Uppu Seedai / Salt Seedai
Crunchy & Yummy Uppu Seedai!










Uppu Seedai (Salt Seedai) stands as a significant and cherished neivedhyam dish during the auspicious Krishna Jayanthi (Gokulashtami) festival. Amidst the array of offerings we prepare on this special day, Seedai holds a unique and integral place as Prasad. The process involves combining rice flour and urad dal flour with a blend of salt, hing (asafoetida), and butter, which is then kneaded into a dough. Subsequently, we craft these dough into tiny balls before submerging them into hot oil for deep frying, rendering them irresistibly crunchy. Seedai emerges as a savory and crunchy snack, suitable for everyone from little kids to adults. It’s worth noting that both Uppu Seedai and Vella Seedai may initially pose a challenge due to their intricate preparation and time-consuming nature, but once you master the techniques, the results are undeniably rewarding!
Childhood memories
In my childhood, I have fond memories of my mom meticulously preparing 5-6 batches of dough for Uppu Seedai. My sister, my dad, and I eagerly joined in to help her roll the dough into small balls. My dad, in particular, displayed incredible patience, crafting the tiniest of balls. Surprisingly, these smaller balls turned out to be even crunchier and more delightful than their larger counterparts.
Although the process of making Uppu Seedai could be a bit tiring, the end result was undeniably delicious. As children, we often wondered why our mom was making such a large quantity, but it soon became apparent that she was ensuring we had an ample supply of these crispy treats for at least a week. The joy of indulging in these homemade delicacies was worth every bit of effort put into their preparation. These memories continue to fill my heart with warmth and nostalgia.
Tips for making Uppu Seedai and how to avoid bursting of seedai in the oil
How to avoid the bursting of seedai while frying ?
I’m aware that making Uppu Seedai can be a daunting task for many, and the fear of them bursting while frying in hot oil is a common concern. While the steps may seem straightforward, there are indeed crucial points to keep in mind during the preparation of the dough to prevent such mishaps. The reasons behind Uppu Seedai bursting in the oil can be multifaceted, and it’s essential to understand and address these factors to ensure a successful outcome.
- Smooth Flour : The rice flour and urdal flour should be very nice and smooth. We need to pass the flours through the sieve atleast twice to get smooth flour. This will prevent breaking of seedai while frying in oil. Sometimes if the flour is wet or if it is not smooth, there may be chances of bursting of seedai while frying in oil which is very dangerous. So we should be cautious while doing seedai.
- Soft Balls: We just need to roll the dough to the soft ball and not a very rigid ball as the air particles inside the dough try to come out while frying and if the ball is very rigid, it may burst in oil.
- Dry Balls: After making small balls, leave it in the newspaper / plate to dry before dropping in oil. The wetness or the moisture in the ball tend to burst.
Store-bought Rice Flour Vs. Homemade Rice flour
- Traditionally the seedai is made using home made rice flour. But we can very much make seedai using the store bought ready made rice flour as well. In fact the seedai that i have shown in the video is made using store bought Rice flour.
- Homemade Rice flour is the preferred method as it will ensure the right texture and color of the seedai.
- Before using Store bought or Homemade Rice flour, We need to fry the rice flour till its warm
- Some brand of store bought rice flour makes the seedai darker than the usual golden brown.
Ratio of Rice Flour to Urad Dal flour
- The perfect ratio of Rice flour and Urad Dal flour would be 11: 1. You can use a small ladle to measure or you can use a standard measuring cup or a tumbler. In this recipe, i am using ladle. But you can use cup, ladle or anything.
- Whatever measuring utensil you use measure the rice flour and urad dal flour with the same measuring equipment. If you use a ladle to scoop 11 measures of rice flour then use the same ladle to scoop 1 measure of urad dal flour. Then only the ratio will work.
- Adding more urad dal than the ratio given makes the seedai brittle and the color will be more red than golden brown. So maintain the ratio.
