Plain Sevai is a type of rice noodles popular in Southern India, particularly Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Sevai is distinctly different from its cousin idiyappam in the sense of input material, making process, and post-extrusion recipes. Sevai is popular as a breakfast/dinner food and is considered easily digestible as it can be made with less or no oil, and it is steamed.
Serve this plain sevai with kadalai curry, chutney or sambar.
Plain Sevai
Ingredients
- 2 cups Parboiled Rice
- Salt as per taste
- Oil little
Instructions
- Wash and soak rice overnight. Next day, drain all the water, grind to a fine paste
- Drain all the water and grind to a fine paste in a grinder. Keep sprinkling water while grinding as the dough has to be smooth and thinner than the idli batter.
- Add salt and little oil. Mix thoroughly.
- Grease idli plate with little oil.
- Pour a ladleful of the batter into the greased idli moulds.
- Steam cook for 10-20 minutes on low flame or until cooked.
- Put one or two idlis at a time into the sevai press (sevai maker).
- Press on to a large plate to get sevai or rice noodles.
- Repeat the process for the remaining idlis.
- Taking one ball at a time, put them in the Sevai press and press on to large plate. Sprinkle some oil all over so that they do not stick to each other.
Method 2
- Pour 1 tbsp oil into a thick bottomed vessel over low flame.
- Add the batter.
- Keep stirring all the while till batter is cooked. When done, the batter will have a shiny appearance.
- Remove the vessel from fire and allow to cool a bit.
- Grease idli moulds with little oil.
- Using wet fingers take some of the batter, make medium sized balls and put them into idli plate.
- Steam cook for 10-20 minutes on low flame or until cooked.
- Taking one ball at a time, put them in the sevai press and press on to large plate to get rice noodles.
- Sprinkle some oil all over so that they do not stick to each other.
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You can also make several variations to this plain sevai.
To make Milagu Sevai, grind 1 tsp of black peppercorns and 1/2 tsp of jeera to a fine powder. Add this to the plain sevai and serve.
To make Inippu Sevai, Combine 1/2 cup sugar, 2 powdered cardamoms, 5 broken cashew nuts, a pinch of saffron and few coconut pieces with some water. Boil this over medium flame until the syrup reaches a hard-ball like consistency (when you pour 1 tsp of syrup into cold water, it should form a ball when rolled between fingers). Mix the plain sevai and serve.
To make Ellu Sevai, dry roast and grind 4 tblsp ellu (sesame seeds) to a coarse powder. Add 1/2 cup of powdered jaggery and grind together. Mix the prepared sevai with this powder and 1 tblsp ghee. Mix lightly and serve.
To make Chocolate Sevai, dry roast 2 tsp of grated coconut till golden. Mix 1/2 tsp cardamom powder, 1 cup condensed milk and 4 to 5 tsp cocoa powder in a bowl. Mix this with the prepared sevai and keep it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Garnish with fried coconut and serve.
