Sweet and Savoury Seedai / இனிப்பு மற்றும் உப்பு சீடை

Sweet and Savoury Seedai 
இனிப்பு மற்றும் உப்பு சீடை

Ingredients:

Raw Rice ( பச்சரிசி ) - 3 cups
Urad dhall Powder ( உளுந்தம் பருப்பு) - 1/2 cup
Jaggery ( வெல்லம்) - 1 cup
( வெள்ளை எள்) - 3 tablespoon
Cardamom powder ( ஏலக்காய் தூள்) - 1/4 teaspoon
Butter ( வெண்ணெய்) - 2 tablespoon
Oil for frying.( பொரிப்பதற்கு தேவையான எண்ணெய்) -
                      (உப்பு தேவையான அளவு)
Steps:
Soak the raw rice for minimum 45 min. Drain the water, spread on a clean white cotton cloth to absorb the excess water. When the rice is moist and not too dry, use the mixie to grind and get rice flour for the recipe. Sieve to get fine powder, which is very vital as small rice grains may splutter seedai while frying.
Dry roast the Urad dhal in medium flame until fragrant. Grind it to a fine powder. Sieve as well and discard the sediment.
Sieve the rice flour and the urad flour twice to ensure there is no minute sediment particles.
Clean and dry roast the white sesame seeds.
Take half the portion of the rice flour( 2 cups) for the savoury seedai and keep the other half aside for sweet seedai.
Dry roast one half of the rice flour, allow it to cool.

Add in 2 tablespoon of urad flour to one cup of rice flour. Add salt and 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds.
Add a tablespoon of hot melted butter or hot oil, mix well and make a dough with few spoons of waer at a time.

Knead the dough well, roll into tubular shapes. This will enable to pinch a little of the dough each time to roll into small rounds. For this savoury seedai, the balls can be rough  on outside and in irregular shapes.

Heat oil in a pan. Drop the balls and fry in medium fire. Turn frequently for uniform frying.

While frying, when the bubbles and the  sound had  fizzled out ,then that is the time to remove the fried balls. 

Leave it on kitchen towel to remove oil. Let it to cool and store in a air tight container. 

Sweet Sedai
Melt a cup of  jaggery in 2 teaspoons of water. Sieve to remove impurities. Bring it to boil until 2 string consistency. Add to 2 cups of raw rice flour, mix well. Add cardamom powder and sesame seeds.
Knead the dough softly and make small balls for frying.

Fry in medium hot oil and in medium flame. Turn carefully for uniform frying. 

My Notes:

During Krishna Jayanthi celebrations, for my amma, preparing Seedai, both sweet and savoury , is a must.  It is prepared by default.  I continued the tradition or can say so as I had prepared and offered most of the times. 

Fine shredded coconut is dry fried and added to the sweet seedai dough. This is an option.

Either sesame seeds or cumin is used for savoury seedai. 

The most cautious step is to make sure the flour do not have any tiny specs of rice. Orlese the balls in oil will splutter and cause chaos and it is very dangerous. Secondly the cumin or sesame seeds should not have any impurities as well. 

Because of this  many ladies will have a second thought to prepare seedai. Easily bought from sweet shops. I heard the sweet shops in Chennai and other major cities, there is  special festive packs with seedai, murukku etc,, sold during Krishna Jayanthi and other festives with sweets accordingly.  Modern age demand and it is served. :)

But homemade seedai brings eating snacks  a whole new level of taste.