Instant Ragi Oat Idli

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Since the first time I made this  Instant Oats Idli (steamed cakes)  I have been making it regularly at home, so much so, that  the word instant idli  almost became synonymous with oats idli in my home.Almost but not quite:-)

Anyway for a while now I have been wanting to try making idli with cracked wheat and ragi. I wanted to make it as low carb and healthy as possible, not only for our sake but also because a few of my friends have been requesting something that is very low carb and diabetic friendly.

Ragi or Finger millet is said to be very healthy, you can read about its health properties here and here. In the past I have used it to make this dosai/ crepe  and some other varieties of dosai I have yet to post. For the first time I tried it in idli and loved this soft, simple and quick to make idli very much. I know that  this is going to provide serious competition to the oats idli I mentioned earlier, in my home :-)





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Ingredients and Method to make Ragi Oat Idli
3/4 cup cracked wheat powdered to rava consistency or wheat rava (broken wheat / dalia / fada)
3/4 cup quick oats powdered coarsely
1/2 cup ragi flour (finger millet flour/ nachani/ keppai)
1 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp baking soda

seasoning
2 tsp oil
1 tsp split chick pea lentil (Chana dhal/ Kadalai parappu)
1 tsp split black gram lentil (Udad dhal/ ulatham parappu)
1 tsp mustard seeds (rai/ sarson/ kadagu)
4 Indian or Thai variety green chillies cut fine (or to taste) (hara mirch/ pachai molagai)
4 tsp broken cashew nuts
1 tsp dried curry leaves (or 1 stalk fresh curry leaves cut fine) (optional) (kadi patta/ karapillai)

Just before steaming add
In 1: 1 ratio plain yogurt (curd/ dahi) (Total 2 cups for this quantity)
for this entire quantity about 5 tbsp of freshly grated coconut ( or to taste) (see notes)
handful cilantro cut fine

Powder cracked wheat to semolina (rava ) consistency and keep aside.

Similarly powder quick oats coarsely and keep aside.

In a large container or bowl, mix together powdered cracked wheat, powdered oats and fingermillet (Ragi) flour. Add salt and baking soda to this and mix well.

In a small pan, heat oil, add chana dhal, stir for a few seconds then add usad dhal and stir for a few seconds. When the udad dhal is begining to turn reddish add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds splutter add green chillies, when green chillies start to turn color add cashews and stir till cashews begin to redden. Then quickly add curry leaves stir a couple of times and pour the entire oil + lentils+ cashew mixture on the dry powder and mix well.

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At this point the mixture can be stored in an airtight container for a week or so if required and only what is needed can be removed and used.This yields 2 cups of dry mixture

If you are planning to use entire mixture at once then, just before steaming add yogurt to the dry mixture and mix well.

Then add coconut and cilantro and immediately pour the batter on pre-greased idli plates ( I do not grease my idli plates and it still works fine for me), place idli plates in pressure cooker  and steam without the weight for about 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool for a minute or so and then remove idli from mould and serve hot with chutney or sambar of choice

Total yield approximately 16 (Yield will depend on the size of the idli moulds, mine are medium size so larger moulds will yield less and smaller moulds more )

Notes
The grated coconut adds a very nice flavor to this idli so skipping that may change the taste of the idli quite a bit.

This idli along with my Ragi dosai is off to the JFI- Ragi event being hosted by Madhuram

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Instant Oats Idli

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Generally speaking the word idli evokes images of steamed savory rice and lentil cakes that are a staple to south Indian homes. These idlis have universal appeal and are favored by most mothers since it tends to be non spicy and a great source of protein especially for vegetarians. The traditional method of making this includes soaking the lentils and rice for several hours, then to stone grind (or machine grind ) this into a smooth batter and then fermenting this batter for about 8 to 10 hours before it is ready to be steamed.

