight to achieve good fermentation. According to my Australian source in the know, you can also add a dab of kefir or a pinch of yeast and a ½ teaspoon of yogurt to encourage fermentation if desired. Whatever you do, don’t use chlorinated water to grind your rice and urad dal, and if it gets a little “off” smelling, stir it. It is much like sourdough starter in this way. You can also add 1 tsp of fenugreek seeds to aid fermentation and add flavor. I added a teaspoon of nigella seeds for flavor this time. For me, the idli itself is only half of the recipe. The chutneys used as filling and accompaniment are equally important, adding flavor and personality. Trader Joe’s tomato chutney is really good, but because it is produced in a factory that also produces wheat products, I’ve been trying to find a recipe to make it from scratch. I haven’t found the perfect recipe, but when I do, I will definitely blog about it. You can search for your own Chutney Recipe, if you like. Let me know if any are especially tasty. Although sometimes I make a cashew chutney, this time I made a Recipe for Peanut Chutney that I found online. It was delicious! Most nuts would probably work for this recipe, if you are allergic to peanuts.

Here are some additional recipes for idli:
A Sampling of South Indian Bread Recipes, with Photos
Idli Recipe
Carrot Idli Recipe
Spicy Idli Podi Accompaniment

Kerala Red Rice Idli And if you are craving a sweet steamed rice pastry… try this Kerala ila ada and kozhukkatta Steamed rice sweet recipe from Live to Eat. *note: rava usually refers to semolina cream of wheat, so be careful when ordering dosa or idli, or using “Rava” that it is not made of wheat.

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Dosa is the quintessential South Indian dish. Seldom is there a South India restaurant where this dish is not available or a South Indian home where this is among the most awaited breakfast/tiffin. There are a varieties of dosas available in the hotels. The most popular being the Masala Dosa, Rava Dosa etc.
In my young days when at college masala dosa was avai lable for a mere Re 1 per dosa. Whenever i went to movies with my friends i visited Kamth hotel in Bangalore where in i ordered for Masala dosa which really tasted great. But these days many other restaurants are there to cater to the needs of all of us. We prepare a variety of dosas at home. Masala dosa being the favorite of all of my family members. Though preparation seems to be very easy but it is actually laborious, since for masala dosa we need to have not only Alu bhaji and green chutney but also the masala (garlic red chutney)which gives the name Masala dosa for the dish. Even though the dosa batter is ground the previous night , the two chutneys are prepared in the morning itself. Preparing it previous night will not be tasty as well as fresh. But alu bhaji can be prepared over night also. Masala dosa is easy to prepare.
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Wet grinders are very popular tools in the South Indian kitchen used to make paste out of soaked grains and lentils. At one time, a wet grinder consisted of a large rock with a hole in it, where a cylindrical rock with a wooden handle fit in. The grain and lentil mixture was poured in with water and the cylinder rotated by the handle on the top to grind the food together. The ground paste is used for various food items like idli, dosa, and vada.

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