How to make Idly/Dosai Batter
Idly/Dosai Batter is needed to make Idly or Dosai. You will need a grinder or a mixer with grinding capabilities to make this batter. You can buy readily available batter in super market, if you are living in India. Batter is also available in Indian grocery stores in some parts of USA, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Sri Lanka.
If Idly rice is not available in your locality, you can replace it with any boiled rice.
Wash/clean the rice and urad dal separetly in water.
Note you must have the whole urad dal and not the split ones.
Soak them in separate bowls filled with double the quantity of water. Add fenugreek seeds to the Urad dal. It is good for digestion and helps soften the Idly and for dosai, it helps produce beautiful golden colored dosai. Let it soak for around 4-7 hours.
Grind the soaked Urad dal in a grinder by adding little water in frequent intervals up until we get a smooth batter. Once the smooth batter is felt you can move the batter from grinder into a big container. The quantity of the batter will be about 4 times that of the soaked Urad dal. Add salt to it and keep aside.
Grind the rice in a grinder to a smooth batter. Once the smooth batter is felt move the batter to the Urad dal batter and mix both the batters into one batter for about 3-5 min.
Let the batter ferment for about 10 hours.
Note: The batter should be in a large container. The container should have half empty space. The reason is behind the fermentation process. Once fermented the batter will double in quantity.
Now the batter is ready to make Idly. You can refrigerate the batter and use it for 2-5 days.
Note the batter is good for Idly on the first day and good for Dosai only from second day onwards. Do not try to make Dosai on the first day itself as it will not come out well and the taste will not be good.
Other names/spelling variations of Idly/Dosai Batter:
Idly maavu, Dosai maavu, mavu, mawoo, Idly Dosai maavu