Uppu Seedai / Salt Seedai

Crunchy & Yummy Uppu Seedai!

Uppu Seedai (Salt Seedai) is one of the important and traditional neivedhyam dish for Krishna Jayanthi (Gokulashtami) festival. Though we prepare many Prasad on this auspicious day, Seedai is unique and one of the important Prasad. Rice flour, urad dal flour are mixed with salt, hing, butter and kneaded into dough. Then we make tiny balls out of the dough and deep fry till they are crunchy. Seedai is a crunchy and savory snack which can be enjoyed by little kids to adults. Both Uppu Seedai and Vella Seedai are little tricky and time consuming but once we get the techniques correctly then its worth its effort!

Childhood memories

In my childhood days, my mom used to prepare 5-6 batches of dough and me and my sister with my dad had helped my mom in rolling the dough into small balls. My dad has lots of patience and he used to roll it into very small ball and small balls are actually very crunchy than the bigger balls. It is a bit of tiresome process to make uppu seedai but the end result would be very delicious. We used to think why mom is making 5-6 batches but later we could see we have more seedai so that we could enjoy the delicious and crispy seedai atleast for a week.

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 know many people who are very scared of doing this uppu seedai. Many of us have a bitter experience in doing uppu seedai as sometimes it may burst while frying in the oil. The steps looks simple, but some points we need to keep it in my mind while preparing the dough to avoid bursting.  There are many reasons why it is getting burst in the oil.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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:

Pin Recipe

Uppu Seedai | Gokulashtami Recipes

Course: Baking Recipes, Festival, Snack, Snacks

Cuisine: Indian, South Indian, Tamil Nadu

Equipments Needed

• Heavy Bottomed Pan

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings: 6 Cups

Calories: 284kcal

Author: Sowmya Venkatachalam

Seedai is one of the important offering to Lord Krishna on the auspicious occasion of Krishna Jayanthi | Gokulashtami. A little time consuming yet worth the effort for these crunchy and yummy snack!

Print Recipe

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

How to avoid the bursting of seedai while frying ?

1. 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. 
2. 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.
3. 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

Nutrition Facts

Uppu Seedai | Gokulashtami Recipes

Amount Per Serving (100 g)

Calories 284 Calories from Fat 423

% Daily Value*

Fat 47g72%

Carbohydrates 42g14%

Protein 7g14%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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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!

Uppu Seedai / Salt Seedai

Sowmya Venkatachalam

IT Engineer turned full time Food Blogger. I ♡ FOOD. I also love food blogging. Did you make a recipe? Tag @Subbusktichen on Instagram. I WANNA SEE!