Sweet and Kaara Butter Seedai

         Krishna Jayanthi is not complete without any prasadham offerings to Krishna. So many items are offered to him on the auspicious day. Obviously I can't make everything, so had to zero down on two items. Seedai seemed innocent enough for me to try.

             I have read some scary stories but I thought I will give it a go. I possibly couldn't prepare the flour at home, so I used store brought flours.This is my first experiment with seedai. Mixing the flours was easy but rolling them into equal size balls about 1 cm in diameter was the difficult job.
            Seriously I don't have the patience...... it is like you see an awesome song of SRK and Kajol from their forth coming film and then you have to wait till the movie is released which will be after 2-3 weeks. How frustrating is that!!!!!

            I rolled them and left it to dry for nearly  6 hours .... now this is the kaara seedai we are talking about. The sweet seedai story is a different story:)

            I feel "Sweet Seedai" represents Krishna and "Butter Kaara Seedai" represents Radha.... the perfect match:)

Kaara Butter Seedai:

Rice flour [roasted]: 2 cups.
Urad dhal flour [roasted] : 1/2 cup.
Melted butter: 50 gms.
Salt: 1 tsp.

Asafoetida powder: 1/2 tsp.
Cumin: 1 tsp.
Water: as needed to make a dough
Vegetable oil: to fry the seedai

1. Mix all the ingredients until you get a fine bread crumb consistency.
2.Then add the water little by little to get a firm dough.
3.Make small equal sized round balls around 1cm in diameter.
4.Arrange them on a newspaper or clean white cloth which can absorb moisture.
5.Let the seedai dry out for atleast a couple of hours.

6.Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Fry a small piece of the dough to see if it just pops up and not bursting.
7.Don't add too many seedai at once, maybe 5 to 8 depending on the size of the frying pan.
8.The seedai will automatically float on top of the hot oil when done.
9.Drain on kitchen towels and store them in air tight containers when completely cooled.

Sweet Seedai.

           By the time I finished making the savoury version, it was already 6 in the evening. Then I finished my dinner and then I started with the sweet version at 11 in the night. It was well worth the time and effort.

           I found this recipe in one of the famous blogs around which is none other than DK 's Chef in you. It was an easy recipe, explained very well and presented beautifully. I didn't dare to change the recipe in anyway but made a few adjustments. I didn't have fresh coconut, so I used dessicated coconut and added 1 tsp of sesame seeds. Also I added 1 tbsp of ghee.

           The real fun part was preparing the jaggery syrup. It was not the usual method but worked out perfectly fine.

Rice flour: 1 cup.
Urad dhal flour: 2 tsp.
Powdered jaggery: 1 cup.
Hot water: 1 cup.
Ghee: 1 tbsp.
Dessicated coconut: 1 tbsp.
Cardamom powder: 1/2 tsp.
White sesame seeds: 1/2 tsp.

1.Take the jaggery in a bowl and add 1 cup of hot water. Let it sit for 40 minutes.
2.Roast the sesame seeds until aromatic and keep aside.
3.Mix the rice flour, urad flour, sesame seeds, ghee, cardamom powder and dessicated coconut together.

4.Filter the jaggery syrup and add it to the flour mix little by little until you get a firm dough consistency.
5.Make small equal sized balls of 1 cm diameter. Spread them on a news paper and let them dry out for a good couple of hours.
6.Heat oil and fry the seedai in small batches.
7.Drain on paper towels and store in air tight containers.

Note: You might have some syrup left which can be used for something else.

I enjoyed making them and tasting them. They were awesome ....

Enjoy....


Scribbled by Reva