Oriya Special Breakfast

Ingredients For Idli:
2 cups Idli Suji
1 cup whole white Urad dal
Salt to taste

Preparation of Idli:

Soak urad dal for atleast 4-5 hrs.

Grind urad dal until it become smooth and thick in consistency. Do not add access water while. For me it took 1/2-1 cup water. 

Pour the urad dal batter out into a pot big enough for it to have room for the batter to ferment and rise.

Whip up the batter with your hands till it get light and frothy.To test whether the batter is completely done or not,put a small dollop of batter in a vessel of water,if it floats then the batter is done.

In between soak the idli suji or idli rawa. 

Squeeze out the water from the Idli Rava and add to the Urad Daal batter. Mix it well.

Cover and allow the batter to ferment in a warm place overnight .

Once the batter has fermented, it will rise.

Add Salt to your taste.( I recommend to add salt after it has fermented, because salt decreases the process of fermentation.)

In a stock-pot or a pressure cooker(with out whistle), add about an inch of water and allow it to come to a boil.

Grease the idli stand.Spoon a ladle full of batter into the Idli stand.
Stack up the idli plates in alternates, avoid one directly over the other giving the idli space to rise.

Steam it for 10-12 mins.Let it rest for another 5 mins.

Serve with Sambar and Coconut Chutney.


Ingredients for Puri:

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1/2 cup water (or as needed to make a pliable dough). 
• Oil for deep fry

Preparation of Puri:In a bowl add wheat flour and salt together and combine well together. Add water little by little to gather to form a stiff dough.Then knead it well to form a smooth dough . 

Tips:Do not let the dough sit. Usually for rotis, I insist on letting the dough sit for some time which makes the dough very soft. But for puris do not let the dough sits for longer time which makes it prone to soaking up lots of oil while frying. Use the dough immediately to make the puris.

Separate into equal lemon sized balls(or slightly smaller).Take a ball and roll it out with rolling pins making sure the thickness is even. Don't roll it very thin like we do for rotis/chaaptis.

Do the oil-temperature test to see if it is ready. The oil should be hot but not too hot that it smokes. 

Tips: Drop a small piece of dough into the oil. The dough should fry up immediately and come to the surface. You know the oil is not hot enough when the puri does not puff up, is flat  and instead is also soaking up oil.

Now drop the puri into the oil.

While the puri is slowly coming to the surface, make sure to keep ladling in the hot oil on the surface.This helps the puri to puff up.

Turn it so that it gets evenly reddish brown or golden yellow.

Place it on paper towel to drain off any excess oil.

Serve it with guguni or potato masala or side dish of your choice.