Uppu seedai
This is one of the “must” items for neivedyam on Gokulashtami in our family. This is one of the items my youngest daughter used to love (still does) as a child and now Vidyuth has taken after her. A favourite of many, especially at Gokulashtami time, this is something we would all help out with when we were kids. My mother would get the dough ready and all of us would sit down and help her with the making of the dough balls and she would fry them. Today, I got my grandson Vidyuth to help me. Do take a look at the video.
Ingredients
Rice flour 2 cups
Urad dal flour 1/4 cup
Butter – 1.5 tsp
Sesame seeds – 1 tsp
Asafoetida – 1/2 tsp
Coconut grated – 2 tsp
Salt – to taste
Oil for frying
Prepare rice flour in advance by soaking rice in water for an hour, then drying it on a clean towel under the fan and grinding to a fine powder. The alternative is to get the rice ground at a flour mill, if you have access to one. The flour prepared in this manner will make much tastier seedais. The important thing to remember is that you have put it through the sieve at least twice while grinding it and a third time before dry roasting and mixing for making seedais. Any lumps in the flour will cause the seedais to burst while frying. Dry roast the urad dal and grind it in a similar manner till you get a fine flour.
Mix all the ingredients with the roasted and sieved rice and urad flour and mix with water to form a nice pliable dough. Pull out a small portion and make small balls (1/2 cm diameter) without putting too much pressure while making the balls. Keep these on a clean towel.
Once you have made them, carefully fry a handful at a time till they are golden brown in colour. Excess water or lumps in the dough will cause them to burst while frying.
Remove from the oil and store in an airtight container.