Uppu Seedai

Uppu Seedai – It’s a popular deep fried dish in South Indian cuisine during the festival of Janmashtami / Sri Krishna Jayanthi. Basic recipe from Festival Samayal by Viji Varadarajan !!

Makes: 18 – 20 uppu seedais

Ingredients

Please use same measuring cup to measure rice flour and water. Here I used Indian standard measuring cup of 100 ml / 4 oz  capacity.

1 cup rice flour, dry roast and sieve twice

1 tablespoon urad dal

1 tablespoon Bengal gram dal  (Chana dal)

2 tablespoon grated coconut

1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)

¼ teaspoon hing (asafoetida / kaayam)

½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

1 tablespoon ghee

½ cup water

250 ml oil (to fry seedais)

Method

In an iron karahi (pan), gently dry roast rice flour for 10 minutes on a medium to low heat. Stir continuously. Keep aside to cool till normal temperature and sieve twice.

Dry roast chana dal and urad dal together for 10 minutes on medium to low heat until fragrant. Keep aside to cool till normal temperature and make a fine powder in a small mixer bowl. Sieve twice.

In a wide bowl, transfer dry roasted rice flour, chana dal – urad dal powder, grated coconut, cumin seeds, hing , salt and ghee. Mix well with finger tips until well combined.

 First start with less than  1/2 cup water and make a  dough. Add extra 1 - 2  tablespoon of water and make a soft dough. Mould the dough into very small marble – sized  balls (18 – 20 balls). Keep aside for 10 minutes.

Heat oil in a karahi / deep frying pan on high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and wait for 1 minute. Please do not fry on high heat. Seedais  will get dark brown color immediately and inside portion won’t cook properly. Maintain medium heat. Deep fry seedais (10 at a time) until golden color and crisp. Drain out from oil and place it on kitchen towel to  absorb extra oil. Store it in an airtight container.