Why Seedai is sometimes harder and sometime chewy?
Deep frying Seedai at right temperature and flame will ensure right crunchiness of seedai.
- Before deep frying ,ensure the oil is hot enough. You can check by dropping a pinch of dough to see if it raises immediately. If so, then the oil is ready!
- Once the oil is ready, add only 1 seedai to the oil. Keep the flame in low and allow that one seedai to get fried. Do not stir with a ladle immediately after dropping the seedai. Just leave for few seconds and then use a ladle.
- Ensure the seedai is fried properly and then take out the seedai. From next batch, you can add 2 handful of seedai to the oil and deep fry in low flame.
- If we keep the flame high to speed up the process, the seedai becomes dark brown soon and when you take out the seedai from oil, it seems crispy but after cooling down, the seedai will become chewy.
- Butter is another important ingredient to get right crunchiness. We can also add hot oil but adding oil makes the seedai hard to bit. Butter gives right texture and the seedai will be crunchy at the same time melt in mouth.
Why seedai is consuming lot of oil?
Sometimes we feel seedai has so much of oil. Its because if the temperature of oil is not correct. If the temperature of oil is too low, then the seedai will soggy with oil.
Recipe Card for Uppu Seedai:
Uppu Seedai | Gokulashtami Recipes
Equipments Needed
- Heavy Bottomed Pan
Ingredients
- 1 Measure Urad Dal Flour Measure is anything from ladle to cup
- 11 Measure Homemade Rice Flour
- 1 tbsp Butter at room temperature
- 1 tbsp Split Bengal Gram (Channa Dal / Kadalaparuppu)
- 2 tbsp Grated Coconut We can also use Finely Chopped Coconut
- Salt As Needed
- ½ tsp Asafoetida (Asafetida / Hing)
- 2 Cups Oil for Deep Frying
Instructions
- Soak the gram dal(channa dal) in water for 10 minutes.
Preparing Dough
- Homemade rice flour is the best option for seedai than the store bought rice flour. The ratio of rice flour to urid dal flour is 11:1 (I have used ladle, so for 11 ladles of rice flour, we need to add 1 ladle of urid dal flour. You can use cup, tumbler or even spoon). We need to use the right ratio other wise the seedai will not turn out good. The more uriddal flour, seedai would be dark colour. Lesser urid dal flour results in very light color. So please maintain the ratio.
- Pass the rice flour and urid dal flour through the sieve atleast twice to make sure they are perfectly smooth.
- Take a bowl and add the flours along with butter, grated coconut, hing, salt and the soaked and drained gram dal and mix well with your hand so that all are nicely mixed up
- Then sprinkle water little by little and knead them to a smooth and stiff dough. Do not add more water and make the dough sticky. The dough should be stiff.
- Then grease your fingers and palm with oil and take small quantity of dough and roll it to a tiny ball. Do this for rest of the dough. Allow the seedai dough balls in clean cloth for atleast 5-10 minutes to dry.
Frying Seedai
- Heat oil in a pan. Check if the oil is hot enough to raise the seedai immediately by dropping a seedai. When it raises immediately, then our oil is ready. Take the tiny dough balls in batches. Do not overload the oil with more seedai.
- Drop 20-30 balls at a time and deep fry them till they turn golden brown color and crispy. Remove the crispy seedai from the pan and place it in a paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat the step for the rest of the seedai balls.
- Now the crispy, crunchy and tasty Uppu Seedai is now ready for neivedhyam or for serving!
Video
Notes
- Smooth Flour : The rice flour and urdal flour should be very nice and smooth. We need to pass the flours through the sieve atleast twice to get smooth flour. This will prevent breaking of seedai while frying in oil. Sometimes if the flour is wet or if it is not smooth, there may be chances of bursting of seedai while frying in oil which is very dangerous. So we should be cautious while doing seedai.
- Soft Balls: We just need to roll the dough to the soft ball and not a very rigid ball as the air particles inside the dough try to come out while frying and if the ball is very rigid, it may burst in oil.
