South Indian Breakfast! Rava Idly

I decided to make rava idly today. It's an easy way to make idly on the spot, as the regular version requires two days of soaking and fermenting. My mom gave me this recipe, and I love it. I found out today (after making the idly of course) that my South Indian food loving husband apparently 'hates' rava idly. But he claims he'll still eat it since he loves the green pepper sambar that is accompanying the idlys. Ah well, you can't please them all the time. Besides -- I like rava idly and I just really enjoyed my lunch. You can make coconut chutney to go with this, but since I love thakkali thokku with it I had that! Now all I need is a good cup of coffee...hmmmm....

Rava Idly

1 cup rava, 1.5 cups buttermilk, 1 tsp eno fruit salt, mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, curry leaves, asafoetida, 1 green chili, ginger, cashewnuts

1. Roast rava (sooji) in a pan over low heat. I recommend #4. Otherwise it will burn very quickly.
2. In a small fry pan, splutter the mustard seeds, then add a little urad dal, and channa dal, asafoetida ( a pinch), curry leaves, chopped green chili, finely diced ginger, and cashew nuts. (You can omit this completely if you want plain rava idly)
3. Once the rava is nicely roasted to a fine brown colour (it all doesn't have to turn brown, just till it smells nice), add the mustard seeds etc. Mix it up.
4. Add buttermilk (or mix water with yogurt) in the porportion of rava: buttermilk, 1 : 1.5
5. Add 1 tsp of Eno (fruit salt) (or more to froth it up, depending on quantity). It will froth up as you mix it. If it doesn't you can add a pinch of baking soda.
6. Spray the idly pans with veggie spray, and put a little water in either a pressure cooker or a rice cooker, and cook the idlies for 30 minutes.

2. Sambar
toor dal, tamarind, mustard seeds, fenugreek, asafoetida, curry leaves, veggies (You can put green pepper, carrot, okra, potato, onion, beans anything!), salt

1. Pressure cook 3/4 a cup of toor dal with water covering by at least 1 inch. 4 whistles.
2. Soak about a 1 inch cube of tamarind in about 1.5 cups of hot water.
3. In some oil, splutter mustard seeds, a little fenugreek, asafoetida (pinch) , and curry leaves. (do the mustard seeds first, then add the rest)
4. Add the veggies.
5. Add 2 heaping spoons (regular spoon) of sambar powder.
6. Add salt and mix
7. Mash the tamarind to relase the juices into the hot water, and strain out the seeds/pulp. Add the remaining tamarind water to the sambar. You may need to add more water here. Judge by the colour of the sambar and taste.
8. Boil the veggies. Add more salt if necessary.
9. When the pressure has dropped, take out the dal. Add the dal to the sambar (again judge the consistency, you may not use all the dal). Turn off the heat and mix. Add salt again if necessary.
Some people do #3 at the end , some do it at the beginning. Doing it at the end means you need to dirty another pan. But the aroma's of the spluttered spices might be more stronger and add to the over all deliciousness of the dish. I think they both taste the same.

3. Chutney
This recipe is from my dad who is also an awesome cook!

coconut, green chilis, split peas dal (pottu kadalai), dry red chilis, ginger, yogurt, salt, mustard seeds, urad daal, channa dal, asafoetida

1. grind coconut, coriander, green chilis, split peas dal (http://www.indiatastes.com/glossary/88.shtml), dry red chilis (if you want more heat), and water together. You can also add ginger if you want.
2. Add salt to taste
3. You can add yogurt to this as well.
4. You can garnish with the spluttered mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal combo.