I live in US. whenever I make idli dough the traditonal way, the dough does not ferment even in summer. I tried to place the dough in oven(set at 100 degrees). The doughs becomes sour, but does not ferment.

I tried using yeast as below

sprinkled 1/2 tsp of dry yeast to 2 tsp of lukewarm water. I do not see the

yeast water bubbling after 15 minutes. If I add this water to the dough, it does not rise. Please help

Yeast is a funny animal.. sometimes it could be too hot for it (or maybe it needs feeding with sugar)

You could try adding the foll:

1. 1/2 tsp of methi seeds to the urad dal while soaking it. You can then grind the methi seeds along with the urad dal

2. After grinding the urad dal & rice, when you mix both of them together add 1/2 a tsp of sugar. The sugar will help in the fermentation process. However, do not add any salt at this point. You may add salt, once the dough is ready to be steamed.

I hope the above works.

is it necessary to soak the dal and rice seperately?

can't we soak it together?

Hello Smitha

Sorry for not replying earlier, I have been away in the jungles of Brazil, with no access to internet.

1. Like Nikita says, adding a little methi seeds helps. I have been doing it for last 3-4 years, but have not written it in the recipe for some reason! I will correct it now. I only started adding methi seeds at the suggestion of a South Indian friend. It seems to help, I don?t know how or why!

2. If your yeast does not froth within 15 minutes of being added to warm water, either your water is too hot/too cold or your yeast is out of date. As AskCy says, adding sugar feeds it and it works better.

3. I have not tried adding sugar to batter, as suggested by Sia, but will add the suggestion to the footnote of the recipe. It should help, as it feeds the fermentation processes.

4. I have never had any trouble getting the mix to rise. The important thing is to keep the batter in a warm place, covered. Too hot or too cold will not allow fermentation of the batter.

5. Sia, dal and rice are ground separately, because dal needs to be very fine, while rice needs to be slightly grainy.

I wrote this recipe in the earlier days of this site, so I will update it.

Hope you have better idlies next time!

Mamta

See; Idli