Stuffed Idlis / Sandwich idli

I cooked and clicked three dishes in advance for this week's  'Stuffed dishes' theme only to toss them away and cook something else again this week. That's what I do somehow when I plan ahead and so I blissfully keep procrastinating most of the time. 😉 These stuffed idlis are replacing the momos I prepared earlier under stuffed dumpling category.

My husband recently watched a television cook show where the chef used the ubiquitous and the popular Indian potato curry as stuffing in some unusual dishes. He suggested to try them out only to get a negative response from me. Later I was mentioning the incident to my mother who also started wondering who in the world enjoys those dishes. Then the topic moved to these stuffed idlis and I felt the inclination to try these for the first time though I have seen other stuffed idli versions before.

I had prepared potato curry a couple of days ago and coincidentally I happened to have some idli batter on hand as well. And these idlis happened on a whim during our lunch time though lunch was already on the table. See how crazy we bloggers sound? 😀 I was not even thinking about blogging these this week but still took some pictures in case. 

The potato curry used for stuffing needs to be a dry preparation and the recipe can be found here. I have used idli batter made with idli rice and skinned black gram aka urad dal but any idli batter of one's choice can be used here. The idli moulds are filled with the batter up to half, a small portion of curry is placed at the center and batter is poured over it to cover and then steamed, resulting in a idli, stuffed with spicy potato curry giving the bland idlis a delicious touch. This can make a mess free snack / lunch box item for little ones without the need of any side dishes. If serving adults, keep the curry on a spicier side, spicier than one usually prefers to balance the blandness of idlis. Otherwise the taste of the idlis would be mediocre. Also serve it along with some coconut chutney or sambhar to make it more enjoyable. 

Ingredients:
Fermented idli batter
Potato curry
Ghee / Oil to grease idli plates

Directions:
* Heat water in a steamer or a idli cooker or a cooker base. 
* Grease the idli moulds. Pour batter into a mould, filling only up to half of it. Take a big lemon sized portion of curry and gently pat into a disc shape. Place it at the center of the mould and pour extra batter over it, enough to fill the mould. (More curry can be stuffed than shown in the picture.)

* Repeat the steps with the remaining batter and the curry.
* Place the idli stand in the steamer, cover the lid and cook on low flame until done. If using cooker, don't put on the whistle. Add extra water to the steamer if water evaporates in the middle of steaming, taking care not to pour over the cooking idlis. One way to figure out if the idlis are done is to touch the idlis with moist fingers. If they don't stick then idlis are done. If they are sticking then they need more steaming. (I usually steam for about 20 minutes on low flame while making idlis.)
* Turn off the stove and let them sit for about 5 - 10 minutes before removing them from moulds.
* Enjoy the stuffed idlis with chutney and/or sambhar.

This post is an entry for Blogging Marathon #105 under 'Stuffed Dishes - Dumplings' theme. Check what other marathoners are cooking, clicking at the link.

Comments