Cornmeal Idli and Two Years of Blogging!!

Hello Everyone..You read it right..'Lakshmi Canteen' turned 'Two' today. Looking back- I still remember the day my husband gave me the idea of starting a blog in which I document all the Konkani recipes. I just nodded and thought to myself- "Really?"..Then I started working on it after a month and finally Lakshmi Canteen was born. With each passing day, I started to make my posts better. I also started to work more on the presentation of the final dish. And finally this is where I reached..But I always keep reminding myself- There is no end to learning. Whether it is cooking or something else. Each day is a surprise and I am looking forward to more vegeterian experiments in my kitchen. I would like to thank everyone for joining me in this exciting culinary journey :-)

Coming back to my recipe- Cornmeal Idli. This recipe is similar to my Rava Idli post. I got this recipe from here. I was totally impressed by her recipe (she has a good collection of video recipes). Never knew that we can make idlis using cornmeal. I made slight variations to the original recipe and the idlis turned out very tasty. Indeed a filling breakfast :-) Do try making these yellow beauties and enjoy!!

Ingredients:

• Yellow coarse Cornmeal*- 1 cup
• Yogurt/curd, thick- 3/4 cup
• Eno fruit salt- 3/4 tsp
• Water- 3/4 cup (vary accordingly)
• Coriander leaves (Cilantro)- 6-7 Sprigs
• Ginger, grated- 1/2 tsp
• Oil- 3-4 tsp
• Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves- Few
• Green Chillies- 3-4
• Urad dal/Split black gram- 1 tsp
• Chana dal/ Bengal gram- 1-2 tsp
• Salt- To taste
• Roasted Cashew nuts- As required

*You can substitute semolina(rava) for cornmeal, if you can't find it.

Procedure:

Chop green chilli, cilantro and grate ginger.

Heat oil and add mustard seeds. Once it starts spluttering, add chana dal, urad dal, chopped green chillies, grated ginger and curry leaves. Fry until chana dal and urad dal turns slight brown.

Once it turns light brown, add cornmeal and fry it until a nice aroma is got. This step might take 3-4 minutes. Cornmeal has to be constantly stirred and heat should be medium.

Once a nice aroma is got, turn off the heat and add chopped coriander leaves. Allow it to cool. Once it cools, add yogurt, water, salt.

Mix well. Let this mixture sit for half an hour.

Now grease the idli moulds with oil and keep the roasted cashew in each small mould.

Now add the eno fruit salt to the batter and mix well. Then start putting the batter in each mould (fill upto 3/4 th of it).

Stack them up and steam it for 15 minutes. Then allow it to cool for 5 minutes and then remove the idlis from the moulds using a spoon.

Cormeal Idlis are ready!!

Serve it hot with Coconut chutney or mint chutney. I served it with Sambhar. Above measurement makes 13 medium sized idlis.