UPPU CHEEDAI

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 1 cup

Urad whole - 1/2 cup

Coconut grated - 1/4 cup

Salt - To taste

Butter - 1 tbsp

Black peppercorn - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Oil - for deep frying

Method:

Soak rice for 3-4 hrs. Drain and keep aside for half an hr.

Grind into fine powder and seive twice.

Dry roast urad balls until browned.Grind urad into a fine powder and seive twice.

Grind coconut,jeera and black pepper powder to semi coares paste without water.

In a bowl, add rice flour and urad flour in 4:1 ratio. Add salt,butter to flour and mix into crumbs.

Add coconut paste to flour mixture and knead well to a tight dough. Adding too much water would spoil the dough.

Lay a clean & dry towel or paper towel on kitchen slab or floor.

Take a very small portion of dough and roll using your palms into tiny rounds(bigger than peas and smaller than gooseberry). Place on the towel.

Roll out the entire dough as mentioned above and place on towel.

Let the rolled out balls be in towel for 45-60 mins until the excess water has been absorbed onto the towel.(You can see round patches of absorbed water on the towel)

Heat oil to deep fry. Oil shouldn't be smoking hot and let the heat be on medium- med.high.

Drop a bunch of balls(10-20 - depending on size of kadhai and amt of oil) and let them fry.(Donot overcrowd the kadhai with dough balls)

Slightly move the balls in between. These balls will bunch up together and lots of bubbles will be coming while cooking.

Slowly the balls will come up and bubbles will also cease.

Remove balls from oil and place on paper towel to drain excess oil.

Cool and store in air tight container.

Note:

- Cheedais tends to burst while frying.There are couple of reasons and tips for this:

1.Make sure that urad dal flour and rice flour are very fine and seived/sifted atleast twice before making dough.(Seive thrice is best and safest).Even a little of coarse grains can make them burst in oil.

2.Using excess water while kneading the dough can also cause them to burst; also the cheedais absorbs lot more oil and usual.If you happen to add extra water into dough then after kneading the dough cover & keep the dough entirely in a towel for an hr before rolling out into balls. Again after rolling into balls, let the balls be in dry towel for 1-2 hrs depending on the excess water.

3.Again while rolling the dough into balls, remember to roll it lightly and not too tightly.If rolled too tightly, the air gets trapped and while frying it expands and causes the balls to burst.Also smaller balls makes the cheedais cook faster and crisper.

- While frying the oil temperature is also to be maintained. If smoking hot, the balls will become brown faster from outside but wont be cooked inside.