This labor intensive process used to be even more arduous in the days before food processors and machines. I remember seeing my mother grind this on a stone "grinder". I use the term grinder loosely here since all the efforts would be of the person grinding. It was a solid stone container with a large rim and a deep hole in the center to contain the batter that looked like an inverted hat and another large pear shaped stone which would be used to grind the rice and lentils into batter. The soaked lentils/ rice needed to be placed in the center of the stone in the deep hole and place the pear shaped stone over that lentils / rice and crush it and keep rotating the pear shaped stone to make batter.The stone container was so heavy that it could not even be lifted and had to be rolled from its usual resting position to the center of the room to use and rolled back to its usual rest later on. As I watched my mother make batter in this way I used to marvel at how she managed to make this difficult process look really simple . Of course after all that trouble the end product used to be so soft, tender and fluffy. Nowadays though, the stone grinder of the past has almost become extinct and has been replaced by a lot of machine versions that do the same job at a touch of a button.

As with any other type of dish idli's also have instant versions that are quick and flavorful and that do not need grinding and fermenting. One such version is the rava idli that refers to steamed cake made with semolina and yogurt and spices for flavor. This really quick method to make idlis is a life saver on days when time is short.

Using the basic idea of rava idli, I have been substituting it with oats to make for a healthier idli. This was something I tried as yet another way to include the all important oats in our diet. But I loved the soft idlis made with oats so much that I now only make these type of oat idlis whenever I make instant idlis. The oats is so well blended in this dish that you do not miss the semolina, in addition when flavored correctly the addition of oats is not obvious making this an excellent way to sneak oats in with picky eaters :-) So give this a try when you are in the mood for some quick and healthy dish and all you need is some chutney or sambar to make this a complete meal.

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Ingredients and Method to make Instant Oats Idli

3 cups oats (1 minute quick cooking oats)

1 1/2 cups fine semolina (rava)

5-6 green chillies cut very fine (the small thai variety) ( or according to taste)

2 tsp split chick pea lentil (chana dhal)

6 tsp broken cashew nuts

2 tsp mustard seeds

2 tsp salt ( or according to taste)

1 tsp baking soda

handful cilantro cut fine

2 tbsp olive oil (or any other oil)

plain yogurt (about 4 1/2 cups for the entire quantity of oats idli powder)

Dry roast the one minute oats in a heavy bottomed pan on medium to medium high heat stirring continuously until it turns creamy/light brown. Keep aside to cool for a few minutes.

In the meanwhile dry roast the semolina on medium to medium high heat for 3-4 minutes stirring continuously, then remove from heat and keep aside to cool.

When the oats is cooler, grind coarsely in a spice grinder in batches. Take care to process these in short bursts as they grind very quickly and they only need to be ground to a coarse consistency.

Mix the cooled semolina and coarsely ground oats together.

Add to this mixture salt to taste and baking soda and mix well.

Heat oil, add mustard seeds to it, when mustard seeds begin to splutter add split chick pea lentil (chana dhal) and cashews to it and saute for a few seconds.

When the lentil and cashews begin to turn brownish, add cut green chillies to it and saute for about a minute until the green chillies start to change color.

Pour this oil + lentil + green chillies mixture on the dry mixture of oats and semolina. Mix very well.

Take out the required amount of this mixture and mix with equal parts of plain yogurt. Add cut cilantro and mix well.

Grease idli moulds and place spoonfuls of this mixture into each mould and steam for about 6 to 7 minutes.

Remove from heat, cool for about a minute, remove each idli and serve with sambar or chutney of choice.

For about 1 1/2 cups of this mixture the yield was approximately 12 medium sized idli's

Notes:

The unused portion of the oats idli powder can be refrigerated and will stay fine for about a week to 10 days.

Do remember that once the idli powder is mixed with yogurt it needs to be steamed immediately otherwise it will not rise well so only mix required quantities of mixture with yogurt.

The fine semolina can be substituted with coarse semolina ( I used fine because I like the softness and texture from the fine semolina )

You can very easily double or half this recipe to make quantities that you require. Just maintain the proportion of 2: 1 for oats to semolina

This turned out to be very mild with the number of green chillies I used so if you like your idli's really spicy then you may want to increase the number of green chillies in this recipe

If you do not have an idli mould you could very easily place the mixture in a greased curved stainless steel plate, steam until done and cut into squares before serving.

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Oats dosai ( Savory Oat Crepes)

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