Uppu seedai / Uppu Cheedai / Salt seedai is the most important prasadam for Gokulashtami. People in Tamil nadu never fail to make this for Krishna Jayanthi festival. Many people especially beginners worry about bursting of seedai. So I have shared all the possible tips and tricks to avoid bursting. I have given my MIL’s traditional recipe of making uppu cheedai with homemade processed rice flour and urad dal flour. I follow this recipe every year. It comes out very well without bursting. Along with the normal round seedai we also make 2 small rod shaped “Seepankuzhal” for baby krishna. Do refer my fail proof sweet seedairecipe too !
I know seedai must be the favorite snack for everyone just like murukku. Yes, Uppu cheedai / salt seedai is my family's favorite snacks. Whenever we visit Adayar Anandha Bhavan hotel, we buy a packet of seedai without fail. I am trying to make white colored seedai just like shops. I will share that recipe once I get it right.
Friends, do try this easy uppu seedai recipe for Gokulashtami or during weekends for your kids. Do not worry about bursting. Just follow this recipe and make perfect seedai.
Watch out the full detailed video recipe for uppu seedai making with homemade processed flour and roasted urad dal flour preparations before you start. Hope you will find it useful :) Lets see how to make this Gokulashtami special recipe uppu seedai with step by step photos and video !
If you want to make seedai using store bought rice flour, please check THIS POST !
Uppu seedai - Video recipe
Uppu seedai recipe / Salt seedai
Uppu seedai recipe / Salt seedai for Gokulashtami / Krishna jayanthi festival
Grind the grated coconut in a dry mixie jar and make a powder.
If you are using homemade rice flour, first you should dry roast the flour for few minutes in low flame till vapour starts to come. Its a must & should step to get seedai without bursting.
Take the roasted rice flour and urad flour in a bowl. Sieve once or twice. Add sesame seeds, hing and ground coconut powder. Lastly add the butter and blend it well with the flour using your fingers. Do not give too much of pressure to the flour.
Add water and make a non-sticky dough. Make sure there are no cracks. Roll the dough into small balls roughly in a paper or cloth. Do not roll very tightly. Use first three fingers to make balls.
Allow the balls to dry for 15 to 20 minutes before frying. Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry them in batches in medium flame. Keep tossing the seedai to get a uniform color.
Remove when all the bubbles cease. Store in a box after it cools down. Stays good for a week.
NOTE - TIPS AND TRICKS TO AVOID BURSTING OF SEEDAI
Dry roast the wet rice flour for few minutes slightly if you are using homemade processed rice flour.
First important thing to avoid bursting is to “SIEVE” the flour once or twice. U should sieve all the flour ( urad dal flour , rice flour and fried gram flour if u use). Sieving the flour properly reduces 90% of bursting.
Secondly u should not roll the seedai very tightly. U should roll it to a loose ball using three fingers. No problem if its not a proper round.
Dry the seedai in a paper or towel for 30 minutes before frying. If you want to deep fry immediately, prick the seedai with a small needle to avoid bursting. Most of the time pricking may not be necessary because by the time you finish rolling all the seedai, it would have dried.
Beginners can try deep frying few seedai in “small tempering kadai” . If it comes out well , proceed in a big kadai. Color variations may be there slightly. But you can check whether it bursts or disperses in oil..
If this seedai breaks or dissolves in oil, it means fat ( ghee / butter) content may be more or oil temperature is too high or too low.
If seedai bubbles too much after you drop into oil , it shows the ghee or butter or oil content is more. So add more rice flour to the dough and make again.
The color of seedai depends on the color of urad dal flour. If you roast the dal to golden brown, seedai will also turn brown.
Uniform heating is also important. In my observation, low to medium flame is sufficient to get a well cooked, nice color seedai. Keep tossing every now and then.
Vella Seedai / Sweet Seedai recipe with jaggery ( updated with video and step by step photo) is a must and should neivedyam recipe for Gokulashtami in Tamil nadu houses. I never knew about vella seedai till my marriage and now this has become my favourite. Every year I follow my MIL’s traditional and authentic recipe for vella cheedai and uppu cheedai using homemade rice flour. It comes out very well without bursting.
Please refer the “Note” section for tips to avoid bursting. Usually we make the size of this sweet seedai bigger than uppu seedai. We also make 2 “Seepaankuzhal “ (small rod shaped) in each variety which is specially meant for baby Krishna. I give this to my daughter every year. Every year I make seedai with homemade processed rice flour . This year , for a change I tried with store bought rice flour which I use for making idiyappam. I followed same recipe for both and I didn't find any big difference in taste and color. Deep frying part is important to get a nice color and uniform browning. I have given in detail under “Method”. But cracks are unavoidable.
