Every South Indian has had that moment. You bite into a hotel idli and it practically dissolves on your tongue. Then you go home, follow the same recipe you have always used, and end up with something dense, flat, or faintly rubbery. What is going on? The difference is almost never the recipe. It is […]

If your idlis have been coming out flat, dense, or rubbery, the problem is almost never the recipe. It is almost always the batter. Specifically it is either the quality of the urad dal, the soaking time, the grinding technique, or the fermentation conditions. Get those four things right and the rest takes care of […]

If you have ever eaten idli, dosa, medu vada, or dal makhani, you have already eaten urad dal. It is one of the most widely consumed pulses in India, used across regional cuisines from South India to Punjab, and it has been a staple of Indian cooking and Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years. Yet […]