Both Sevai and Idiyappam have lot of histories. The story of our Food by KT Achaya has reference to appams and Idiyappam being quoted in Sangam Literature and if you are a Ponniyin Selvan (Historic novel by Kalki) fanatic like me you will know what Senthan Amudan’s mother had served Vandiyathevan. (Idiyappam and coconut milk) It’s very interesting how the regional cuisines are intertwined. I have mentioned about the Ponniyin Selvan historic reference in my vegetable stew and Idiyappam recipe which I posted in 2014 and I used store bought Idiyappam flour for preparing the Idiyappam. Usually we prepare the dumplings and press it and then steam it for Idiyappam. For Sevai, we prepare the dumplings, steam them and then press them. Also in the same post I mentioned that I will post the home made recipe soon. But that soon never came until today.
So what kept me from posting it? I, me, myself. Lol. I was contemplating whether I should start everything from scratch like how my ammama does or just go with store bought rice flour (similar to Idiyappam). And when I decided to go with rice flour, I lost my Sevai presser mold during our house shift. Sigh!!!
For this blogging marathon, I wanted to try Sevai again and when I asked my friend N for the mold, she surprised me by giving her traditional Sevai presser itself. My joy knew no bounds. No I am not being dramatic here. That Nazhi bought back my entire child hood memories. Every summer when my grandma prepares Sevai, we cousins take turns to press them. One will hold the bottom and the other will add the dumpling and press. It’s a fun activity. I wanted to pass on these memories to Vaandu and we (I, M and Vaandu) prepared this Sevai on one Sunday evening and we had loads of fun pressing it. M took a video too and scroll down to see the video. Here is the picture of the Sevai presser.
For today’s post, I am just explaining the process of preparing the Sevai. I did prepare lemon and coconut Sevai but those two are coming as separate posts later. I am NOT using the Idiyappam flour here; it is the regular store bought rice flour. Ingredients:
Rice flour – 2 cups Water – 2 cups Salt – ½ tsp Oil – 1 tsp + for greasing.
Method:
Boil the water in deep bottomed vessel by adding 1 tsp of oil and the salt.
Once the water starts boiling, add the rice flour slowly and keep mixing it. Mix the flour well, cover it with a lid and reduce the heat to low.
Turn it off in couple of minutes and let it sit for 5 minutes.
While the flour is warm, grease your hand with oil, and knead the dough nicely.
Make big balls/dumplings from the dough and make sure these dumplings fit in your presser. I made four big dumplings.
Now in an idly cooker or in any steamer, steam these dumplings for 15 minutes.
Let it cool for 5 minutes meanwhile grease the insides of the presser, mold with oil. Add the dumplings and start pressing them. Here is the video.
That’s it. You can serve this with sugar and coconut milk or prepare any flavored Sevai. (recipe coming soon)
Notes:
Start kneading the dough when it is warm. If not it becomes really hard. If required, add few tbsps of water while kneading. (I didn’t add any) The size of the dumpling is depending upon the size of the presser you have.
📖 Recipe
