Kushboo Idly:

Plumpy Idly. Big Fluffy Idly. Soft Big Idlies. Malli Poo Idly. Malligai Poo Idly. Just like Jasmine flower ‘idlies’. Panju Podhi Idly. Just like Cotton Balls ‘Idlies’.

Honestly, I feel awful to use such a name for the idly. But can’t help it…now a days people identify everything with Cinema Stars. Madurai Idly Kadai is kind of very famous in the deep South (district of Tamil Nadu, India). You see, one can find ‘steaming hot idlies’ even in the mid night. Its the only place in Tamil Nadu, where one can find tiffin 24/7. Hmmm, pretty impressive huh. Thats right…through out the clock, Idly is served there with mutton kuzhambu or Madurai famous Ayirai Meen Kuzhambu. This recipe is adopted here, for you’ll. I happened to discover that they use lots of castor seeds to make their idly very fluffy. (so that it resembles the Star Kushboo, sounds delicious already huh?!)

Ingredients:

For Batter:

Par-boiled rice 2 cups
Urad dal ½ cup
Saago 1 table spoon
Castor seeds 10-15 (shell removed)
Fenugreek seeds 2 spoons
Salt
Baking soda ½ spoon
Sesame oil 1 cup.

Just before Cooking:

Sesame oil or ghee for smearing the idly plates.

Method:

For Batter:

Soak rice, castor seeds and fenugreek together…for about 5 hours. Wet grind coarsely to thick batter. Maybe by not adding too much of water. ( batter -1)

Soak urad dal and sago for about 2-3 hours. Wet grind to thick fine paste. Maybe by not adding too much of water. ( batter – 2 )

Mix batter 1 and 2 together and mix thoroughly. (Idly batter)

Add salt + soda in ½ cup of cold water. When it dissolves….mix this solution to the above idly batter. Further add sesame oil too. Mix well.

Allow this to ferment overnight or 7-9 hours. (To fasten the fermentation process…one can add yeast powder. And its always optional.)

Just before Cooking:

Smear the idly plates with sesame oil preferably or one can still smear with ghee too.

Now take a scoop of fermented batter and drop over the idly molds. Repeat the same for all the idly plates.

Well, here I skipped the idly mold to achieve that huge-bulky size’ used cheese cloth as my mold, just mounted it onto the steaming pot.

Note: Never overflow the batter above the idly mold level. Keep it bit less. As while steam-cooking….it bulges 2-3 fold.(depends upon how it fermented)

Now steam cook them for about 10-12 minutes. (To check whether it is done…..take a tooth-pick and dip in the middle of the idly. If the idly is sticky….it should be cooked for some more time.)

Now remove carefully the bulgy idlies from the plate and transfer to serving bowl.

Serve warm. Serve with mutton or chicken kurma.