Idli with Brown Rice

I wonder, how most hate able things will turn into most loveable and most loveable, no longer exist. When I am a kid, like many other kids, love watching cartoon all the time, eating lot of chocolates and ice creams, playing with mud and in rain, Climbing trees and walls ( I got many warning for this from my parents), steeling mangoes from the neighbors tree, breaking the glass items and hiding them, Steeling honey from the honey pot and licking it (My mom used to tell me don't eat lot of honey), giving my milk to cats... This list will be so long. All these loveable things are now sweet memories. I didn't tell my most hate able things, right. School and idli. 

In South Indian families, idli is the most popular and common breakfast. My mom used to make idli every day whether it is Monday or Sunday as my dad love to eat only idli as breakfast. (Secret, But she used to make another breakfast for me, poor mom). But now, I don't know what happened, I love idli very much. 

Idli is a comfort and light food with no oil, but we feel hungry very soon. We can make idli more healthy and filling by using brown rice instead of idli rice or idly rava. In Andhra, we soak idli rava and mix it with urad dal paste. For brown rice idli, we soak brown rice, grind it and mix it with urad dal.

We all know that brown rice is healthier than white, but the problem was we all used to white rice. It's not possible to move completely to healthier food in one day. But if we really want to change our food habits, we can change some of the ingredients with healthy ingredients like brown rice, Quinoa, oats, Millet's and can make tasty recipes.

Why we must choose brown rice over white

White rice is fully polished and most of the vitamins, fiber, iron, phosphors, manganese are destroyed. For  brown rice only the outer layer, Hull is removed. Brown rice is a good source of proteins, calcium, iron, fiber, vitamins. Good for weight loss and releases sugars slowly.

The leaves for decoration is my little cook idea. She saw me taking photos and brought those leaves and decorated the plate.

Inactive Time - 3 hours to over night; Fermentation Time : Over night
Prep Time - 10 Minutes; Cook Time : 15 Minutes

Ingredients

• Brown Rice - 2 cups
• Urad dal/Minnapappu/Black gram - 1/2 cup (Without skin)
• Salt to taste

Preparing batter:

• Soak brown rice and urad dal over night or at least 3 hours and grind into paste by adding little water.
• Ferment the batter by keeping it in warm place over night. 

Preparing Idly:

• Add sufficient salt and little water(if needed) to batter. Batter should be thick.
• Fill the idli molds with this batter and stem it for 15 minutes.

Note:

• If don't have idli molds, fill the batter in small bowls or in one large bowl. Boil water in another large bowl and place the batter filled bowls and place the lid and cook for 15 and 25 minutes if using large single bowl to cook idly.
• Grease the idli molds to prevent from sticking.
• We can also place banana leaves or jack fruit leaves in idli mold and then add batter to them. They will add flavor and prevent idli from sticking to idli plates.