Nei Payasam and Rawa Vadai for Aadi Velli

This Friday, being the third to occur in the Tamil calender month of Aadi, I wanted to make something that I have not tried cooking until now. I had tasted Jayasree's nei payasam while we visited her and had simply loved it. So I decided on that and kept flicking pages of S.Meenakshi Ammal volumes for the savoury idea. My eyes opened wide with the recipe for rawa vadai which she had posted three variations. Then and there, I wanted to try the same.

Please stop by Jayasree's Kailas Kitchen to read her Kerala special nei payasam. I refrain from repeating the write up. I have reduced the quantity of jaggery as the one I store is very sweet. I was apprehensive that the cooking of the payasam would take a long time and I might have to postpone a few chores. No, it was done in a reasonable time frame, giving me lot of time to experiment the next recipe.

The next was the rawa vadai, which, if you had time to hang curds to drain the water off, will be done in a jiffy. The other two methods involve cooking of the rawa and then deep frying, which may result in more oil consumption. So I chose this recipe. I passed the curd on a thick cloth and pressed it through the strainer prior to hanging it. This helped quicken the process of obtaining hung curd.

The following is for forty numbers thin and crisp rawa vadais that are delight to munch on lazy weekends.

300 grams semolina

500 ml slightly sour curds

Salt to taste

1'' piece ginger finely chopped

10 fresh green chillis chopped

1 small pinch of asafoetida powder

Few curry leaves chopped

Few coriander leaves chopped

2 teaspoons ghee

Oil for deep frying

If you desire to make the vadais by evening around tea time,place the curds in a thick cloth and tie it up, allowing the water to drain in a utensil placed underneath.

Let it hang so until mid afternoon.

Once drained well, remove from the cloth and transfer on to a mixing bowl.

Add salt, asafoetida powder, ginger, curry leaves, coriander leaves and semolina to the curd. Mix well to blend.

Finally add the two teaspoons of ghee and mix them thoruoghly.

Keep covered for a few minutes.

Pour oil in a heavy pan and keep it on fire.

Meanwhile, pinch out small lime size balls of the dough.

Slightly spread some oil on a thick plastic sheet or banana leaf. Flatten out the pinched balls on the sheet as thin as possible.

Once a batch of four to six have been flattened to discs, drop them in hot oil.

Keep the rest covered with a damp cloth.

While frying toss some of the hot oil on the top side of the vadais, turn them over when one side is done and fry until the other side is well done.

Remove from the oil and drain on absorbent tissues.

These vadais will be crisp and will stay so for two to three days. They will not absorb much oil also.