Breakfast
Steamed rice-and-urad cakes — a mild Kerala morning plate with chutney and sambar.
About
Idli (Malayalam: ഇഡ്ഡലി, also ഇഡ്ലി) is a steamed cake of fermented rice and hulled black gram. English Wikipedia traces a black-gram cake called iddalige to the 920 CE Kannada work Vaddaradhane, and iḍḍarikā to the 12th-century Sanskrit encyclopedia Manasollasa; the modern mix of rice, overnight fermentation, and steaming is recorded only after about 1250 CE. Malayalam Wikipedia treats it as a South Indian breakfast that Kerala homes eat with coconut chutney and sambar — the milder cousin of dosa from the same batter family. It is served hot; leftover cakes are crumbled with chilli powder and curry leaves.
Parboiled or idli rice and whole white urad (Vigna mungo) are soaked separately — English Wikipedia uses about four parts rice to one part dal; Malayalam Wikipedia uses 4:1 for parboiled rice and 2:1 for raw rice. Fenugreek often soaks with the dal. The lentils are ground fine, the rice coarser, then salt is mixed in. Fermentation overnight more than doubles the batter; lactic acid bacteria from the gram both sour it and lift it with carbon dioxide.
Grease a perforated idli tray, ladle in batter, and stack the plates over boiling water. Steam ten to twenty-five minutes, depending on size. The holes let steam reach every cake. Older kitchens steam in leaves instead of metal moulds. Electric grinders have replaced the stone; packaged mixes skip the soak. A little leftover batter can seed the next batch.
Plain idli is mild, so a condiment is essential. Coconut chutney and sambar are the everyday pair; medu vada often sits on the same banana leaf. Wikipedia also lists kaara (onion) chutney, spicy fish curry, rasam, and dry podi mixed with oil for travel. Tear a cake and dip, or soak it in sambar.
Rava idli is steamed from semolina. Thatte idli is a large flat cake. Sambar idli is dunked in the gravy. Leftovers become idli upma. Ramasseri idli, from a Palakkad village of that name, is steamed on cloth over a clay pot by Mudaliar kitchens and eaten with chammanthi powder; Malayalam Wikipedia notes it keeps longer than the ordinary cake. Button idli, stuffed masala idli, and hotel fusions such as chilli idli are later restaurant names.
Gallery
How it is steamed, served, and varied — open any image for a larger view.
7 photos
More dishes
Other famous plates from Kerala’s kitchen.