TranslateIdli is the gentlest introduction to Tamil food — a pillow-soft, steamed cake of fermented rice and black gram, entirely oil-free and easy to digest. It is served in twos and threes with sambar, coconut chutney and a spoon of milagai podi, and is eaten at breakfast tables from Chennai apartments to village tea shops across the state.
Type
Vegetarian
Meal occasion
Breakfast and light dinner
Region
Statewide; Kanchipuram and Chennai are known for distinct styles
Key ingredients
Parboiled rice, urad dal, fenugreek seeds, salt
Parboiled rice and urad dal are soaked, ground separately and combined into a thick batter that ferments overnight. The batter is spooned into round moulds and steamed for about ten minutes. Nothing is fried and no oil enters the process.
A good idli is white, spongy and faintly sour, springing back when pressed. It carries flavour rather than supplying it, which is why the sambar, chutneys and gunpowder alongside matter so much.
Kanchipuram idli is a firmer, cylindrical version seasoned with black pepper, cumin, ginger and ghee, historically prepared as temple offering. Thatte idli is a wide, flat disc. Rava idli uses semolina and skips fermentation, and Sanna idli or button idlis are tiny idlis dunked in sambar and served as a bowl.
In Madurai and Dindigul you will find idlis served with kari kuzhambu, and along the coast idlis are eaten with fish curry.
Traditional tiffin rooms in Mylapore and Triplicane in Chennai, Kanchipuram temple-town eateries for the peppery Kanchipuram idli, and mess halls in Madurai and Thanjavur all serve idli fresh from the steamer. Look for shops with a queue in the morning — high turnover means idlis that have not been sitting.
