The idli fiasco

Staying in Bangalore for more than 12 years has brought me still closer to the south indian specialities like Idli, dosa and wada. While in Mumbai, we specially went to Udipi restaurants to have paper dosa and idli wada sambar and chutney. These items were not prepared daily in my house and it gave me all the more reason to go out and try it out.

Now that we are in South India, all those items are now a every day thing. Various Batters are available in market here, the most famous brand is ID. And I dutifully got it home every week and on every single day, there was batter available in my kitchen. I could make idli and dosas and paniappams whenever I wanted and especially on those days I was relaxed when it came to breakfast. My son loves dosas. He can have it for all meals. I think it has connection to something before his birth. Before going on the operation table for his delivery, I had eaten dosa and I think that has stayed with him too. Hehe. He eats dosas with tomato ketchup also. He is that fond of it.

After getting aware of the importance of eating organic food and home made food, I managed to find a lady near my society who makes different batters at home and I started buying for her. She gave me various options in Jowar and Bajra and other millet batters like foxtail and little. She also made plain Batter. I completely stopped buying ID batter when I got to know that it has maida. That was the reason people felt bloated after eating it. I would never purchase it now that I have realised that making batter at home is easy and required little planning and help from my cook. 

I soaked oats and mix dal and made batter out of it. It lasted for a week and I made all possible things out of it. A little of it was left and I decided to finish it off by making idlis. I put carrot and peas and gave nice seasoning with curry leaves and mustard seeds. It was looking and tasting so good. Instead of using the microwave this time, I decided to make them in a cooker by steaming them up. But to my horror the idlis did not rise and come out easily. They were sticky and looked very dull. My son is very fussy when it comes to appearances. The food has to look good and tempting to entice him to actually eat it. With that sticky mess he refused to eat it and ate left over chapati and tea with his dad. I had no option to give the "good-looking" ones out of that lot. I was sure that he would bring it back and go hungry. I was put off by this fiasco in the morning and I felt sorry that I chose to mess it up rather than making good ones in the microwave. But I don't have good reviews of cooking in microwave either.

After the school, I brought my son home and first thing I did was to check his tiffin and lo and behold, this little fellow had eaten every single idli that I had given him. He must have been really hungry and he finished it all. 

He taught me an important lesson. The things or situations are always not so shitty as they appear. We can always work around them and make them bearable and enjoyable and memorable. No problem remains a problem after we decide to see it in a different light and in a different perspective.

Thanks Sonny.