Dense, peppery temple-style idli steamed in a bowl and cut into wedges, spiked with cumin, dry ginger and cashew, and heavy with ghee.
Ingredients
From the TrooFoodz pantry
- Sprouted Foxtail Millet Rava 1½ cups
Fresh
- Urad dal, soaked 4 hours ¾ cup
- Black peppercorns, coarsely cracked 1½ tsp
- Cumin seeds 1 tsp
- Dry ginger powder ½ tsp
- Asafoetida ½ tsp
- Curry leaves, torn 2 sprigs
- Cashew halves 15
- Thick curd 3 tbsp
- Ghee 3 tbsp
- Rock salt 1½ tsp
- Banana leaf or butter paper, for lining 1 sheet
Method
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Grind coarse
Grind the urad dal to a batter that is thick and slightly grainy rather than silk-smooth. Kanchipuram idli wants body, not lightness.
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Soak the millet
Soak the Sprouted Foxtail Millet Rava twenty minutes and drain, then fold it into the urad batter with the curd.
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Ferment warm
Cover and ferment 8 hours in a warm place until it smells pleasantly sour and has risen by about a third.
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Season heavily
Stir in salt, cracked pepper, cumin, dry ginger and asafoetida. The spicing should taste assertive in the raw batter — steaming mutes it.
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Fry the cashews
Brown the cashews in ghee with the curry leaves and tip the lot, ghee included, straight into the batter.
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Steam in a bowl
Line a deep steel tumbler or bowl, pour the batter in to two-thirds, and steam 25 to 30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
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Rest and wedge
Cool ten minutes before unmoulding — hot, it will tear. Cut into thick wedges and serve with idli milagai podi.
Why this works
This idli is deliberately denser than the plate version, so a coarser grind and a longer steam suit it. Steaming in a deep vessel means the centre cooks by conducted heat over half an hour, setting the batter into a sliceable cake rather than a puff. The ghee-fried tempering goes in raw batter so the fat distributes evenly and carries the pepper and cumin through the whole block.
Make it your own
- Sprouted Foxtail Millet Rava → Sprouted Ragi Rava Darker, maltier wedge; steam five minutes longer.
- Ghee → Coconut oil Plant-based version; use curd substitute too for a fully vegan batter.
- Cashews → Roasted chana dal Crunchier and less rich, more traditional in some households.
- Dry ginger powder → Fresh grated ginger Brighter and hotter, less resinous.
