Vella Seedai / Sweet Seedai

Only two days are left for Gokulashtami and I am trying to make something special to the Lord Krishna. This time my to-do list is simple and mostly contains easy recipes except seedai recipe. Making seedai is easy but consumes a lot of your time. I made it in advance so that I can plan other recipes the day before the Gokulashtami. Thanks to both my mom and aunt who helped me to roll the seedai. Make sure you have sufficient time to make if you are planning to cook a larger quantity. Rolling the seedai’s and frying them will take longer time and you really require some patience to prepare this recipe.

I never knew that making Vella Seedai was very easy until I tried it
on my own few years back. At my native, we call
this as “Ellu Urundai or Ellu Seedai” but here in chennai, almost all my friends call this as
Vella cheedai (Sweet Jaggery seedai). As you see the difference in the name, there is also a difference in the ingredients. Instead of urad dal, we
use powdered roasted gram.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 7

Ingredients:

Rice flour – 3 cups (see notes 1)

Roasted gram flour / Roasted channa dal flour – 1 cup (see notes 2)

Black sesame seeds – 3 tablespoon (see notes 3)

Grated fresh coconut – 1 cup

Jaggery – 1 and 1/2 cup, powdered

Water – 2 cups

Oil – for deep frying

Method:

1) In a mixing bowl take the rice flour. Add roasted gram flour and sesame seeds. Mix well.

2) Add fresh grated coconut. Mix again.

3) Melt jaggery in 2 cups of water. Once the jaggery is melted down, filter it to remove impurities. No need to check the consistency here.

4) Slowly add this jaggery dissolved water to the flour mixture.

5) Make a smooth dough. It should not be very thick or loose. Pinch a small gooseberry sized dough and roll it out as balls. Do not press the balls too much while rolling. Arrange them in a wide plate. Do not cover the plate and let it be till you start frying. Follow the order while frying the balls – The first rolled balls should first go for frying.

6) Heat oil in a thick bottom kadai/pan. When the oil is hot and not smoking, reduce the flame to medium, add balls and Fry it  in batches. Fry till the seedai’s turns nice brown in color and starts leaving some cracks in it.

7) Transfer the contents to a plate covered by kitchen towel to absorb excess oil if any.

8) At room temperature, store it in a container.

Notes:

1) I used homemade rice flour. Soak 3 cups of rice for 1 hour. Drain the water and dry it using a cotton cloth for few minutes.  When the rice is dry but still has some moisture in it, make a powder out of it using your mixie. Otherwise grind it in a flour mill if the quantity is more. After making a powder, sieve it and roast it. Measure 3 cups of this flour and use it for preparing this recipe

2) Grind 1 cup of roasted gram in a mixie. Sieve, measure 1 cup and use in this recipe.

3) Wash the sesame seeds and sun dry it completely before using it in this recipe. You can also use white sesame seeds.

4) Water level can vary based on the rice flour you use. If you require more water, use warm water.

5) Adjust the jaggery as per your taste.

6) Instead of grated coconut pieces, you can also use finely chopped coconut pieces. If you go with grated coconut it stays good for longer time when perfectly fried.