First picture is with home made rice flour and the second one with store bought rice flour . I have made a full video on how to make vella cheedai just for beginners. Please watch it before you start doing. Hope you find it useful :)
In a pan dry roast the flour till vapor comes out lightly. Do it in low to medium flame. Do not over roast the flour. Sieve and set aside.
In a bowl , take 1 cup of roasted rice flour and 2 tsp of urad dal flour. Sieve them once or twice. (This step is very important to avoid bursting) . Grind the grated coconut finely to a coarse powder.
In a pan take the grated jaggery & add little water to cover it. Heat & melt it to make a thin syrup. No need to boil it. Remove & filter the syrup to discard the impurities.
Strain & add this syrup to the flour , cardamom powder, sesame seeds & grated coconut, softened butter. Mix well to make a dough. Make sure the dough should be not be sticky. It should not have cracks. It should be thick. Add syrup accordingly. Sometimes syrup itself would be sufficient to make the dough OR you may have to add little extra water to make the dough.
Make small balls out of the dough. Prick the balls with a needle or toothpick to avoid bursting. This is for additional safety. Allow the balls to dry in a cotton cloth or paper for 15-20 mins before frying.
Before deep frying check the heat of oil by dropping a pinch of dough. If it rises immediately, oil temperature is just right. Lower the flame to low & drop the seedai 4 to 5 at a time.
After you drop the seedai , do not disturb it for few seconds.( stand 2 feet away from the kadai for safety, luckily it didn’t burst for me so far). If you start to stir immediately, seedai may break and dissolve in oil. After few seconds, turn it once to prevent sticking. (For beginners, try to fry one or two seedai with little oil in a mini tadka kadai to check if it disperse or burst. Then you make in large batches.)
Always deep fry in low to medium flame to get a nice color. Keeping the flame high turns the seedai black & inside portion will not be cooked properly. U don’t have to wait till all the bubbles cease. Once the seedai turns golden brown, remove & drain in a tissue paper. Cracks are normal in vella seedai. Don’t worry.
Initially sweet seedai tends to be soft, but it hardens & becomes crispy when it cools down.
Crunchy Sweet seedai is ready !
NOTE
First important thing to avoid bursting is to “SIEVE” the flour once or twice. U should sieve all the flour ( urad dal flour , rice flour & gram flour if u use). Sieving the flour properly reduces 90% of bursting..
U must roast the flour slightly for few minutes in low flame if you are using homemade rice flour.
Secondly u should not roll the seedai very tightly. U should roll it to a loose ball using three fingers.No problem if its not a proper round.
One more tip is to prick the seedai with a small needle or toothpick to avoid bursting. Dry the seedai in a paper or towel for 20 mins before frying..
Beginners can try deep frying few seedai in “small tempering kadai” . If it comes out well, proceed in a big kadai. Color variations may be there slightly. But you can check whether it bursts or disperses in oil.
If sweet seedai breaks or dissolves in oil, it means jaggery may be more or oil temperature is too high or too low.
If Seedai bubbles too much after you drop into oil, it shows the fat ( ghee or butter or oil) content is more. So add more rice flour to the dough & make again.
The color of seedai depends on the color of urad dal flour. If you roast the dal to golden brown, seedai will also turn brown.
Uniform heating is also important. In my observation, I feel low to medium flame is enough to get a nice color and crispy seedai.
This is an instant version of Nei appam recipe (ghee appam). Traditionally nei appam is prepared using raw rice and jaggery. Usually I make sweet appam using wheat flour & banana in paniyaram pan. My MIL also makes an sweet paniyaram using raw ricewhich is our family favourite. But I wanted to try a quick sweet appam recipe without soaking rice and without banana. Yes this sweet appam is prepared without banana but still it comes out soft and spongy.
This recipe uses rice flour, wheat flour, jaggery and rava/sooji. When I was going through my cook books, I got this recipe given by Mrs. Mallika badrinath. I tried the recipe as such but I was not happy with the result. It came out crispy & tasty but it looked dry & a bit hard. So I just added little cooking soda & it made a great change to the recipe. It came out super soft n fluffy with crispy outer layer. I was very happy & thought of blogging it for gokulashtami and Karthigai deepam festival.
With superb flavor of ghee, it was awesome. If you are ghee conscious like me, use cooking oil or gingely oil for frying. It tasted good for both. I used paniyaram pan for shallow frying. U can also try deep frying it looks like chettinad vellai paniyaram with flower edges. U can see that picture in step by step pictures. Friends, do try this easy, instant nei appam recipe for krishna jayanthi & Karthigai deepam and let me know your feedback.
