Jaggery Seedai / Vella Seedai

Previously as part of Krishna Jayanthi / Gokulashtami /Janmashtami we saw Savory seedai and Thattai. How can we celebrate a festival without sweet, so here come jaggery seedai. Usually I try to post sweet as the first dish, but vellai seedai and me, never get along well :-)

Believe me, for the past 3 years, it was only sodappal for me. Only this time, I got it correct.  But this time too,  you can see there are some cracks. Lot to improve and please do let me know your thoughts through comments.

Prep work is similar to thattai and 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
• White sesame seeds – 1 tsp
• Salt – a pinch
• Butter – 2 tbsps (At room temperature)
• Jaggery – ¾ cup (½ cup is enough, but my kiddo and hubby has a very sweet tooth, so adding a little extra)
• Elaichi/Cardamom – 2
• Water – ½ cup
• coconut – 2 tbsps
• Oil for frying

Step 1: Making Pahu or the Jaggery water solution

• Heat the ½ cup of water, as it starts to boil add the jaggery and crushed elaichi.
• Let it dissolve well and bring to one boil and remove it from heat.
• Let it cool down.

 

Making Seedai:

• Mix the rice flour, urad dhal flour, white sesame seeds, pinch of salt, coconut and butter together without any lumps.
• Sprinkle the jaggery water or pahu on needed basis and knead the dough.
• It should not stick to the vessel and knead the dough like a big ball.
• 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 4-5 per batch.
• Its take about 3-4 minutes for the seedai to get cooked . Fry till the oil bubble sound stops. (In Tamil we say, ennai osai adangum varai)
• Let it cool down and thats it jaggery seedai is ready.

*** Make sure the oil is  not too hot. And also you need keep flipping the seedai. If you let it unattended this is what will happen ;-) ;-) It will turn black.  *** 

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.