Ragi idli

Idli is South India's everyday steamed breakfast, built on a fermented rice-and-urad batter. In the ragi-growing belt of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, homes make it with ragi instead: the same urad batter, with the rice swapped for finger millet flour, which turns the idlis warm brown and gives them their earthy, faintly nutty taste.

The catch is the crumb. Ragi has no gluten, and idlis made only from ragi flour come out dry and break at the edges. The fix is the dal. This recipe holds 120 g of ragi flour to 100 g of urad dal, and it whips the urad into a fluffy batter before the flour goes in, so the fermented batter keeps enough air and moisture for a soft, spongy idli. Split white urad soaks in four hours and grinds smooth; whole urad needs about twelve.

Fermentation does the lightening, so give the batter eight to twelve hours in a warm spot and look for a risen, pleasantly sour batter before you steam. To lighten the crumb further, replace a quarter cup of the ragi flour with rava; rava is wheat, so leave it out for a gluten-free batch. The same flour makes a crisp ragi dosa with no fermenting at all.