Uppu Seedai | Gokulashtami Recipes

When I first told the idea of making seedai to amma, with a eyebrow raised she warned me not to as she had heard so many bursting disaster stories. But seeing my excitement gone down in seconds, she gave her binding book(old recipes in papers binded together to form a recipe book) and asked me to try it from there as it was well explained with tips too.After putting mittu to sleep, I read it atleast thrice and had the feeling of reading for exams yes I almost memorised the recipe and the tips :) The next day morning I made the rice and urad dhal flours ready as I wanted to make it from the scratch.

I reserved the bursting part he he I mean making seedai and the clicking part to the weekend. I put some 4 balls and went out of the kitchen for few seconds, peeped out to see whether any disaster happened. My seedais popped out beautifully with the golden color, no splits no bursts - I felt like shouting Yayy!! my first seedai attempt is a success....:) The small pebbly balls is no more a terrorist bomber to me ;)

Again a new risky recipe learnt just for blogs sake and to share it with you all and am sure this is going to be my keeper. I have given few tips in my notes section to avoid bursting, hope this helps!

Uppu Seedai Recipe :

Ingredients (For making from the scratch):

• Raw Rice -1.5 cups
• Urad dhal - 2 tbsp
• Coconut grated - 2 tbsp
• Butter - 4 tbsp
• Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
• Salt - as required

Ingredients (For making with readymade flours):

• Rice flour(fine variety) - 1 cup
• Urad dhal flour - 2 tbsp
• Coconut grated - 1 tbsp
• Butter - 3 tbsp
• Sesame seeds - 1/2 tbsp
• Salt - as required

NOTE : If you are using the second set of ingredients(readymade ones) then dry roast both the flours (it is a must), sieve it well and follow from the step3 titled as 'method for making seedai'.

Step 1:

Method for Making rice flour :

First rinse the raw rice twice, drain water completely. Then spread the raw rice in a soft towel and allow it to dry completely for an hr.Then heat a tawa and dry roast the dried raw rice - this is to ensure that the moisture is completely gone. (You can skip this step, grind the raw rice after drying and then dry roast the rice flour)

Grind it to a fine powder and sieve it well. Add the remaining coarse powder to grind in next batch and grind it again and then sieve it. The powder should be very very fine.

Step 2:

Method for making urad dhal flour:

Heat a pan, dry roast urad dhal in a pan until only slightly golden browned and nice aroma comes. Grind it to a fine powder and sieve it once.

Method for making seedai:

Step 3:

Mix both the rice and urad dhal flour and sieve it once more to ensure they are very fine, now ur flour for making seedai is ready. Dry roast the coconut just for few seconds to remove the moisture and also sesame seeds till slightly browned(optional). Then add it with the flours, butter, sesame seeds and required salt mix it well once.

Step 4:

Add water little by little to form soft dough. Then roll small balls a round bigger than peas and arrange it in a clean cloth. Dont roll them tightly just pinch , roll them once and put it on the dry cloth. Let it sit for 1/2 an hour for the moisture to leave. Prick a single hole in each ball (optional but I did it randomly but didnt have the patience to prick for all the balls :)) with a toothpick or pin. Heat oil and add the balls in batches.





Step 5:

Keep the flame in medium and fry till golden brown and drain it in a kitchen towel or tissue paper. Dont be tempted to take it in slight ivory color then the inside would not have been cooked - my first batch was like that so I made sure to fry the rest till golden brown and they were crispy and perfect.

Allow it to cool and store it in an airtight container.

My Notes:

• Make sure both the flours are sieved well before use.
• Roll the balls very smooth but gently not tight so that no splits are shown outside.
• Do not attempt to make bigger balls, for proper cooking inside make small balls a slightly bigger than peas.

Reasons for seedai bursting and tips to avoid them:

• The moisture or air trapped inside the balls will make the seedai burst so pricking with holes with a needle and resting it in a dry cloth for 30mins were the tips given by my friends brahmin neighbour. And as its the first time I patiently pricked holes for most of the balls :)

• If the rice and urad dhal flour are not grinded and sieved well they will end up having small grains inbetween which will cause the seedai to burst. So make sure both the flours are sieved well and are very fine.

• Do not roll the balls tight, do them as smooth and gentle as possible. If you roll it tight then air bubbles might get trapped inside making them burst. Also dont expect to get perfect rounds just pinch roll and allow it to rest.

As this is the first time I am making seedai, I wanted to make it from the scratch and it was worth the effort made. I made the flours 4 days before making seedai so the flours can be made in advance too. Though my favorite is vella(jaggery) seedai, amma warned me to make uppu seedai first then proceed with vella seedai so sure to make it next time and post it here sure :)