Savory Seedai / Uppu Seedai

 

Krishna Jayanthi / Gokulashtami /Janmashtami is right around the corner. This year it falls on this sunday, Aug 17th. I love this festival because there will be lot of savory items :-)  and loads of fun too. Drawing those tiny Krishna feet with maakolam, helping (???) amma with making these bakshanams and distributing the same with neighbors, wow sweet memories.

After coming to US, I didn’t try much of these savory snacks. Learnt couple of dishes from amma and MIL. But last year is when, I got these dishes perfectly. So this year, here I am with these recipes. First is the uppu sedai or the savory seedai.

Prep Work:

1. Dry roast 1 cup of urad dhal till they turn golden brown and let it cool. Then dry grind them into a fine powder. This roasted urad dhal powder is required for muruku, thattai and also for seedai.
2. Dry roast the rice flour for couple of minutes, this helps the seedai mixture to blend well , removes the raw smell of the store bought rice flour and also prevents the seedai from bursting.

Ingredients:

• Rice Flour : 1 cup (Stored bought, dry roast it )
• Urad dhal flour (Prepared as mentioned above) : 1 tbsp
• Jeera/Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
• Heeng – 1 tsp
• White sesame seeds – 1 tsp
• Salt – 1 tsp
• Butter – 2 tbsps (At room temperature)
• Channa dhal – 2 tsps
• Water – 1 cup
• coconut oil – 3 tbsps
• Oil for frying

Steps:

• Soak the channa dhal in ½ cup of water for minimum 15 mts.
• Mix the rice flour, urad dhal flour, jeera, heeng, white sesame seeds, salt and butter together without any lumps.
• Now add the soaked channa dhal and knead the dough slowly.
• Sprinkle the half cup of water on need basis and knead the dough.
• It should not stick to the vessel and knead the dough like a big ball.
• Rub your palm with coconut oil and make small gooseberry size balls out of the dough and keep it aside. Leave it for up 10-15 minutes.
• Now heat the oil, and fry about 6-7 per batch.
• Its take about 4-5 minutes for the seedai to get cooked . Fry till the oil bubble sound stops. (In Tamil we say, ennai osai adangum varai)
• Let it cook down and thats it seedai is ready.

Tips to prevent the seedai from bursting:

• Dry roasting the rice flour helps
• Adding sesame seeds. (You can also use black sesame seeds)
• After rolling the seedai balls, leaving them for about 10-15 minutes helps.