Dosa Or Idli Batter With Blender Or Food Processor?

Mixier is the one we call as mixer.

For idli we need to grind urad dal for a long time.Then only it will ferment well and will be soft..

With mixie we can’t use it to nearly atleast 45 mts..it will come out grainy and not good..

Best is always grinder.

 

I use a food processor to grind my Idli / dosa batter. It’s a similar jar as in this photo. Have been using for years n it works perfectly well.

If it’s turning grainy -
try soaking for more hours
n grind in smaller batches (if the jar gets filled a lil too much, it doesn’t do a good job), n I find this faster as well.
Try changing the type or quality of grains also if nothing helps.

 

Consistency of packaged goods like that idly mix in a ziploc pouch would be a lot better than how we do it at home. Consistency is the repeated "sameness" of what we have.
That said, manufactured packaged goods have additives for increasing shelf-life, that are bad for one's health if consumed too much, everyday. If bacteria/fungus does not like the food to grow and raise a family in it, it is likely bad for us too.

That is a beautiful looking mixie. For small family (two adults, and two tots) that is good. I use an Oster mixie to make the urad paste now and then. Rice and Poha do not have to be soaked and ground. You can use the dry grinder attachment that comes with the mixie.
Procedure: (for small family or just two grownups)
get ready to use Idly mix in a plastic pouch. If you don't want to do that, because of health reasons, then...
1. Soak urad (whole urad is better than split urad) in water for 6+ hours. Because, the urad germ at one end of the legume is where the beneficial fermenting bacteria resides, the splitting and the vehement polishing operation disrupts/destroys much of the bacteria.
2. Grind urad with minimal water into a very fine paste. When you take it in the fingers and move, it should feel smooth as kajol paste.
3. Dry powder idly-rawa (broken rice sold in packets at super markets) to cut its size into a fourth or more. No need to grind to a fine powder.
4. Dry powder some poha (flattened rice), same as rice.
5. Mix rice and poha in 4:1 ratio.
6. Add 3 times rice-poha powder to Urad dal paste, add minimal water, and hand mix ( put one clean hand in there, and mix) to a thick paste. At the very end, when the mix is pretty uniform, wash the hand in minimal water, add salt, and then use a large spoon or rubber spatula to mix the batter to uniform consistency.
7 cover the bowl, and let it sit in a warm corner of the kitchen. Allow it to ferment.
8. Mix, each time you take a ladle-full to pour into idly molds.

( minor techniques, like oiling idli molds etc.., or testing idly in microwave oven, not mentioned)

 

I use this method and always get soft idlis and crispy does.
1)if i use grinder- proportion : 3 cups idli rice, 1 cup normal raw rice(soaked together) and one cup urad dhal(soaked separately ). I always use full urad dhal n not the split one. Add 2 3 spoons of fenugreek seeds and soak for 4- 6 hrs. Grind urad dhal first to ball kind of consistency. Then keep it separately . Grind rice . Not smooth but very little grainy. Add this urad dhal and grind 5 mins with salt. Ferment well for 6-8 hrs.
2) mixie /blender method - proportion 3 cups idli rice, one cup urad dhal . Soak separately . Add fenugreek seeds with rice 2 spoons. Soak half a cup poha (aval). Aval only for mixie method. Grind urad dhal to soft. Grind rice with soaked poha. Then mix well and allow to ferment to 6 -8 hrs.

Above proportion I have come up with after my own trials. The same proportions don't work for my mom. So try few trials before you stick to one method

 

Another myth, using hands to mix the batter with salt gives softer idly.

 

The straightforward simple answer is: each grain takes a different time to become soft when soaked in water. You can test this by soaking in separate (little) dishes, rice, urad, masoor, channa, toor, rajma, lima, etc. At each hour of soaking, press your fingernail on a soaked grain, and test if you can split that in two. Urad, masoor, toor, channa, rice, lima, rajma... would be the rough ranking of how fast they become soft enough to be split by a fingernail press.

Wet ground grains being smooth or gritty has to do with the composition of the grain also. Starchy grains are gritty, and grains that have protein and gluten give smooth pastes .

Urad paste is the agglutinating component in the idly. When the idly is cooked, elastic strings of URAD is what is holding the shape of the sponge like object, mostly made of rice. These sorts of sponges are open-cell. That is, when soaked in sambahr, the sambahr will be able to seep into (almost) all the pores. All the pores (cells) are open to inundation by the sambahr.

How fine the rice grain size (distribution) should be?

Here is a thought experiment to answer that above question: Imagine an idly where the rice grain is used as whole. Just soaked for 8 hours, never ground, but simply mixed with some Urad paste, salt, and let sit for another 8 to 12 hours to "ferment". Would it ferment ? Save your answer. Then, cut the rice grain in half, fourths, ...1/16ths, etc.. Would each of these ferment ? Bacteria (from the urad germ) eats starch from the rice, and burps out the carbondioxide, and other nasty stuff... that leads to the fermented batter. You can get more fermentation if there is more starch, or more surface of rice that bacteria can lick and enjoy. Finer grinding of rice offers this increased surface area. However, too fine a grind would make the idly turn out not spongy at all. Is there a technical spec for how fine is good-fine ? Sadly, there isn't. You'll have to live and learn.

My advice: If your mixie says this is how much she can do for your soaked rice, take it and go for it.

 

I use mixer similar to this. I use preeti brand.
I make both idli and dosa from same batter.
I take rice:urad 6-1.5 ratio. Add fenugreek, else poha. Soak it in the same water as urad.
I grind first urad then rice. Grind it in batches. Normally I prefer idli as I can make it in bulk. In case I need to make Dosa. I take batter in a separate vessel and add some more water.

Idli need thick batter. Dosa need more watery batter.

Also make sure you are fermenting well. I keep it in oven with the light on. I live in a cold place. Don't mix too much after the batter fermented. Just take from the top and make idli. It will come out soft.