The earliest story of Idli occurs in the Kannada writing ‘Vaddaradhane’ in 970 A.D., where it features as one of the eighteen items served to a Brahmachari who visits the home of a lady. Yet, the three elements of modern Idli-making are missing in these references: use of rice grits along with urad dal, the long fermentation of the mix, and steaming the batter to fluffiness.
To get some answers, we have to travel further back into history. According to the Chinese chronicler Xuang Zang, there were no steaming vessels in India. It is said that the cooks who accompanied the Hindu Kings of Indonesia between 800-1200 AD, brought fermentation and steaming methods and their dish Kedli to South India along with them. While this theory has been speculated by food historian K. T. Acharya, other food historians such as Lizzie Collingham, Kristen Gremillion, and Makhdoom Al-Salaqi (Syria) are sceptical, since references found at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University Library suggest that Arab traders brought in ‘rice balls’ to India when they married and settled down in the southern belt of the country. The Arab settlers were strict in their dietary preferences; many of them came here when Mohammed was still alive and they were neo-converts to Islam from Paganism. They insisted on halaal food, and Indian food was quite alien to their palate. To avoid all such confusion regarding what is halaal or haraam in food, they began to make rice balls as it was easy to make and was the safest option available. After making the rice balls, they would slightly flatten them and eat with bland coconut paste, sound familiar?
No comments:
Post a Comment