- Dry Balls: After making small balls, leave it in the newspaper / plate to dry before dropping in oil. The wetness or the moisture in the ball tend to burst.
Nutritional Info
Method with Step by Step Pictures :
- Soak the gram dal(channa dal) in water for 10 minutes.
- Homemade rice flour is the best option for seedai than the store bought rice flour. The ratio of rice flour to urid dal flour is 11:1 (I have used ladle, so for 11 ladles of rice flour, we need to add 1 ladle of urid dal flour. You can use cup, tumbler or even spoon). We need to use the right ratio other wise the seedai will not turn out good. The more uriddal flour, seedai would be dark colour. Lesser urid dal flour results in very light color. So please maintain the ratio. Pass the rice flour and urid dal flour through the sieve atleast twice to make sure they are perfectly smooth. Take a bowl and add the flours along with butter, grated coconut, hing, salt and the soaked and drained gram dal and mix well with your hand so that all are nicely mixed up
- Then sprinkle water little by little and knead them to a smooth and stiff dough. Do not add more water and make the dough sticky. The dough should be stiff. Then grease your fingers and palm with oil and take small quantity of dough and roll it to a tiny ball. Do this for rest of the dough. Allow the seedai dough balls in the newspaper / plastic sheet / cloth for atleast 5-10 minutes to dry.
- Heat oil in a pan. Check if the oil is hot enough to raise the seedai immediately by dropping a seedai. When it raises immediately, then our oil is ready. Take the tiny dough balls in batches. Do not overload the oil with more seedai. Drop 20-30 balls at a time and deep fry them till they turn golden brown color and crispy. Remove the crispy seedai from the pan and place it in a paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat the step for the rest of the seedai balls.
- Now the crispy, crunchy and tasty Uppu Seedai is now ready for neivedhyam or for serving!
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Uppu Seedai / Salt Seedai |
is adding urad flour a must ? please let me know.
Thank you,
Mami thanks. But my mil used to say, after making seedai, v shd dry that in plate or a towel & only after that we should put that in oil to avoid bursting.
Should we do that?
Hi, That is true, we need to dry the seedai before frying.
very nice recepie… very professional.. thank you
Can I use rice flour instead of soaking pacharisi ?
Hi, We can use, but make sure you sieve the rice flour twice before using and also just fry for 2-3 minutes before making dough. For Neivedhyam, it is always good to prepare rice flour from rice instead of readymade rice flour.
Thank you mami. Will do that .
Can you please tell what is the purpose of frying the store bought rice flour? Can't I use the flour as such. Please clarify mami.
How to prepare this flour at home .over mixer ,should we wash rice
Hi, please refer this link for prepare this flour. https://www.subbuskitchen.com/2014/06/how-to-make-rice-flour-at-home-homemade.html
Hi! Usually they say that you have to roast the urad dhal and powder it and rice flour also should be roasted before making the dough. Yours is already roasted or without. Please clarify my doubt.
Yes, I have used the roasted rice flour and urid dal flour
I tried this with the same ratio mentioned by you, but seedai came out soft, naamathu poney madhiri.. the colour is great and thankfully it didnt brust..what could have gone wrong.. please advice
Hi Sushmitha, Urid dal flour gives a nice crisp to the seedai. Also we need to deep fry the seedai in medium or low flame till the bubbles stop forming and also the noise is fully reduced. Thats the correct time to remove the seedai from oil. If we keep the flame high, the seedai might tend to change the color quickly but i wouldn;t have been fried properly. So seeing the colour we may tend to remove from flame but when we eat it would be too soft. So fry the seedai in medium or low flame till all the noise is reduced and there are no bubbles and then remove one seedai from oil and drop it on the vessel to see if you hear the noise, if it is nicely fried and crispy, you could hear clicking noise when you drop it on a plate or vessel. Ensure this and then remove the rest of seedai. Hope this helps.
