Ingredients:

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
   1      cup           black gram dal
   2      cups          raw rice -- (or)
   1      cup           boiled rice and 1 cup raw rice
                        oil -- for greasing cups
                        salt -- to taste

Preparation:

Soak black gram dal and the two rices (mixed) separately in water for 3 hours. Wash the soaked dal and grind to a fine paste. Keep aside. Grind the soaked rice to a coarse paste. Mix both the pastes using hands. Add salt and keep under cover overnight. Next day, beat the batter well. Grease idli cups (you can use egg poachers if you want) with oil, fill them (about 3/4 full) with the idli batter and steam in an idli vessel (basically, a big steamer) for about 20 minutes. If raw rice only is used, there is no need to grind it. Just wash it and crush it in a mortar and then mix it with the ground black gram paste. Variation: Pour the batter in the container of a pressure cooker (previously greased with oil) about 3/4 full and steam for 15 - 20 minutes as above. Take out and cut into pieces with a spatula.