Rava Idly and Kashmiri Chilli Chammanthi

Hello everyone,
I know it’s been some time now that I didn’t feed my blog anything. There are too many excuses if you wanna know why. First of all, I was just in a lazy mood all these while and dint feel like blogging. I am also trying to change the outlook of my blog with a better template and got lost in search of it! You can see the outcome of my blog with another template that I thought looked good, but after fixing it to my blog, I feel this is not the one for me. Don’t know. I might change again. Is there any opinion from you readers on how my blog looks now? As I told you I am just so confused. Apart from that, I got all busy in packing and cleaning while we shifted to our new place. Yes, we shifted again this weekend to a new place, a very lovely place. Still, majority of unpacking is left to do and I got to organize things around, woooh!

Anyways, this time, I am posting the recipe for a simple breakfast dish – Rava Idly, a faster, easier and a mess free recipe for you. As many of you would know, when it comes to our normal idlys, they are soft lentil dumplings that are steam cooked. The process involves soaking of lentils and rice separately and then grinding them and mixing the ground batter and fermenting it. It may take several hours for the batter to get fermented. It also takes quite a bit of time and patience comparing to these Rava Idlis.

Rava idly’s on the other hand is very different from the traditional idly by all means - ingredient wise and method wise. It involves no grinding and no fermenting. So basically, this dish can be prepared in less than 30 minutes. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? The recipe uses all the ingredients commonly found in your pantry and I am just so glad that I found this recipe and more than happy to share it with you. I have seen it at different places on the blog and in the books, but it was Poornima’s simple recipe that struck me. I tried her recipe several times and everytime I made, it came out just perfect. Soft and spongy and the light tartness that comes from the curd was just scrumptious. And SShhh, these are my first idlys. Even though I wrote about the authentic idlys I never made them....hehe...I just saw my mom making them. We are not big fans of regular idlys, but this one with semolina, we just love it.
You may have them with ‘Sambar’, chutney, Chammanthy or even any spicy curry. I normally serve with Red chilli Chammanthy, just because that is the easiest accompaniment and takes no time..

Preparation:
1 cup fine Rava/ semolina/sooji
1 1/3 cup curd
1/2 - 3/4 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 twig curry leaves chopped
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon Urad Dal
1-3 green chillies sliced into rounds
1/2 tsp baking soda (not baking powder)
4 - 6 table spoons water.

Preparation:
1. In a saucepan, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds and urad dal. When the mustard crackle and urad dal turns golden, add chopped curry leaves and chillies. Sauté for few seconds.

2. Add Rava and saute for 3-5 minutes in medium flame until lightly coloured.

3. Take it off the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.

4. Stir in salt and baking soda. Add curd just before making the idlys and add required water to make smooth batter.

5. Lightly oil the idly pans or mould using a kitchen towel and pour the batter halfway in the moulds and steam for 10 – 12 minutes or until firm. Serve warm with Red Chilli and coconut chammanthi. Recipe follows.

Coconut and Whole Kashmiri Chilli Chammanthi



Ingredients:
1 cup freshly grated coconut (tightly packed)
4-6 seeded Dried Kashmiri Red Chilli (leave seeds in if you like it real spicy, I normally discard them to retain mildness)
2 large clove of garlic
A small piece of ginger
1-2 Tbs coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
1 small twig curry leaves
½ tsp mustard seeds
Salt to taste
Water- as required

Preparation:
1. Soak the Chilli in hot water until it softens, for around 10 minutes. Grind coconut along with ginger, garlic and soaked chillies with sufficient water to grind into slightly chunky coconut paste. Add salt and mix well.

2. In a small Karahi/Kadai/wok, heat oil. Splutter mustard seeds and add the leaves. When they begin to crackle (it takes only few seconds), add the flavour infused oil to the ground coconut mixture.

This chammanthy is delicious with dosa, idli and Vada.

Tip: If you are using frozen coconut, let them thaw before grinding to avoid lumps. You may thaw them in the microwave or add some hot water while grinding. Take care not to add boiling water, or it may damage your grinder.