Sevai

The rice paste is steamed as lumps before it is pressed into threads.

Vegan.

Ingredients

400 g parboiled rice
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
2 tablespoons urad dal
60 g peanuts
20 curry leaves
3 green chillies, slit
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
4 tablespoons sesame oil
juice of 1 lemon
40 g coconut, grated

Method

THE RICE PASTE IS STEAMED AS LUMPS BEFORE IT IS PRESSED INTO THREADS. Its article sets the steps out as a list and the middle one is the surprise: parboiled rice SOAKED IN COLD WATER FOR ABOUT THREE HOURS, GROUND with a wet grinder INTO A FINE PASTE, and then DUMPLINGS MADE FROM THE RICE PASTE AND THE CHUNKS STEAMED. Only after that does it go through the press. So the dough is cooked before it is shaped, which is the opposite way round from Idiyappam, as on its own page, where the threads are squeezed out first and steamed as nests. That one page differs from this one by the order of two steps.
THE RICE IS PARBOILED, NOT RAW, AND ITS ARTICLE SAYS SO. Parboiled rice grinds to a paste that holds together; raw rice gives something that crumbles coming out of the press.
THREE HOURS IN COLD WATER, WHICH IT ALSO SPECIFIES. Not warm and not overnight.
THE PASTE IS GROUND FINE AND STIFF. Fine enough to feel no grain, stiff enough to shape by hand.
THE LUMPS ARE STEAMED FIFTEEN MINUTES AND PRESSED HOT. The press will not take cold dough, and a cooled lump has to be steamed again.
THE THREADS ARE SPREAD OUT AND COOLED SEPARATELY. Piled hot they weld into a solid mass.
THEN IT IS SEASONED LIKE A RICE DISH, NOT LIKE A NOODLE. Mustard seeds, urad dal, peanuts, curry leaves and chillies in hot oil, folded through with lemon and coconut -- the same tempering as the lemon rice on these pages.
IT CAN BE MADE FROM DRIED STICKS AND ITS ARTICLE SAYS SO. Prepared from dried sevai packs. Boiled four minutes, rinsed cold, drained hard. It is a different texture and much faster.
ITS ARTICLE DATES IT TO THE FIRST CENTURY. It cites references in Sangam literature to sevai and idiyappam, and a 1025 Kannada cookbook describing the mould-press itself.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes