How to make Sevai and coconut sevai

Many of you must remember by posts about how I struggle to make the soft sevai. Sevai and Idiyappam are used synonymously. But they are not actually the same thing. As I have mentioned in an earlier post, there are a couple of fundamental differences. Sevai is made with par boiled rice and idiyappam with raw rice. Sevai is ground, cooked/steamed and then squeezed thru the nazhi where as idiyappam is rice made into flour, cooked in boiling water, then squeezed and steamed. In Kerala, idiyappam is served with stew, kurma, kadala curry etc.

Both of these are quite easy to make if you know what you are doing. After all the struggle with making both of them and working with instant noodles etc, I decided it was time to get myself a sevai nazhi. This time I followed the recipe my MIL uses and am glad to say, I ate some super soft and tasty sevai. My little one and husband were all praises for it as well.



Instrument needed - Sevai Nazhi. Sevai Nazhi is the equipment needed for making Sevai. There are hand operated (not standing like this) as well. Those are typically used for making idiyappam and I found those hard to use. This one is super easy to use and the whole squeezing out of the sevai was done in 5-10 minutes.





Ingredients

Idli Rice/Par boiled rice 2 cups
Salt

Method of Preparation

1. Soak rice for a few hours (i just left it overnight).

2. Drain water  and grind into a smooth paste by adding enough water. I did the grinding in my grinder (used for making idli batter). I added about a cup of water. It should be fairly thick like idli batter and not like dosa batter. Add salt and mix well.



3. Grease idli plates. Pour the batter into it and steam for 10 minutes. This is a method that my MIL taught me. Most recipes ask you to stir the batter in a pan to make into a thick consistency, then roll into balls and steam. This method makes it quite easy. No stirring :-)

4. Once the 'idli' is ready, all you have to do is to squeeze it out thru the sevai nazhi (sevai maker). See the equipment photo. You can just turn with hands and may be hold the base with your feet. Better if someone lends you a hand in holding this. It is easier to squeeze sevai if you do it with hot idlis.



5. Take a couple of idlis at a time and work till the whole batch is done. If some batter remains after each go, just pop it back in with the next set of idlis. Another tip - When you think the idlis are ready, take one and squeeze thru. If it is sticky, it means that the idlis need more cooking. If the idlis are over cooked, the sevai will not be soft. So you will have to find the correct timing.



6. You can then serve the sevai as is with some mor kozhambu or moru kari along with pappadam. That is how we eat it at home. In my in laws place, they make variety sevai. Check recipe for Ulundu sevai and moong sprout sevai. I made coconut sevai and mor kozhambu today.



Coconut Sevai



Ingredients

Coconut 1 cup
Peanuts 2 tbsp
Channa Dal 1 tsp
Curry leaves few
Green Chilli 2
Sevai (i used most of what I made from the 2 cups of rice. i saved a little bit as plain sevai)
Oil

Method of Preparation

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add the peanuts and channa dal. When it starts to brown add curry leaves and green chillies.

2. When it sizzles, add coconut and saute till it changes colour slightly.

3. Add to the cooled sevai and give it a good mix.

Serve as is or with some mor kozhambu





Linking this to South Indian Cooking - Event by Anu, Hosted by Sangee