Seedai - How to make Seedai - Krishna Jayanthi Recipes

Seedai is another traditional dish for Krishna Jayanthi neivedhyam. Though I like seedai the most I haven't tried preparing this at home. Last year I tried maida seedai following the recipe from Rakskitchen. It was bit hard. This is the first time I tried making uppu seedai. I did lot of blogging for gathering the details. I would say the end result is ok. Some flavor was missing. I guess I varied with the ratio of rice flour and urad dal flour. Gonna try this couple of more times and will update this page for sure. Now to the recipe that I followed.

Ingredients

Rice flour - 1 cup
Urad dal flour - 1 tbsp
Unsalted butter - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds or cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - as needed
Water - as needed (1 tumbler of water is what I used, approximately 120 ml)

Method

•  Sieve the rice flour and urad dal flour couple of times and transfer to a wide bowl. Now add butter, sesame seeds/cumin seeds, asafoetida, chilli powder and salt. Mix well.
• Now add the water little by little and knead to a soft dough. Do not add too much of water. 
• Make tiny balls (Goligundu sized balls) and place these balls in a newspaper or clean cloth and allow to sit for 10 mins. 
• Meanwhile heat oil for frying. Check if the oil is hot enough by dropping a small amount of dough, if the dough rises immediately then that is the correct temperature. 
• Take the dough balls and fry them in batches. Do not overload the oil with more seedai. Fry them in medium flame until golden brown. Once done, remove from oil and drain in a paper towel or newspaper. Repeat the same for all seedais.

Bursting of seedai.

In all the recipes that I have referred there was a word of caution about bursting of seedais. For that reason do not make smooth balls or do not roll the balls too tightly. There should always be escape for the air bubbles. If they gets trapped in, the seedais will burst. Also, drying the balls in a cloth or paper towel is very important as this will absorb any excess moisture.

Murukku - How to prepare Murukku

My mom and sister are experts in making this murukku. It used to be crisp and very flavorful. VJ is a very big fan of this murukku. I have made this 3-4 times so far, they used to turn out well. But I used to call my sister every now and then and ask plenty of doubts each time I make them :-) So now I am gonna share each and every single detail I have gathered so far and hence from next time hope I will not have to call her :-)

Ingredients

Rice flour - 1 cup
Urad dal flour - 1/4 cup
Unsalted butter - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Sesame seeds or cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Salt - as needed
Water - as needed (1 tumbler of water is what I used)
Oil - for deep frying

Method

• Sieve the rice flour and urad dal flour couple of times. Take the flours in a wide bowl, add butter, asafoetida, sesame seeds or cumin seeds and salt. Mix well.
• Now add the water little by little and knead a soft pliable dough. The dough should not be too hard or too sticky. Else the murukku will be hard or drink plenty of oil.
• Heat oil in a kadai simultaneously. Fill the murukku press with the dough, squeeze in circular motion onto to the back of the ladle or in a polythene sheet or zip lock cover and then transfer it to the hot oil. You can also squeeze directly into the oil, but be cautious in that case. I used to do this way as I feel that's less time consuming as I make bigger size murukku's. 
• Check if the oil is hot enough, just drop a small piece of murukku dough in the oil, if it raises to the surface immediately, it is an indication that the oil is hot. Now start making murukku's.
• Make sure the flame is in medium high when you squeeze in the dough. Fry until golden brown, remove and drain it in a paper or drainer. The bubbling sound or the ssshhh sound should subside, that is the indication for the doneness of the murukku.

Aval Laddu/Poha Laddu - Krishna Jayanthi Recipes

This is the first time I am preparing Aval Laddu. When I was looking for some simple and less time consuming recipes for Krishna Jayanthi I came through this recipe in RaksKitchen. The process is all same as we make Besan Laddu. So I did a trial today and it came out well, except for the perfect shapes. I used little less ghee than the specified amount, that can be the reason. Otherwise the laddu's are too good.

Ingredients

Aval/Poha/Flattened Rice - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Cashews - few, broken to small pieces
Raisinns - few

Method

• Spread the poha in a plate and check for any dust or impurities. After removing them, heat a pan and dry roast the poha until golden brown. Allow to cool and then grind it to a fine powder in a mixer. Also powder the sugar in the mixie.
• Heat ghee and fry the cashews until golden brown then add the raisins and fry until they become fluffy.
• In a wide bowl add the powdered poha, sugar, cardamom powder, fried cashews, raisins and the ghee. Mix well and make laddus out of it. If required grease your hands with ghee for getting perfect shaped laddus.

Aval Payasam/Poha Kheer - Krishna Jayanthi Recipes

This year Krishna Jayanthi is only few days away. In my mom's place we don't follow much rituals or pooja. But its completely the opposite with VJ's family, they will do pooja for Lord Krishna by offering lots of sweets and neivedhyams. So I am trying to gear up for this year. Aval or Poha is one of Krishna's favorite. And hence people will offer aval in any form. Aval Payasam is one way of offering aval to Lord Krishna. It is very easy and less time consuming when compared to other payasams. I made it for the first time for last year's Krishna Jayanthi and it turned out very well. Have prepared this couple of times after that and I am planning to make this year too along with few more Krishna Jayanthi recipes.

Ingredients

Aval/Poha - 1 cup
Boiled Milk - 4 cups approximately
Sugar - 1/3 cup (adjust as per your sweet preference)
Cardamom/Elaichi - 2 (or)
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Saffron threads - 3 or 4 (optional)
Cashews - 10, broken into small pieces
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 2 tsp

Method

• Soak saffron threads in a tbsp of warm milk and set aside
• Add a tsp of ghee in a pan and fry the cashews until golden brown. Remove the cashews and set aside. Reserve some for garnishing if you wish. Then in the same pan add the raisins and fry until they fluff up. Remove them and now add the poha and roast until it slightly changes color. Do not allow it to turn brown. 
• Now to this add 3 cups of boiled milk and stir well. Allow the poha to cook in this milk. The poha should turn soft. Meantime if the milk is fully absorbed add one more cup of milk along with the raisins, cashews and cardamom powder/whole cardamoms. Add the sugar and the saffron dissolved milk too.
• Stir until the sugar dissolves. Finally add one more tsp of ghee. This is totally optional but will enhance the flavor of the kheer. Garnish with the roasted cashews. Enjoy it hot or warm or even chilled. I like to have it cold, tastes very delicious!!