Arikalu/Kodo millet idlis

Our third installment of Young Person’s Cookery! We can’t thank Khiyali enough for sharing this with us! Check out previous editions here and here.

Beware, this recipe requires a little planning ahead, but it’s well worth it!

Wash and soak 2 cups unpolished arikalu AKA kodo millet.
Wash and soak 1 cup black gram AKA minapappu/minuvulu.  This should have the peel on it, to retain whole grain healthiness!
Let the millet and black gram soak for eight hours.  After eight hours, grind the millet and black gram till smooth, along with the water it was soaked in.  Add salt to taste.  You can grind this in batches with a blender/mixie, or if you have a wet grinder you can use that.  In a wet grinder it takes 15 minutes to form a thick, smooth batter.
Once it’s all ground, let the batter rise for another eight hours.
Once it has risen, oil some idli pans and put the batter in the idli pans.  Steam in an idli cooker or rice cooker, putting an inch of water in the bottom of the cooker.  Or you can make dosas, or maybe even waffles!