Steamed Rice Cake
By: Sanjeeta Kk
Published: Saturday, November 27, 2010 - 12:26am

Ingredients




3 cups of raw rice or (2 cups of boiled rice and 1 cup of raw rice)
1 cup of de-husked black gram (urad dal)
1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds (optional)
Water as required

Preparation

1 I normally mix brown rice in all my rice preparation, which adds the fiber content and other benefits of wholegrain. 2 Wash the rice and urad dal and soak it for 3 hours with fenugreek seeds (methi). 3 Grind the urad dal and methi seeds for nearly 40 minutes in the grinder or about 30 minutes in a mixie by adding water as and when required.Do not make the batter too runny. 4 Grind till the urad dal is light and frothy. 5 Remove from the grinder or mixie and then grind the soaked rice for 5-10 minutes till it resembles rawa consistency. 6 Mix both the ground ingredient in a big vessel, add 1/2 tsp of salt, cover it and keep it aside in a warmer place to let it ferment for nearly 15-20 hours. 7 Note: The softness of idly comes by the method of grinding ie. stone grinding Vs mixie. The light and fluffy texture of urad dal, which is responsible for soft idly, comes in the grinder easily. 8 In south of India people use big grinders with heavy stones inside, which makes the work easy and more perfect. A normal mixie can also be used to grind the above ingredients, but the result may not match the output of a grinder.

About


Steamed rice cake a.k.a Idly is endorsed by many as the healthiest food one can have as breakfast . With practically no oil or any other fat content in it, it surely is any health conscious delight.
The only limitation to the normal white idly is that it has  high GI and gets digested very fast thereby raising the blood sugar levels. The wise option would be to include it in the dinner when the metabolic rate is at the lowest. Or add wholegrain in the preparation of idlies such as broken wheat (Bulgar),  Ragi and the like, to lower its GI and make it a healthy breakfast option.