Inspired by the Independence spirit in air, due to the upcoming 65th republic day of India on January 26, I explored bringing this spirit to cooking. There are various events happening around the town, organized by local Indian Community via IAVA and am looking to forward to celebrating this with total patriotic spirit on 26th January via the Republic day celebrations of IAVA. Something that is simple, colorful, healthy and with a good deal of wow factor as well, is the Triranga Idlis. Triranga name is inspired from the Indian Flag, which is also fondly called as ” Triranga”, as it is in tricolor, The colors are in the order of orange, white and green. The white portion in the middle also has a blue circle with spokes, known as Ashoka Chakra. The idli colors are based on the flag. The natural color of idlis is white as it is primarily rice based. To this I have added carrots for orange and spinach for green. Special quarter coin size idli moulds have been used for the coin size idlis, as these are very appealing to kids and also serve as a good finger bite appetizers in a party. And it also represents the size of the Ashoka Chakra in the middle!
Normally the use of carrots and peas is done as a topping on a rava idli( a variation of idli made from semolina) and I always found this topping very attractive. To make the entire idli colorful, I have mixed the carrots and spinach with the idli dough, so that it is visually more appealing, and also it disguises the taste of carrots and spinach, in case someone does not find them appealing. And needless to say, I do have members who dislike carrots. so I am hoping this is one way I can get them to eat carrots!
Idlis are very healthy and nutritious item and considered as an important breakfast item, in southern part of India, from where it originated. Its made of rice and black lentil . It texture is soft and fluffy and can be savored with sambhar( lentil soup) or chutney, which is often coconut based. Coriander based green chutney or just melted butter are other good accompaniments with idli. When idlis are fresh and hot, they taste yummy even if they are not accompanied with anything, specially when they are the size of coin shapes, as they just melt like small coin chocolates into your mouth!! The flavour of carrots mixed into the idli dough, tastes very nice. I topped the spinach based idli with gunpowder or hot chilli dry powder to create a contrasting flavour while eating. This dry idli chutney powder is easily available in Indian grocery stores. My challenge here is to have the pure green color on the spinach after the idlis are steamed..This is an area that needs some more thought…If any of you have any suggestions on retaining the green color please share…
And the verdict from the family members- yes to carrots based idlis, so here’s wishing Indian readers, a great patriotic week and day on 26th January 2014!
Recipe makes: 64 coin size idlis
Cooking time : 20 min
Preparation time: 15 min
Passive time: 20 min
Ingredients
- 1 Gits Instant Idli mix
- 1 cup baby green spinach or chopped spinach
- 1/2 cup diced carrots
- Salt to taste
- Oil to grease
- Gunpowder or dry idli chutney powder for garnish (optional)
- Special Equipment: Coin sized idli moulds, or alternatively regular sized idli mould trays and Idli cooker
Method
- Put 3 cups of water to boil.
- Boil chopped spinach for 4 min.
- Strain the spinach, using a tea strainer, which is easy to lift off.
- Re use the same water and boil carrots in it for 7 min.
- Strain the carrots.
- Grease the idli mould with a few drop of oil. You can skip this step if you would like to cut the calories. The pic here shows idli steamed without the initial grease. Greasing helps to remove the idli smoothly from the mould.
- Put to boil 1 litre of water inside the idli cooker, and cover the cooker with a lid. Put this at near high flame, on your second highest burner.
- Pour the content of the mix into a wide and deep bowl. I often use a Large Prep Bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mix water and oil.
- With one hand pour the water/oil mix, at a medium pace in to the large prep bowl, and with the other hand, circularly agitate or stir vigorously the idli mix, as the water is being poured. This step is crucial to idlis being fluffy.
- Continue doing this for about couple of minutes, and you will see the idli mix rising.
- Divide the idli dough equally into three bowls.
- Add spinach to one portion and add carrot to other.
- Using hand blender or normal blender, thoroughly mix spinach with its portion of idli dough.
- Do the same for the carrot and idli dough.
- Pour this mixture into the idli moulds, almost up to the edge. For coin sized idlis you will need idli moulds of that size. The pic here shows the idli mix poured in a regular size idli mould, as I forgot to take pics of the coin sized idlis..
- Lower the gas flame, open the idli cooker with caution using a towel or oven glove.
- Put the idlis moulds with dough, inside the idli cooker
- Cover with the lid and raise the flame to high.
- Cook for 20 minutes and then switch off the flame.
- For further 20 minutes, keep the the cooker closed.
- Then slowly open the cooker, remove the idli moulds
- Wait for about 20 seconds, and then using a butter knife slowly release the idlis from its outer edge.
- Serve with chutney. lentil soup or sambhar, or eat it with a dash of melted butter/clarified butter(ghee) ,which is also equally delicious.
Tips
Instead of carrots, you can even add tomato puree about 1 tbsp to get the orange color and different flavor. I prefer using the instant dough mix, but the same can be added in relative proportion to the fermented dough recipe too.
Instinct Factor
The amount of water needed in the idli mix depends on the water hardiness of your area. Increase the water content if idlis are hard and reduce if they are too wet and slippery after cooking.
Feel Factor
Have fun by adding colors of your choice to an otherwise regular dish in white. A visually appealing, healthy, kid friendly idlis and a new way of presenting the well known rice lentil idlis. The texture of idlis is soft and smooth. The spinach idli has a little dense flavour, while carrot is light and fun, and plain white idlis is the original light fluffy healthy meal in a lot of households.
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