Idli

Ingredients
Udad Dal - 1 cup
Idli Rawa or Rice - 2 cups
Poha - 1/4 cup
Salt to taste

Procedure
If using Rice - Soak udad dal and rice together in a bowl, add sufficient amount of water. Soak for around 3-4 hours. After this wash them well and add Poha to this with water. Leave this for a couple of minutes. Remove the excess water. In a Grinder/Mixture jar take the above ingredients and grind well for smooth paste. Add water is required during grinding.

If using Idli Rawa - Soak udad dal in a bowl for 3-4 hours. Add Poha to this and leave it for a couple of minutes. Remove all the excess water from this. In a Grinder/Mixture jar take the above ingredients and grind well till hard and smooth paste and put this aside. Wash the idli rawa and hard squeeze the water from this. Add this to the already prepared hard and smooth paste of udad dal. Mix well.

Now we need to ferment this overnight (Good fermentation means the paste has to swell good). Next day morning add salt and some water to the paste. In the idli container put a little oil so that the idli's don't stick to the container. Put the idli paste on the idli container and heat this for around 15 min. And your idli's are ready to serve.

Author's Note
Idli Chutney, Coconut Chutney, Ground Chutney can be used as side dish along with Idli.
A small variation to the normal/plain Idli would be to make Masala Idli. Prepare the batter as explained above and allow it to ferment overnight. Follow the below steps -
In a frying pan, take 3 tbsp oil, add 1 tbsp of Jeera (cumin seeds), 1/2 tbsp of Chana dal, 1/4 tbsp Rai (mustard seeds), 1/4 cup coarsely chopped onions, 5 or 6 nos. of Green Chillies chopped, 2 small carrots grated and salt to taste. Fry these for around 5 min.
Allow this to cool for some time and then add it into the batter. Mix well and using Idli maker/container prepare the delicios Masala Idli's.