Thanks mami, will keep that in mind
Hello – my seedai is perfect texture and crunch but too salty since I didn't know how strong my new salt btand was! Do you have any ideas for other dishes I could use them for? I don't want to waste them. Thank you for the recipe and your suggestions
I tried vella seedai and uppu seedai has per your steps mentioned it came out well,for the first time vella seedai came without breaking thanks for your recipes
I tried vella seedai and uppu seedai as per your recipe and steps it came out well for the first time my vella seedai came without breaking thanks for your recipes
Thanks mami for your recipes i tried uppu seedai and vella seedai as per your steps given it came out very well especially for the first time vella seedai came without breaking was very happy thank you
will try it out and let u know
Super
Hi mami, I followed ur steps and measures,but the Vella seedai is breaking while frying. It means it z fully dissolved in oil. I used store bought rice flour. What is the reason for it? Rice flour or jaggery syrup? Pls clarify. Thank you.
Don't we have to fry the rice flour.should be golden brown or just till moisture is absorbed. Pl clarify
just need to fry till the rice flour is warm
Can I skip adding coconut?
Yes we can skip coconut
Can you please mention rice to be fried in the recipe also as learners may miss this information.
Hi..happy krishnashtami. i am amatuer who tried seedai for 1st tym. I noticed that seedai did not burst out, but then it did not float on d top of d oil, may be i used limited oil. And seedai color ws dark ..i think i added lilire urud. And crust is hard n perfect bt the inner part is not hard…pls infer…
Hi good morning
While using instant flour from the shop should we use more urad dal or butter?
How to avoid becoming ‘kadak’ becoming hard to bite
Thank u
It’s butter
Which rice flour is better?? Idayappam flour or kolukattai flour?
Its a rice flour.. you can try Kolukattai flour which is also a rice flour.
I think thats what she meant by saying allow the seedai on a cloth. She missed out on the word dry. Great recipe
Thanks Jayanthi.You are right. i have updated it
Followed all the steps and it was successful. Thank you for all the details.
Regards,
Vaishali
Thanks Good to hear
I saw you salt seedai video.rice roasting time or how to identify the correct time to stop roasting rice.
Sorry to ask this stupid question
Jayshree from Mumbai
Initially it will be smooth and you will not be able to draw even a line using the rice flour. Once you fry rice flour, try drawing a line.. if it’s smooth and if you are able to draw a line using rice flour, then its a right consistency and you should strop frying it.
The measurement of rice and udid flour is after roasting the rice flour or before .Pl clarify.
Both are same. You can measure and dry roast or dry roast and measure both are same
Hi Sowmya..I just tried your uppu seedai as per your recipe..the first one did not burst..I fried the others and it burst after 10 mins in oil.The first 10 minutes nothing happened..it was cooking in the oil.can I know the reason?
So sorry to hear. If the balls are rolled very rigid, the oil try to penetrate and the air inside the ball tries to escape that makes the seedai burst. Thats why it take time to burst. Roll the balls softly not rigidly and also allow it to dry in towel for atleast 10 mins
Tried both Uppu Seedai & Vella seedai for Kutty Krishna at home..came out superb..Thanks a ton Subbu Ma’am & Sowmya
So glad to hear. Thank you so much Usha
Can you tell
Me how much butter for 1 cup rice flour ? Becasue I don’t know what is the measurement for a ladle .
For 1 Cup you can use 2 tbsp butter.
How to make urad flour
Dry roast the urad dal till its hot to touch and then grind it to powder, sieve it twice and use it🙏
I tried making cheedai but the entire lot broke out in the oil. I have it in the form of a oily powdered granules. Please tell me what I can do with it now ? Thanks !
Sorry we can’t use it anymore. Very sorry to hear. Always put only 1 in oil and test if it disintegrates in oil.
For uppuseedai no need to roast fresh coconut ?
we can use chopped fresh coconut pieces as it is without roasting.