• Wash rice, dal and poha separately and soak them separately. Rice should soak for a minimum of 4-5 hours. Dal and poha for about on 2-3 hours.
• After the said time, drain the excess water from dal. Add it to the grinder and grind it to a fine batter with water. I use wet grinder for grinding idly-dosa batter.
• A well ground urad dal batter fluffs well in the grinder and makes a 'cluck, cluck' sound while grinding, because of the air incorporated into the batter while grinding.
• Transfer the ground urad dal batter to a clean vessel.
• Next drain the excess water from rice and it along with poha to the grinder and grind it to a fine batter.
• While the rice is ¾th done, add the cooked rice to it and grind to a smooth batter.
• Once the rice is ground well to a smooth batter, add the urad dal batter to the grinder, grind for another 5 minutes for both the batters to mix well and then transfer the entire batter to a clean bowl.
• If you prefer to mix them well with your hands, then transfer the ground rice batter to the urad dal batter and mix it well.
• Make sure the vessel in which you transfer the ground batter is large enough to hold the fermented batter too.
• Mix the batter well and leave it on the kitchen counter to fermenthe for about 8-10 hours.

To Make the idly

• Before making the idly. Remove the required batter to another vessel, refrigerate the remaining batter. Add salt and a teaspoon of gingerly oil to the batter, give it a quick stir and let it sit on the counter for 15-20 minutes to come to room temperature
• Grease your idly moulds with little oil. Pour a ladle of batter into each mould. Steam cook for 10-12 minutes or until done.
• Once done, remove the idly from the plates, serve it hot with chutney of your choice. I always prefer podi with idly. Idly smothered with podi and ginger oil is heaven on my plate.