Uppu seedai recipe (Salt seedai recipe)
Prep Time: 2 Hours

Cook time: 20 mins

Makes: 2 cup seedais

Ingredients

Raw rice – 1 cup

Urad dal flour – 2 tbsp

Butter – 3 tbsp

Sesame seeds – 2 tsp

Grated coconut – 3 tblsp

Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp

Salt & water – as needed

Oil – For deep frying

Method

1. Soak the rice for at least 2 hours and drain the water, spread it in a clean towel to absorb the excess water.
2. After it has dried, grind it to a fine powder in a mixer.
3. Sieve the flour (the remaining coarse rice to the next batch grinding).
4. Heat a pan and dry roast the flour in medium flame until you see steam coming out from the flour. Just for a minute approximately.
5. Fry the urad dal in medium flame with stirring every now and then until golden in colour. Cool down completely and grind to a flour. Sieve it and store in an airtight container to use in various snacks.
6. Dry roast the coconut gratings too. Just fry till excess moisture is gone. Now sieve again both the roasted flours together.
7. Mix rice flour, coconut gratings, urad flour, sesame seeds, melted butter, asafoetida and salt well. Add water and make it to a soft pliable dough.
8. Take small pinch and make into ball, try not to make it perfect round or not to give pressure while rolling. Do it gently.
9. Repeat until you finish all the dough and arrange in a newspaper or dry clean cloth. Let it be for 15 minutes.
10. Heat oil in kadai and add the seedais. For safety, stand away from the stove for the first batch. Divide and cook in 3-4 batches. Cook in medium flame. Stir in between to ensure even cooking.
11. Cook until the shh…sounds and bubble ceases. Drain in paper towel. Store in air tight container after it’s cooled. The flavour is in its best when eaten from the next day.

Vella seedai recipe

Prep Time: 2 Hours

Cook time: 20 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Rice flour (process) – 1 cup

Urad dal flour – 2 tsp

Ghee/butter – 1 tbsp

Sesame seeds – 1 tsp

Jaggery – 1/4 cup

Grated coconut – 1 tbsp

Water – as needed

Oil – For deep frying

Salt – A pinch

Method

1. Prepare rice flour as mentioned above and repeat the same process in roasting both the flours and coconut grating. Also sieve together the flours.
2. Heat jaggery with 1/4 cup water and boil until it dissolves.
3. Filter it to remove any impurities.
4. Now mix the flour, coconut, jaggery syrup, ghee, sesame seeds well and then add water if needed to make a dough.
5. Make small berry sized balls and arrange in a dry clean cloth spread or in a newspaper. Give 15 mins standing time.
6. Deep fry in low flame to ensure cooking inside properly. Stir in between. Drain in paper towel and store in airtight container after it cools down completely.

Tips

• Tips for avoiding seedai burstisng : Do not roll tightly with pressure, do not roll smooth. Do not shape it to a perfect round shape.
• First important thing to avoid bursting is to “SIEVE” the flour once or twice. U should sieve all the flour ( urad dal flour, rice flour). Sieving the flour properly reduces 90% of bursting.
• Let the seedais have some cracks so that steam escapes from the seedai which prevents bursting.
• One more tip is to prick the seedai with a small needle to avoid bursting. Dry the seedai in a paper or towel for 20 mins before frying.This is also very important.
• Beginners can try deep frying few seedai in “small tempering kadai” .If it comes out well , proceed in a big kadai. Color variations may be there slightly. But u can check whether it bursts or disperses in oil.
• If sweet seedai breaks or dissolves in oil , it means jaggery may be more or oil temperature is too high or too low.
• Also the dough should be crumbly (still if you gather, it should hold shape), neither a stiff dough nor a gooey dough.
• Make sure you sieve the flours properly.
• Add generous asafoetida in uppu seedai as it is the main flavour in the seedai.
• After sieving, do not waste the coarse rice, You can use it while grinding second batch or even for drawing maakolam.
• Do not add butter more than mentioned, otherwise it will dissolve in oil.
• Do not fry the rice flour until it turns in colour. Just heat it up. That’s enough.
• Dry roast the flour till it starts to release vapour. Try to draw a line using the roasted flour.
• You can add a tsp of coconut oil while making the dough for extra flavour. But reduce butter accordingly.
• Adding coconut grating enhance the flavour. The seedais smell and taste best from the next day.
• The colour of the seedai will be in lighter side if you reduce urad dal flour. If you add more the colour will turn darker.
• If Seedai bubbles too much after u drop into oil ,it shows the fat ( ghee or butter or oil) content is more.So add more rice flour to the dough & make again.
• The color of seedai depends on the color of urad dal flour. If u roast the dal to golden brown, seedai will also turn brown.
• Uniform heating is also important. Generally medium flame is enough to get a nice colored and crispy seedai.