TIP: Ferment Idli Dosa Batter

In Holland where the weather is cold most of the time, it is difficult to get the idli batter to ferment properly. This tip describes how you can achieve a decent amount of fermentation using a simple technique.

The required environment for fermentation is missing and so we need to artificially create one. Everyone has a microwave in their house. The trick is to use the microwave chamber to store the batter to get fermented. For quick start we need to heat this chamber sufficient enough to sustain a decent amount of warmth. Set the microwave to 1000 Watts (or maximum is your oven is of lesser wattage). Set the duration to 10 minutes and set the microwave on. When the microwave is on for this period of time without anything to absorb the microwaves, the chamber itself starts heating up. By conduction the entire microwave may seem to heat up.

Note: It is important that you do not keep any plastic boxes or fruits on top of your microwave oven. These may get spoilt because of the heat.

Once the microwave is heated, open it carefully (do not burn yourself as the glass plate would be pretty hot by this time) and put a decently thick paper (8-10 layers of newspaper will do) on top of the glass plate. Now place the vessel with batter on top of this paper and close the microwave.

Do this in the night so you can leave the batter to ferment overnight.

Note: We keep the paper to avoid melting of vessel (if it is plastic) or to avoid thermal shock (if the vessel is stainless steel).

Gotchas

• Do not by mistake turn the microwave on with the batter in it as it would cook the batter rendering it completely useless.
• 1000 Watts, 10 minutes idle working is the maximum for a microwave. There may be potential risk of permanent damage to the microwave if this is not taken care of. Please read safety precautions of your microwave oven.

Idea!
This trick or tip can also be used to make curd if you have an active curd mixture.

Note: Some people prefer to keep the batter close to the hot water plate of room heating for it to ferment. The tip described here gives better results.