Tatte Idly - made with Sujji rava and White lentils

Don't get distracted by the name of this idly. Tatte Idlies are regular idly but steamed in tatte (plate) instead of regular idly stand. You can buy tatte mould at any Indian grocery here in USA. I got mine from India during my recent trip and thoroughly enjoying different shape of idly. The recipe however is new to most of you. I am using sujji rava instead of idly rava (rice based rava). By the way, tatte idly is prepared with regular idly batter, I am making mine with sujji rava and white lentils for a change. Now straight to the recipe, let me know how your idly came out.

Ingredients-

 2 cups sujji rava
1 cup urad dal
salt to taste

Method - Soak urad dal for about an hour. Meanwhile steam cook sujji rava in a pressure cooker without the whistle for about 10 - 15 minutes. Make sure rava doesn't get wet in the process. Grind soaked dal into smooth paste. Add cooled sujji rava to the paste ans mix well. Ferment it overnight. Usually the batter doubles in size and that's how you know batter is ready for idly. Add salt to taste just before you pour it on all tatte for steaming. Steam for 15 minutes and idly are ready. Enjoy it with coconut chutney and / or chutney puddi and a dash of fresh butter - yum yum!

Helpful hints - You can either steam sojji rava or pan fry it (without oil). Failure to do this will make idly come out sticky and hard. Oil tatte before pouring idly batter. Allow idlies to cool down for 5 minutes as soon as you turn off the fire. Don't refrigerate batter if its excess - I personally felt that idlies don't comes out as fluffy as the one before. So use all batter to make idies and you can always refrigerate idlies :)