Seepu Seedai

Seepu Seedai

Ingredients
Raw Rice Flour - 4 cup
Urad dal Flour - 3/4 cup
Roasted Gram Flour - 3/4 cup
Diluted Coconut Milk - 2 1/2 cup
Ghee - 4 tsp
Salt to taste

Method
Basic Raw Rice Flour
Soak raw rice in water for about 2 to 3 hours. Drain the water from the rice and spread it on a clean white cloth in shade (not in sun). Let it dry for about 1 hr. Grind in a mixer. In South India we have special flour mills in many places to make wet rice flour. But then I mostly grind it in the mixer. Sieve the flour through a fine siever. Dry roast it in a low fire till it the raw smell of the rice is gone and it becomes like "sand", you should be able to draw line with it.

This is the basic rice flour for many snacks. You can prepare this rice flour before hand and keep it stored in an airtight box.

Seepu seedai
1) Mix rice flour, urad dhal flour, & ghee. Take milk from coconut by adding warm water to the same. Take about 2 ½ cups of milk, if it is not sufficient, you can add some boiling water. Boil this milk with salt, add to flour mixture & knead well . The should be soft.

2) Press in the seepu seedai achu into a long strip.
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Since I didn't have a here I adopted the old fashioned way of making it with a comb. For this use a new, clean comb. Spread the dough like we do for chapatis, cookies etc in a clean greased plastic sheet. About 2 mm thick not very thin. Press it lightly with the comb, so that the lines of the comb get formed on it.

3) Cut into pieces of even length. Form it in the shape of rings using your finger. Fry for about 10 – 15 in hot oil (but not very hot) till it is done (i.e till the sound of the oil has stopped or is very little). Remove to kitchen tissue, cool & store.

Kalkandu Vadai - Sweet Medhu Vada

Kalkandu Vadai is a very famous Chettinadu vadai. This is a sweet vadai instead of the usual salt vadai. Tastes Great. In my native place whenever we want to do some group pooja or if it is an auspicious day like diwali, thiru karthikai like that then we prepare this kalkandu vadai.
It used to be originally made with kalkandu (Sugar Candy in English & Misri in Hindi) and hence the name Kalkandu Vadai. Nowadays it is replaced with normal sugar.

Kalkandu Vadai
Ingredients

Urad Dal - 3/4 cup
Raw Rice - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Or Kalkandu - 1/4 kg
Oil for frying

Method 
Wash & soak the urad dhal – rice mixture. After about 30 minutes, drain the water and spread the mixture on a clean cloth/towel. So that the cloth sucks the water. If using Kalkandu keep it ready in powdered form. 

Grind the dhal as fine as possible, using the sugar or powdered kalkandu. Avoid water as far as possible. 

Take a small ball of the grinded flour in your hand. Place it on a clean wet plastic sheet. Slightly press the flour and make a hole in the centre with your finger. Remove it from the plastic and put it into the oil for frying. Make small vadais (like medhu vada) & deep fry initially on medium & then low fire. The vadais puff up very well, so do not fry more than 3-4 at a time. The oil should not be smoking hot. The vadai tends be little more brown than the usual medhu vada, so don't worry.

The Kalkandu Vadai remains good for about 7 to 10 days.

Vellai Paniyaram

Vellai Paniyaram or Vellai Appam is a very famous chettinadu dish. And a very favorite evening snack. It is basically made from Rice flour. And tastes great. Goes great with Tomato Chutney or Varamillagai Chatni i.e. A Red Hot chutney made from Dry Red Chillies.

Ingredients

Raw Rice - 1 Cup (Flatten it with palm, i.e it should not be more than that cup)
Urad Dal - Heap the cup of Rice with Urad dal on top
Salt
Sugar - 1 tsp
Milk - 1 to 1 1/2 tb.sp
Oil - For Deep frying

Method

Clean the rice and dal mixture in water. Soak it for about 2 to 3 hours. Then grind it in a mixer or grinder till you get a very very smooth paste. Add water little by little whenever needed. It should not become very watery. Transfer the grinded flour to a vessel. Add salt and sugar, beat nicely with a ladle. Add milk if needed.  The flour should not be too thick and it should also not be very watery.

Heat oil in a shallow kadai. When the oil is hot enough pour the flour into the oil with the help of a ladle. After a few seconds it should rise up automatically. Turn it to the other side and let it cook for about a minute. Remove it onto a tissue paper. Prepare this one by one. And serve it hot with chutney.

For recipes of
Another Version of Vellai Paniyaram Click Here.
Tomato Chutney Click Here.