Fine Rava or Upma Rava/ sooji – 1/2 cup ( use fine rava for nice texture)
Wheat flour OR Maida – 1/3 cup
Grated jaggery – 3/4 cup
Grated coconut – 3 tbsp
Cardamom powder – 1/4 tsp
Cooking soda / Baking soda – 1/4 tsp
Salt – a pinch
Cooking oil or ghee – As needed
Water –As needed ( I used 1 cup water)
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT NEI APPAM
In a wide bowl , take all the ingredients mentioned above except cooking soda & mix well adding required water.The consistency of batter should be semi thick & pourable. (If the jaggery has impurities, you should boil and melt it adding 1:2 ratio of water and jaggery. Then strain it through a metal filter and add that water to the mixture.)
Add cooking soda 10 minutes before making appam. Mix well and let it sit.
In a paniyaram pan , add 1 tsp of ghee in each hole & pour the batter. Cover cook for few minutes in low to medium flame. Flip it using a spoon or a small stick like thing. Cook again for few minutes till you get a nice golden brown color.
If u want to deep fry , heat a pan with little oil & pour the batter using a small ladle. Deep fry one by one to get a nice shape.Splash the oil over the appam while it cooks to get a nice flower shape with frills in the sides.
Remove & serve hot or cold.
Note
Consistency of batter is important. It should not be too thick or thin.
U can also use cooking oil instead of ghee. I used ghee for my daughter & oil for ourselves. But add it generously.
Always cook in medium flame else it will be burnt. I felt the color of appam turned darker for ghee than oil.
This appam stays soft for long time. It tastes crispy when hot & soft when cold..
If you want to skip baking soda, you have to add 1 ripen mashed banana OR you should mix the batter in the morning and make appam in the evening so that batter gets fermented.
If you want the appam to be crispy, cook in low flame for long time. You can also try skipping soda. But you should eat the appam really hot otherwise it will look dry.
I am a big fan of sweet beeda.My lunch in restaurants never completes without a beeda.In some hotels , beeda is not served in thali .So we used to roam(me & my father) around in search of beeda shops..Now after marriage,Sendhil buys beeda specially for me though he don’t like it much..Recently my MIL gave me a box of gulkand.Though there are many yummy gulkand recipes , beeda flashed in my mind ;)..But never thought i could make beeda at home until i saw this video. Thank u so much vidya lakshmi.From now on I can have yummy home made beedas happily .This beeda is not only tasty,but also helps to digest food easily. Edible calcium paste is helpful for daily dose of calcium needs..So friends , if u have betel leaves in hand ,try this beeda recipe & let me know ur feedback. I hope step by step pictures gives u a clear idea.Surprise ur guests & elders at home with this beeda after a heavy lunch menu.For a simple beeda recipe , please refer “Notes” section..
INGREDIENTS
To make one beeda
Beetal leaves/ vettrilai /paan leaf – 1 no
Sunnaambu /Edible calcium paste – a trace
Supari / paakku – 1/4 tsp
Paan masala – 1/4 tsp (optional)
Sweetened dry ginger or amla – 1 small piece (optional)
Colored dessicated coconut strands – few
Gulkand – 1/2 tsp
Sweet saunf – 1/4 tsp
Cloves – 1 no (optional)
Cherries – few
Plum – 1 no
Tooth pick – 1 no
METHOD
Wash the beetle leaf , pat dry with a cloth. Fold the leaf & cut it half way through the stalk part(kaambu) ..
Apply less than a pinch of sunnambu/lime on the back side of leaf. pinch. Adding more burns the tongue , take care..
Now roll one edge of the leaf to cone shape..Roll the other edge similarly & make a cone (pouch shape)to keep all the ingredients inside.
First add the supari , then keep the dessicated coconut ,pan masala , sweet saunf , gulkand. At last keep a clove & cherries . U can also add a pinch of cardamom powder..Close it.
Place a plum on top of beeda & insert a tooth pick OR use a clove to seal it..Serve &enjoy !!
NOTE
To make a simple beeda recipe , wash the betel leaf & apply sunnambu on both the sides.Use supari , saunf , sugar , cardamom powder ,little honey and make beeda as mentioned above..Seal the beeda with a clove..
Finish ur lunch with a banana & homemade beeda ! It tastes delicious :)
Kadai paneer was in my try list for long time. I never knew it’s so easy to make & a very tasty recipe. It tastes great with roti/phulka & mild rice varieties like jeera rice and veg pulav.. I had bookmarked sia’s recipe long time back.
