Choti Idli

Mummy was always adding new pans, pots and cooking gadgets to her kitchen collection. Sometimes she discovered a new recipe needing that special gadget and other times she simply found a better, newer version of a gadget she alredy possesed. Whatever was the reason for her new purchase, we always benefited from it. She either bought the new gadgets for us or passed on the older version. Idli stand to make choti (small) idlies was one such purchase she made while visiting my brother in Surat. She bought several of these stands, keeping one for herself and giving others to my sister, sister in law and me.

Idli, sambhar and chutney were standard fare for the parties at home. Idlies were considered light yet falvorful and festive, a departure from usual fried stuff like poories, bhatura served at parties. Making idlies was a ritual requiring lot of planning and multiple steps stating from soaking the dal, rice and then grinding and waiting for the batter to ferment.
Recreating same taste for sambhar and idlies is challenging. There are many variables ranging from quality of rice, type of sambhar powder, proportion of rice and dal used for the batter, quality of rice to how fine you grind the batter. A slight change in any of these variables can change the texture of idlies and change the flavor of sambhar. I have developed my own recipe in quest for trying to make idlies that are soft and not gooey using ingredients easily available here. I had a regular idli stand that made 12 idlies at a time. The choti Idli stand provided my mummy makes 54 bite size (an inch in diameter) idlies. These always get a VOW from the guests and I cant forget how amused my son got first time I made these when he declared he had eaten 20+ idlies.

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