Seedai

Cooks in : 60 min Serves: 4 people

In Tamilnadu Seedai is one of the most important prashad made for Krishna Janmashtami.  Sweet as well as salt versions are made and they are very tasty snack item. During my childhood, my mother and grandmother used to make a huge box of these goodies which we would enjoy for the next 15 to 20 days! Traditionally these are made with processed rice flour and urad dal.  I used home made processed millet flour for this recipe and the seedais turned out so good.  

Ingredients:

Uppu Seedai (Salt version)

• 8 Measures  Dry Roasted Processed Kodo Millet Flour (Go through the Notes section before proceeding)
• 1 Measure Dry Roasted Urad Dal Flour
• 1 Tbsp Butter
• 1 Tbsp  Dry Roasted White Sesame Seeds
• 1 Tbsp Grated Coconut (Optional)
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/4 Tsp Pepper Powder
• 1/8 Tsp Asafoetida Powder
• Oil For Deep Frying

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a pan.
2. In a wide bowl add all the ingredients well. Add water in batches and make a soft stiff dough. Do not make the dough sticky.
3. Pinch small pebble size portion and roll them into balls after greasing the fingers. Let the balls dry on a plate for 5 minutes.
4. When the oil is hot enough to fry,  keeping the heat on medium, drop the rolled balls in batches and fry them till they turn golden brown and crispy.
5. Once done, remove the seedai and place them on a paper tissue to remove the excess oil.
6. Repeat the process for rest of the balls.

Vella Seedai:

Ingredients:

• 1.5 to 1.75 Cups Roasted Processed Millet Flour
• 1 Cup Jaggery Powder
• 2 Tbsp Roasted Urad dal powder
• 1 Tbsp Roasted White Sesame seeds
• 1 Tsp Ghee
• 3/4 Cup Water
• 1/4 Cup Grated Coconut
• 1/4 Tsp Cardamom Powder
• Oil for deep frying

Procedure:

1. Heat water in a pan. Add jaggery powder, grated coconut and cardamom powder.
2. When the water starts boiling, switch off  heat and add 1.5 Cups of roasted millet flour. The quantity may change depending on the moisture of the flour. Keep some extra flour ready so that it can be used if needed.
3. Mix well without any lumps and add roasted urad dal powder and roasted sesame seeds. Add ghee,  mix well and keep it covered for 10 minutes.
4. If the dough is wet and soggy, add some more millet flour and make a soft stiff dough. If  the dough is too stiff, add a few teaspoon of water and make it soft.
5. Now divide the dough into gooseberry size portions and roll them into balls. Heat oil and deep fry them in batches till crisp and golden brown. Drain excess oil with a kitchen tissue.

Note:

1. For making processed flour, first wash the millet well and soak for 1.5 hours. Drain. Dry it on a cotton cloth for 20 minutes. Using a mixie grind to a fine powder. Sieve and remove the big particles.  Now the flour is ready.
2. Roast the flour in a dry pan on medium/low heat till you can draw a perfect small line without any break with the flour. Roasting is important. Do not over roast and make it dark.
3. For uppu seedai the proportion for roasted millet flour to roasted urad dal flour is  8 :1. I used  a small ladle to measure both flours. A small cup can also be used for measuring.
4. To avoid bursting of seedais, both the flours should be fine. So it is important to sieve them to remove the bigger particles.  Use only roasted sesame seeds and fine pepper powder.