How to prepare Idli Batter?

Ingredients for idli batter:

• Rice (Idli rice) - 3 cups
• Urad dal - 1½ cup
• Cooked rice - 2 cups (freshly cooked rice at room temperature)
• Cooking soda - ½ tsp

Soaking:

• Soak rice in water for a day (8 to 10 hours)
• Soak urad dal separately for 3 to 4 hours

Steps:

• The ingredients can be ground in a mixer. Divide rice, dal and cooked rice into equal portions that fit into your mixer jar.
• Add water in small quantities, if necessary, to liquify the mixture. Do not add more than necessary, excess water can render the batter useless. The batter has to be thick enough to hold itself and liquid enough to flow from a ladle to a idli plate.
• Once the grinding is done, put the batter into a larger vessel so that its only half full. Add cooking soda to the batter and mix well. Leave batter overnight to rise.
• The following morning batter should've risen such that the vessel should be almost full. The risen batter is ready. Now you can either prepare idli and/or store batter for later use.

Note:

• While soaking remember to use a vessel that would be half full. Add sufficient water so that the grains remain submerged when they expand. 
• Add a teaspoon salt to the batter just before pouring the batter into idli plates. 
• Idli batter can be stored in a fridge up to 3 days.

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