Idly ഇഡ്ഡലി

Ingredients:
Urad dal – ¾ cup
Idli rice – 2 cup Fenugreek / Uluva – ¾ teaspoon
Cooked rice – 3 tbsp
Curry leaves -- 2-3 leaves
water as required to make a thick batter

Preparation

Soak Urad dal , and idli rice separately for 4-5 hours. kindly use white rice if Idli rice is not available. but idly will turn out more soft if we use idly rice. Add fenugreek too while soaking urad dal.

Grind urad dal , fenugreek, and cooked rice adding sufficient water. Do not grind it smooth like dosa batter. ( Idly batter should be thick and dosa batter should be watery. ) Grind idly rice too adding sufficient water again not so smooth. Mix it well and add salt too Cover it with a lid and keep the batter away to be fermented, if we keep the batter overnight on a warm place it will get fermented by next morning. If you are abroad ,and in the AC, it may not work the same way. so kindly keep the batter inside the microwave to get the desired result.

Grease the idli thattu with ghee. Pour the batter with a laddle, In the idli cooker pour some water and bring to boil and transfer the thattu, cover it and steam it for 10 Minuits, once done remove the thattu and allow it to cool down before taking out idlis with a sharp knife or spoon, Serve soft idlis with sambar and chutney .

Mulaku Baji Chilly Baji (Kerala style ) മുളക് ബജി

Ingredients 

Baji Mulaku  7 no.s

Besan Flour   1 cup

Rice Flour  2 Tablespoon

Chilli powder 1 Teas[ppm

Turmeric powder 2 pinches

Baking soda 1 pinch (optional)

Hing A pinch

Ayamodakam Ajjwain  as required (optional)

Salt as required

Water  for making the batter - Batter should be thick not watery

Coconut Oil for deep frying

Preparation 

Make a thick batter using besan flour rice powder by adding required water. Add salt chilli powder turmeric powder baking soda and ayamodakam. Mix well. Keep the batter  for sometime to set. Wash the Mulaku ,, pat dry and with a sharp knife make a slit on one side and remove the seeds. keep it aside 

Heat the coconut oil in a kadai. Dip the Mulaku in the batter one by one, let it be well coated, and deep fry it. Fry till both the sides become golden brown color.  Have it hot with your favorite chutney. Also in the same batter you can make potato or cauliflower baji , chop the vegetables and dip in the batter and deep fry it, in the pictures you can find potato and cauliflower baji too along with mulaku baji. for that you can put  chopped corriander leaves too in the batter, for mulaku baji kindly avoid corriander leaves since its not found in traditional recipe.

Some of my friends have complaint that the besan flour makes their stomach upset. My suggestion is to put ajjwain and a pinch of hing asafoetida while making the batter, it will  help to reduce the digestive issues.

In kerala during monsoon, we make hot mulaku baji in the evenings and have it hot with garam chay sitting on the varandha . laid back enjoying the downpour.  Its indeed a nostalgic  thought  for malayalis around the world