Chef Karthik give innovative and colourful twists to quotidian recipe
Red Velvet Idly
Ingredients
Whole White Urad Dal – 1 Cup
Idly Rice – 4 Cups
Fenugreek seeds/Methi Seeds – 1 tablespoon
Salt – 1 tablespoon
Beetroot – 1 small
INSTRUCTIONS
n Wash and soak urad dal and idly rice 3 to 4 times and soak them separately for a minimum of 3-4 hours. While soaking urad dal add fenugreek seeds to it.
n Clean the wet grinder before every use. After 4hours drain out all the water from urad dal and add it to the wet grinder. Once you start grinding add half a cup of water. While grinding urad dal add the water slowly in regular intervals for two to three times. The urad dal will not fluff up, if you add all the water at once. The dal should fluff up and fill the grinder. It should have increased about 8-10 times of its original volume. It should come out as butter. Grind for at-least 30 minutes. Once done, transfer the mixture into a bowl and
set aside.
n Now grind the soaked and drained rice until smooth. Add just enough water while grinding. The consistency should be medium. Once ground, transfer the batter to the dal mixture bowl and mix well.
n Add salt to the batter before fermenting in summers and add it after fermenting in winters. Usually the batter needs to ferment for 5-6 hours depending upon the weather.
n Once the batter is nicely fermented, take a ladle and mix it well. Your batter is now ready.
Red velvet idly mixture:
Grate half a beetroot and squeeze it well.
Add the squeezed juice to four scoops of idly batter. Mix it well. Your mixture is ready.
For making soft red velvet idly:
Pour some water in an idly vessel and put it on medium flame. Oil the idly plate and gently fill the rounds with the red velvet batter. Put it inside the idly vessel and let it steam for 10 minutes. Do not allow it to over-cook as it might become hard and dry. Just keep an eye and remove the iddlies after 10 minutes. Do not remove the iddlies immediately as it might stick. Allow it to rest for another 4-5 minutes and then spoon it out. Once removed use heart shaped sandwich cutter/cookie cutter to get heart shape iddlies. Serve hot with your favourite chutney or sambar.
IMPORTANT NOTES
* Drain the water completely from the ingredients after soaking.
* While grinding urad dal and rice ensure that you do not use a lot of water.
* You can always adjust the consistency of the batter later if it is too thick. You cannot do anything if the batter goes runny.
