Udida Vodi (Sun dried Black gram Fritters)

Udida Vodi is one more dried item made during summer. In konkani, Udidu means black gram and vodi is a sun dried item. In my earlier post, I had posted how to make Piyava Vodi. This is one more variety of vodi made by my MIL. This variety is much simpler when compared to Piyava vodi. 

I am thankful to my MIL who made these vodis, so that I can click the pictures and post. Try making these before the summer ends:-)

Ingredients:

• Split black gram/ Urad dal- 2 cup
• Green Chilli- 10-15
• Cumin seeds/ Jeera- 3-4 Tbsp
• Salt- To taste

For Drying: You will require big sheets of plastic and flattened boxes, to support the plastic.

Procedure:

Wash and soak split black gram for 2-3 hours. Then drain out the water and grind it to get a smooth paste (add very little water while grinding, if required). Transfer it to a large bowl and add salt to taste. 

Now wash and remove the stalk of green chillies and then grind it to get a coarse paste (don't add water). Transfer it to a small bowl and add cumin seeds to it and mix well.

Add the green chilli- cumin mixture to the black gram paste.

Mix it well.

  

Next- spread the plastic sheet on flattened boxes and clean it with a towel (you can as well grease the plastic sheet with a mixture of water and oil). Once everything is set, start spreading a spoonful of batter on the sheet as shown below -

Repeat the process until the batter gets over. Leave some space (1 inch) between each portion of batter, as its going to spread a little. After everything is done, it looks like this-

A close up view of the same-

Let this dry in the hot sun for five consecutive days. After a day in sun, the vodi looks like this-

A close up view of the same-

After 2-3 days, the vodi shrinks a little bit and later can be removed from the plastic and then dried together for two more days. Udida Vodi is ready!!

Store it in an air tight container. Whenever wanted, deep fry it and serve along with rice.

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Piyava Vodi (Sun dried- Rice based Onion Fritters)

Piyava Vodi is a very popular sun dried item. In konkani, piyavu means onion and vodi is nothing but a sun dried rice based item, which are then deep fried. These are generally made in the month February to May (Summer time). In kannada, it is called Sandige.

I grew eating these vodis. My mother used to make huge batches of it and then store it, for year long uses. She also distributed it to our relatives. I remember helping my mother with the process. These vodis taste awesome, once deep fried. It is very addictive. Now she has stopped doing it for many reasons. I miss mom made vodis!

But god is not that cruel towards me. Why so? Its because my MIL makes it affectionately for us every year. Am I not lucky?:-) Stories apart, the first thing we did after I reached home (back in India) was vodi (so that I can click the photos for my blog).  She helped a lot with many recipes. I am thankful to her:-)

Nowadays only few people make these vodis. Its because many are working or because they don't have enough space for drying or they are lazy. Give this a try and I am sure the effort is worth!

Ingredients:

• Dry Red Chilli- 15-20
• Rice- 2 1/2 cups
• Water- 2 1/2 liters
• Onion, chopped*- 1/2 kg
• Salt- To taste 

 *You can also substitute Garlic for onion. If you want to use garlic then add 4-5 big bulbs of garlic. The garlic has to be peeled and crushed lightly.

For Drying: You will require big sheets of plastic and flattened boxes, to support the plastic.

 

Procedure:

Soak the rice for 1-2 hours. Then drain the water and grind the soaked rice along with dry red chilli and salt, to get a smooth paste (add little water while grinding). Transfer this paste to a very big container, as there will be an increase in volume of the batter once it is cooked.

Now add the 2 1/2 liters of water to the rice paste and check for the salt (salt checking has to be done at this stage itself). The final batter before cooking looks like this-

 

Now start heating it on a high flame, with constant stirring. Once it comes to a boil, the watery paste slowly starts to thicken up. It looks like this-

Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat to minimum and allow it to cook for 10 minutes, with constant stirring (it has to be stirred continuously, to avoid burning). After 10 minutes, turn off the heat. The batter is ready.

Now add finely chopped onion to the prepared batter.

Mix it well. Let the batter sit overnight. The drying process starts next day early morning. 

Next morning spread the plastic sheet on flattened boxes and clean it with a towel (you can as well grease the plastic sheet with a mixture of water and oil). Once everything is set, start spreading a spoonful of batter on the sheet as shown below (mix the batter before spreading)-

Repeat the process until the batter gets over. A view after everything was done-

A close up view of the same-

Let this dry in the hot sun for five consecutive days. After a day in sun, the vodi looks like this-

A close up view of the same-

After 2-3 days, the vodi shrinks and later can be removed from the plastic and then dried together for two more days. Piyava Vodi is ready!!

