Seeval / Ribbon pakoda is a traditional snack that is made especially during festivals and makes a great tea-time snack as well. Its crunchy, mildly spicy and super delicious. It is my mother’s signature dish and an all time favorite snack at home. Though I miss her version, I’m glad that I learnt to make it. My son and husband are just loving munching on this snack.

This Diwali I tried making seeval for the first time following the “wet grinder method”. I followed my mother’s instructions and it turned out delicious. The taste can never be matched to the seeval / ribbon pakoda made using readymade flour. All you need is “patience” to get that right consistency. When you have that first bite, you will feel glad that you made it!

When you follow all the tips and tricks mentioned, it turns out crunchy and delicious!

Ingredients

• Idli rice / Ponni boiled rice – 2 cups
• Dry red chillies – 8 (Add more or less according to your taste)
• Kadalai Maavu / Gram flour / Besan- 1 cup
• Melted Butter – 4 tbsp
• Salt – 2.5 tsp
• Oil – For deep frying

Procedure

• Soak idli rice and dry red chillies in water overnight or for 4 hours.

• Remove the red chillies to a plate. Drain all the excess water from the soaked rice. Keep a small bowl of water near the wet grinder to sprinkle in between grinding the batter. Also, keep a small clean cloth nearby to wipe hands in between.

• To a wet grinder, add in red chillies + 1.5 tsp salt and grind it to a paste. Sprinkle very little water if it doesn’t get grinded properly. It is alright if the chilli paste is a bit coarse.

• Once you see a nice red color inside the grinder, slowly start adding the rice. Keep sprinkling water in between till all the rice has been added. Sprinkling water is important, else the grinder will get stuck.
• Also scrape the sides of the grinder with the long attachment that is usually given with the grinder.

• The rice should be thick and smooth. It took around 1 hour for my batter to get grinded to the right consistency.

• If it becomes too watery, the batter will be hard to knead.
• Transfer the grinded batter to a mixing bowl.
• Sieve 1 cup of gram flour in a bowl. It should be a fine powder.

• To this batter add in gram flour and 4 tbsp of melted butter and mix well till it comes to a thick dough consistency. Check for salt and add more if necessary. Be cautious while adding salt. We could always test in the first batch and decide too.
• If you find the dough too sticky, add few tsp on gram flour / besan and few tsp oil.

• Heat enough oil in a wide kadai. For making seeval, the oil temperature should not be too high. Else it will not get cooked evenly, resulting in a chewy consistency and a dark brown color. So ensure the temperature is medium, not too high, not too low.
• Rub some oil in your palms and take a portion of dough and fill it inside the murukku maker with “seeval / ribbon pakoda mould”.

• Once the oil is heated up, reduce the flame to medium and press a small portion of seeval in circular direction into the oil. Leave it undisturbed for a minute. Then, once the bubbles reduce, use a long ladle to invert it and cook on the other side. The cooking time will be approximately 3 mins.
• The first batch is always the “test batch”. It will help us decide whether salt is right in the seeval batter and also whether the oil temperature is right. So taste it and continue with the rest of the batter.

• Repeat the process for the rest of the dough.
• Store it in an airtight box once it completely cools down.

• Crunchy and delicious seeval is ready to eat.
• Makes a perfect festive snack and a tea-time snack as well.

Notes

• Ensure following all the steps to make the perfect seeval.
• If your batter takes a long time to grind, sprinkle very little water and try grinding.
• Add more red chillies if you want a spicy flavor.
• Add ground garlic for more flavor.