My first experience of making this seedais all by myself right after my marriage was not a pleasant one, as it started bursting and both myself and Hubby spent half the night trying to clean the walls and ceiling of oil splashes. You can imagine the ear full I got from DH. Well, I can’t blame him.
When I think of seedais my memories goes back to the times when I was a kid as we all used to sit around a big white cloth (Veshti) and make the balls from the lump of flour that my grandmother used to give everyone. She still uses fresh butter that she gets from churning the cream at home and never buys it from shops. She swears by it taste to which I will also agree with.
Uppu Seedai
You’ll need:
| Rice Flour (Processed) | 1 cup |
| Urad dal flour | 4 tsp |
| Butter | 2 tbsp |
| Grated Coconut | 4 tbsp |
| Black sesame seeds | 2 tsp |
| Asafetida | 2 pinch |
| salt | 1/2 tsp |
| water | to knead |
| Oil | for Frying |
Method:
To Make Processed Rice Flour: Soak the rice for 1 – 2 hour and drain the water completely. Spread it on a cloth and let it dry. Once dry you can grind it to a powder either in a mixie, if using less quantity or in a mill, if using large quantity. Sieve it at least twice. Roast the ground powder in a pan slightly over medium flame. When you grip the flour you should be able to feel the heat. You can also see the steam rising. Let it cool down.
To Make Urad dal Flour: Roast the Urad dal in a pan to a light golden brown. Powder it in a mixie after it cools down. Sieve at least twice.
Sieve together rice flour and urad dal flour again to ensure even mixing. Add grated coconut, sesame seeds, asafetida, butter and salt. Mix with your hands till resembles bread crumbs. Now add water little by little and knead to a dough.
Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it rest for an hour. Make small balls from the dough over a white cloth and let it air dry for at least 1/2 hour.
Heat oil in a pan and first drop one ball into the oil. When it sinks and raises immediately bubbling the oil is at good temperature. Drop the balls from the sides batch by batch and cook till the bubbles settle. Drain over an absorbent paper and after it cools down store in an airtight container.
This will get crunchy only on the next day and might appear a bit soft when consumed immediately. Uppu Seedais are ready for Kutty Krishnar.
Why does it burst: If the flours are not sieved well, dirt particles in salt, asafetida, sesame seeds.
So to avoid bursting sieve the flour multiple times. Soak the sesame seeds in water and take off the ones that are floating on water with your hands and add it to the flour. Dissovle salt and asafetida in water and filter that water and use it to knead flour.
Notes:
| The rolled out balls should in uniform size. It should neither be soft nor hard. |
| Use “Maavu Arisi” for making bakshanams as it will come out good. |
| You can skip the resting timie of the flour. But resting the flour helps in making the balls swiftly and uniformly. |
| Dip your hands in water and handle the flour if you think it has gone dry. |
Once again “Happy Janmashtami” wishes to everybody.