Store it in air tight container. Whenever wanted, deep fry in oil and eat it as it is or serve it along with rice. Enjoy it throughout the year.

My MIL makes one more variety of  vodi. It is called Tarni Mirsange Vodi. In konkani, tarni mirsang means green chilli. The procedure of making it is same as given above. The changes to be made are- the amount of rice, water and salt remains the same (omit red chilli and onion). Other things to be added are:

-Green Chilli- 10-15

-Cumin seeds/Jeera- 3-5 Tbsp

 Make a coarse paste of green chilli and then add it to the rice paste along with cumin seeds.

After drying, the vodi looks like this-

These white vodis are not common and taste equally good. 

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Gova Shevai (Sun dried Wheat Vermicelli)

Gova Shevai is a very popular sun dried item.I had already posted in one of my posts- Shevai usli about the sun dried wheat noodles. Making these noodles requires lot of effort but the output is worthy. Making these noodles is a 7-8 days process and I remember my amma making them and me help her with it, in my school days! Now the number of people making it has decreased. Now people buy the ones available readily in the stores.

Posting the procedure of this noodles was my long time dream. Never thought I will post it so soon! All the credit goes to my Mother in law. She was the one who made this and I was happily clicking the photos. She likes making it every year and use them through out the year. I have tried to capture each step and have tried to explain as much as possible. Hope this helps and motivates few of you to try this!

Ingredients:

• Wheat- 1 kg
• Salt- To taste
• Noodles Maker 

You will also need big plastic sheets (for drying the noodles) and big flattened boxes, to support the plastic sheets.

Procedure:

Wash and soak wheat for two days. 

Wash it again with generous amount of water, 7-8 times to remove the bad smell.

Now grind the soaked wheat in a grinder (preferred) or a mixer grinder to get a paste, adding sufficient amount of water (the paste will not turn out fine and don't worry if it becomes watery). Transfer the watery paste into a bowl.

Now take a very big container like a stock pot or any other big dish you have in hand. The extracted milk has to be stored in this. Then take another container and a big strainer (you can also use a muslin cloth)  to extract milk (like) from the ground wheat.

 Step 1: Start pouring the ground wheat in batches.

Once the strainer is full, stir the mixture using hand. This will fasten the process of the extraction of milk from wheat.

Once the white liquid drains completely, you will be left with the wheat residue.

Don't throw the residue at this point. Collect it in a big bowl. Also transfer the extracted milk of wheat to the big dish. Now add the next batch of the ground wheat to the strainer and repeat Step 1 until everything gets over. 

Then add generous amount of water to the wheat residue and mix well. Repeat step 1 and again extract the milk. Now the white liquid extracted is little dilute than the first batch. In this way Step 1 has to be repeated 3-4 times, until all the milk from wheat is extracted. The milk extracted from wheat ( thick as well as dilute) is taken together in the big dish.

Allow the milk to settle for 8-10 hours (generally over night). After 10 hours the thick paste of wheat settles at the bottom and the top layer is water. We want just the settled thick wheat paste and hence the top layer (water) is unwanted. Without much disturbance, the the water has to be discarded by slowly bending it near a sink. once the water is thrown completely, transfer the white paste to a kadai (non stick works good. If you are not using non stick then grease the kadai with little oil). Add salt to taste.

Now start heating it on a medium flame and stir it continuously. After few minutes, the liquid starts to solidify.

Continue stirring continuously until the whole mixture solidifies and forms a single mass.

Turn off the heat. Now the mixture is ready to make noodles (it has to be done when hot. The mixture hardens as it cools). I used the traditional noodles maker.

Step 2: Put little mixture in the mould.

Make small noodles and collect them on a plate.

Spread them on a greased plastic sheet.

Repeat step 2 until all the mixture is used up. Dry these noodles under sunlight for 4-5 days.

Gova Shevai is ready!!

Store it in a air tight container. It can be used for more than a year. These noodles are used to make Shevai Usli. It can also be deep fried.

Note: You can as well make Sun dried Ragi noodles. The whole procedure remains the same. Just substitute half of the wheat with ragi i.e 1/2 kg of wheat and 1/2 kg of ragi. The resulting noodles looks like this.

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