Vella Avil - Gud Poha - Beatened Rice in Jaggery

Vella Avil - Sweet Variety prepared on Sri Krishna Jayanthi

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

• Beaten Rice/Aval/Avil/Poha - 1 cup
• Jaggery Powder - 3/4 cup
• Water - 1/4 cup
• Cocunut - 1/4 cup
• Powdered Cardamom - 4
• Ghee - 2 to 3 tbsp 

Preparation Steps:

• Wash the Beaten Rice and keep it aside. It should become soft.
• Boil the Jaggery in water and strain the impurities from it.
• Make it into string consistency and add the grated coconut into it.
• Then add the beaten rice, and stir till the syrup evaporates.
• While stirring add ghee so that it does not get sticky.
• Add cardamom powder to it and serve.

Vella Avil, ready for serving

Vella Cheedai - Jaggery Cheedai

Vella Cheedai - Snack Variety prepared on Sri Krishna Jayanthi

Also Known as:

• Vella Seedai
• Vella Cheeda

A small story behind:
First time when I prepared this, it was not a perfect one. It broke into smaller pieces, while frying. I learned some good lessons from that. It was my mother-in-law who taught me the exact measures this time. I also fine tuned the preparations with my earlier experience to make it near perfect one.
Preparation Steps:

Ingredients: (Serves 3-4)

• Jaggery - 3/4 Cup 
• Water - 1/2 Cup
• Rice Flour - 1 Cup
• Grated Coconut - 1 tbsp
• Black Gram (Urad Daal) Powder - 1/2 tbsp
• Sesame (Till/Ellu) - 1/2 tbsp
• Cardamom Powder - Small pinch
• Oil - For Deep frying

Preparation Steps:

• Roast rice flour and Black Gram flour. Do not over roast.
• Boil Jaggery in water and filter the impurities out. Do not make a thick syrup of this. Leave it to cool.
• Mix Rice Flour, Black Gram powder, Grated Coconut, Sesame seeds, Cardamom powder. Add Jaggery syrup prepared in first step to this mix.
• Hand roll into gooseberry size balls.
• Deep fry this in oil till it turns to golden brown colour. Do not put too much Cheedai in oil at the same time while frying. Put about 4-5 Cheedai only at a time.

Note:

• Black Gram and Rice flour must be sieved thoroughly otherwise there are chances of bursting while frying Cheedai.
• If the Cheedai breaks apart while frying, Jaggery syrup could be more. This is where I failed the first time.

Vella Cheedai, ready for serving

Uppu Cheedai - Salt Cheedai

Uppu Cheeda - Snack Variety prepared on Sri Krishna Jayanthi

Also Known as:

• Uppu Seedai
• Uppu Cheeda

Ingredients: (Serves 3 to 4)

• Rice Flour - 1 cup
• Black Gram (Urad Daal) Powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
• Pepper - 1/2 tsp
• Roasted Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Butter - 1/2 tbsp
• Salt - As required
• Oil - For Deep frying

Preparation Steps:

• Roast rice flour and Black Gram flour. Do not over roast.
• Grind Coconut, Cumin seeds and Pepper without adding water (do not make it smooth paste)
• Mix the above with other listed ingredients well and make a dough like Chapathi.
• Roll into small balls, about size of small gooseberries.
• Keep it aside for 10 minutes to remove moisture.
• Deep fry in oil (slim fire) till it gets a golden brown colour. Do not put too much Cheedai in oil at the same time while frying.

Note:

• 1cup is 200ml here.
• Black Gram and Rice flour must be sieved thoroughly otherwise there are chances of bursting while frying Cheedai.
• If the quantity of Black gram powder is less the colour of Cheedai may become light brown.

Uppu Cheedai, ready for serving