Surti White Idla
Surti White Idla, known as khatta idra or idada, famous street style snack of the Surat city of Gujarat, made with rice, lentils & some spices
If you have ever been to Surat, you know how the Sunday mornings look like for the locals. Many local people of Surat, city of Gujarat, gather around these street vendors who sells delicious farsan (snacks). White Idla/khatta idra/idada is one of those very famous farsan/snack. It is truly one of a kind Surti goodie that you ought to try. They are softest, spongiest, most delicious snacks of all time!
The main ingredients of these soft, spongy, cloudy goodie are rice and urad dal (lentils). And they are simply falvored with ginger and thai green chili. The sourness comes from fermentation and sour yogurt. You can certainly skip yogurt and use lemon if you like. Which will make it truly dairy-free, gluten-free, plant based goodie! Either it is summer or winter, these goodies are always enjoyed through out the year. People enjoy it with masala chai and side of green chutney on colder mornings. And with mango ras/pulp during summer time. I highly suggest you follow the green chutney recipe I have below with this White Idla. Because the combination of both is truly the best!
You can use the same Idla batter without ginger, chili, yogurt and oil to make idli and dosa. Or use same exact batter to make Uttapam with choice of crunchy veggies as toppings. I love multi purpose food items and this one is surely one of those. It is also great for meal prep. Make it on weekend and use it on weekdays. Just make sure you bring the batter to room temperature if you have it kept it in the fridge. Or you can simply make these Idla in big quantity and use the leftover like LEFTOVER MASALA IDLI. I mean the options are endless!
I hope you try this one of a kind Surti dish and enjoy it as much as I do! If you like classic Surti steamed goodies, you should check out my SURTI LOCHO and SURATI KHAMAN recipes. They just as good as this one. If you end up trying these White Idla or any of my recipes, leave me a comment below or tag me on Instagram @myvegetarianroots. I would love to hear your feedback!
Happy & Healthy Eating!
Please click here for detailed recipe
Surti White Idla
Ingredients
Fermenting Ingredients
- 3 cup White Rice either idli rice or jasmine rice
- 1 cup Urad Dal or Whole Urad without skin
- ¼ cup Thick Poha
- 1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
- 1½ cup Water more or less, as needed
Other
- ⅓ cup Whole Milk Plain Desi Yogurt
- ¼ cup Peanut Oil
- 1¾ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1½ tbsp Chopped Thai Green Chili
- 1 tbsp Grated Ginger
- ¼ tsp Asafetida/Hing
- 3 tsp Eno Fruit Salt ¼ to ½ tsp for each steamed thali
Tempering
- 2 tbsp Peanut Oil any preferred oil
- 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 2 tsp Sesame Seeds
- ¼ tsp Asafetida
- 6 Curry Leaves
- 3 Slit Thai Green Chili or Serrano
Garnishing
- ½ cup Fresh Chopped Cilantro
- Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
Green Chutney
- ½ bunch Fresh Cilantro
- ½ cup Raw Peanuts
- 1 tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Ground Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1 Serrano Pepper or 1-2 thai green chili
- 1 tbsp Lime Juice
Instructions
Make Green Chutney
- Blend all green peanut chutney ingredients in a blender till smooth. Add water while blending to get desired consistency. Keep it refrigerated until ready to use.
Ferment the White Idla batter
- Separately wash white rice and Urad dal multiple times.
- Soak white rice along with poha and fenugreek seeds for 5-6 hours. Separately soak Urad dal for 5-6 hours.
- After 5-6 hours, first grind urad dal in smooth paste like consistency. Try to use minimal water during this step, max ½ cup. Pour it out in a wide glass container.
- Then grind soaked rice along with poha and fenugreek seeds in almost smooth, just a little grainy consistency. Try to use minimal water during this step, max 1 cup. Pour it out in the same wide glass container you have urad dal paste.
- Now use your hand to mix the idla batter, making sure the batter consistency is poring consistency yet still a little thick. Using your hand to mix it for 3-5 minutes will add warmth to it which helps with fermentation process.
- Cover the wide glass container tight, preferably air tight for 8 hours or over night in a warm place. Either keep it in the sun or in the oven that has light on but the oven itself is OFF.
Spice up and Steam the Idla
- After 8 or more hours of fermenting, add in salt, sugar, asafetida, grated ginger and chopped thai green chili along with ⅓ cup of full fat desi sour yogurt and ¼ cup of oil. Mix it well, make sure you have pan cake batter like pouring consistency. Use water if you need to get that consistency.
- Start boiling water in the steamer. Spread some oil in the thali you are going to steam the idla in, place it in the steamer while the water is boiling so that the thali starts to warm up.
- While water is boiling, take some batter out (just enough for 1 thali of idla) in a small bowl. Add in ¼ tsp of Eno fruit salt and mix vigorously in just one direction. This will form up the batter.
- Immediately pour the frothy batter into the thali that is inside the steamer. Spread it evenly in the thali, sprinkle some freshly cracked black pepper and/or red chili powder all over the thali.
- Cover the steamer tight so that the steam holds inside. Steam it for upto 10-12 minutes.
- Once steamed, take the thali out of the steamer, spread some oil on top and let it cool down for 5-7 minutes.
- After few minutes, cut the idla in either square or diamond shapes. Take it out in a big wide bowl. Repeat the steaming process until all the batter is steamed into Idla. I usually end up with 6 thali of Idla, which can vary based on size of your steamer and thali, also depends on how thick or thin you make each thali of idla.
- Prepare for tempering as described in next step once all the Idla is steamed, cut and placed in a big wide bowl. You can do tempering/tadka on each thali before cutting it or like me do it all at once after all idla is steamed.
Add tempering and garnishing
- Heat up 2-3 tbsp of oil in a small pan. Once hot, add in mustard seeds and sesame seeds.
- Once they are done popping half way through, add in slit thai green chilis/serrano along with curry leaves. Let it cook in oil for few seconds, then add in asafetida. Mix well and pour it on top of steamed idla evenly so that all square gets hint of tempering.
- Garnish it with freshly chopped cilantro, serve it with mango ras or chai with side of Green Chutney (recipe mentioned above)!