When I went through my bookmarked recipes, I got this link under restaurant style recipes. I made some changes for my convenience & to suit my family’s taste buds. Kadai paneer should be semi-dry in consistency like a stir fry. Crushed coriander seeds & kasuri methi are the star ingredients.
Other than this, there can be many variations to this recipe. Some people use tomato puree & whole spices like cinnamon, cloves etc. I used chopped tomatoes, little tomato sauce & garam masala powder instead. It came out very well. My family loved its taste & flavour. Soft paneer & crunchy capsicum blended with masala gives a great taste to this recipe :) Do try & let me know how you liked it..
Chop tomatoes, onions into very small pieces. Cube cut capsicum & set aside. Slit green chilli. Cut paneer into small cubes & soak them in hot water till use. It makes the paneer soft. No need to fry it.
In a kadai, heat oil + ghee & add the coarsely crushed dhania seeds. Then add jeera , pinched red chilli. saute for a second.
Then add the onions, green chilli, Ginger garlic paste & saute till raw smell emanates. Next add the tomatoes, turmeric powder, salt, red chilli powder & garam masala powder . Saute till tomato turns pulpy.. Add crushed kasuri methi & tomato sauce. Stir well.
Now add the capsicum pieces & mix well. Sprinkle little water to make it wet if the mixture is too dry. But make sure capsicum should be crunchy.
Lastly add the paneer pieces, mix well, add little water & simmer the flame completely . Allow it to cook for 5-7 minutes for all the flavour to get infused. Mix well, Switch off the flame, garnish with coriander leaves. It will be semi-dry to look. If you want it like a gravy, add little more water to make a paste, boil & serve..
Let it rest for 30 minutes before serving.
Serve with roti/phulka !
I wanted to post one pot sambar sadam recipe ( Sambar rice in a pressure cooker) after tasting in hotels. Saravana bhavan sambar sadam is very popular in Tamil nadu. I usually make rice and sambar separately and mix them. Every week I used to watch Podhigai channel’s Asathal suvai if it is hosted by “ Mrs.Revathy shanmugam”. Last week she gave the recipe for sambar rice. I tried it the next day.It was a huge success at home.We loved its flavor and taste. I have not used any garam masala here. So It tastes like our Tamil nadu hotel style sambar sadam. It has a goey texture when hot and thickens after it cools down. It tasted great when hot as well as cold. Addition of ghee is a must here. It gives a nice aroma. :) I have updated this recipe with a full video. Please watch it below.
Pressure cook drumstick separately. Remove the flesh & keep aside
Wash and pressure cook rice. Wash & pressure cook rice n dal along with chopped carrots ,beans , peas ,turmeric powder , salt & hing. Add 6 cups of water & Cook for 2-3 whistles till rice n dal turns mushy. Open the cooker & mash it well. Set aside.
In a pan , add a tsp of oil and roast all the ingredients given under “to roast & grind” . Powder them nicely and set aside.
In the same pan, heat oil + ghee and saute the onions, chopped tomatoes & curry leaves. Saute till tomato turns mushy. Then add 1 cup of tamarind extract, sambar powder, turmeric powder , hing & salt if required. Let it boil for sometime till onion gets cooked. If you want , you can directly add the tamarind extract, sauteed onion, tomato mixture to the cooked rice and dal & proceed.
Now add this mixture to the cooked rice . Add the masala powder, drumstick flesh and mix well.Simmer the flame and allow it to boil well for 10 minutes . All the flavour gets into the rice.Stir once or twice in the middle. Add ghee to avoid rice sticking to the bottom of pan. Mix well. Lastly temper the mustard seeds & add. Garnish with coriander leaves..
Serve hot drizzled with little ghee & papad !! !
Note
For variations , u can use steamed rice instead of raw rice. Add water according to the quality of rice.
I used byadge chillies in this recipe. It gave a nice color to the rice and less spicy too. If you use spicy chillies, use 5-6 as per your taste buds.
Adding coconut is purely optional. If you add it, add more chillies to compensate.
Delicious sambar sadam, creamy curd rice, crispy fryums and spicy pickle, mor milagai is ready to enjoy !
.This beeda is not only tasty,but also helps to digest food easily. Edible calcium paste is helpful for daily dose of calcium needs..So friends , if u have betel leaves in hand ,try this beeda recipe & let me know ur feedback. I hope step by step pictures gives u a clear idea.Surprise ur guests & elders at home with this beeda after a heavy 
