Idli Dosa Batter | How to Make Dosa Batter
Making idli dosa batter at home is incredible easy if you follow my timeline. This produces super soft idlis and incredibly crispy dosas every single time.
Servings: 8 people
Ingredients
For grinding
- 1 ½ cups idli rice or parboiled rice
- ½ cup skinned urad dal
- ¼ cup poha or flattened rice
- ¼ cup cooked rice
- 1 teaspoon methi seeds fenugreek seeds
- 1 ½ cups water
- 4-5 ice cubes
Other
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt divided
Instructions
Day 1 - Morning
- Wash and soak idli rice, urad dal, poha and methi seeds in enough water in a way that there is at least an inch of extra water over the rice and dal.1 ½ cups idli rice or parboiled rice, ½ cup skinned urad dal, ¼ cup poha, 1 teaspoon methi seeds
Day 1 - Evening
- Once the grains have soaked for about 8 hours, drain the excess water from both the bowls.
- Grind the idli rice-urad dal mix along with the cooked rice till almost smooth with approx. 1 ½ cups water and 4-5 ice cubes in a mixer grinder. Add additional water if required. The consistency should be such that it can leave a thick coat on the back of a spoon and falls in a ribbon like consistency when poured with a ladle. The ground batter should feel very slightly gritty between your fingers.¼ cup cooked rice, 1 ½ cups water, 4-5 ice cubes
- Pour the batter into a bowl that’s large enough so that there is room for the batter to rise. Mix the batter with clean hands as shown in the video - this is an important step as it helps in the fermentation so please don’t skip it.
- Cover the bowl and set aside to ferment. Leave it in a warm, dry place away from direct sunlight to ferment. Fermentation takes anywhere between 12-24 hours depending on the humidity and temperature at your place. The warmer it is, the faster it’ll ferment.
Day 2 - Morning or Afternoon
- Once fermented, the batter should have become almost 1.5 times its size with a slight dome shape and a wrinkle, bubbly layer on top. You should be able to smell a little sourness in the batter. This smell means it has fermented. If it is too sour, it has fermented too much! You can use a spoon to check the batter – the texture should be frothy with air bubbles.
- Take out 2 cups of batter in a bowl, add ½ teaspoon of salt and use it to make idlis, dosa etc.1 ½ teaspoon salt
Video
Notes
- Ice cubes are added to avoid the batter from getting too hot while grinding.
- Salt to be added ONLY to the quantity of batter you are using to avoid the batter getting too sour.
- If you are not using all of the batter, store the remaining unsalted batter in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze the batter for up to a month.