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Coming up--- Nellikai Uruga

Rice Karuvadam

The second in the series of our ode to the sun god was rice karuvadams. These are slightly more difficult than the tapioca variety but a grade higher on the delicious scale. I couldn't help being reminded of my grandmom when we made these goodies.

Ingredients:
2 cups of rice flour
2 tablespoons of tapioca flour (just grind the tapioca seeds in a chutney grinder)
2 big green chillies
1 tablespoon salt
Juice of a medium-sized lemon


Method:
Make a paste of the green chillies and salt, adding some water. Add the lemon juice to the mix and then strain the mixture. Bring 2 cups of a water to a boil and add the lemon, chilly and salt mix. Switching off the flame, gradually add the flour to the hot and spicy mixture and stir slowly to the consistency of really soft chapathi dough. Now cover the vessel and cook on low flame for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then make a ball to fit into the press and squeeze onto the plastic sheet. Make sure the noodles are a flat pile and not mounted too high. The flatter the pile the easier and quicker the drying process. That's it sun-dry the family for about a week, turning over the karuvadams for uniform drying every alternate day. Fry and crack your teeth into them over a meal.

Dried and tested

Lately, I have developed a fascination for all things sun dried. Baking has always been my first love but with the borrowed cake mixer back to its owner, temporarily (until I get time to shop for a cake mixer) my interest in using oven power has been replaced with usage of solar power. Thanks to mom for remembering all of my patti's (grandmother's) recipes. Mom and I dished out two types of karuvadams -- one made with tapioca seeds and the other with rice flour. Turned out quite okay and certainly a bargain when compared to the store-bought ones. Of course, I would have mentioned the better taste of the home-made ones too but the two are not worth comparing :)

Tapioca or jevvarasi karuvadam

Ingredients:

1/2 Kg tapioca

4 big green chillies

2 tablespoons of salt

2 teaspoons of cumin seeds

A big plastic sheet

Plenty of sun

Method:

Soak the tapioca overnight. Make sure the tapiocas are well below the water level because if the amount of water is less they will rise above the water and not be soggy enough. The next morning grind the salt with the chillies and some water. Add them to the tapioca mixture and cook in a thick-bottomed vessel with 5 cups of water, stirring the mix constantly, for about 20 minutes until the tapiocas are transluscent.

Now, off you go to the roof or balcony. Spread the plastic sheet and place weights on the edges. Spoon the mixture on to the sheet. Keep a bowl of water handy to loosen the mix in case it gets too thick. Leave it to dry in the sun. The next day peel off the circular tapioca mix pieces and flip them so that the other side dries too. Dry it for a couple of days until it has no wet spots. That's it, they are ready to be fried and devoured.