Cheeda, seedai or Kaliyadakka

Cheeda, Seedai or Kaliyadakka

Cheeda, seedai or Kaliyadakka is a traditional round- bead shaped snack popular in South India. Salted version of this recipe is known by the names Uppu seedai or salt seedai. These crunchy small balls are of a light golden brown texture with a delicious flavour. Perfect seedai or cheeda preparations make use of rice flour and urad dal flour as the main ingredients.  Asafoetida powder, sesame seeds, ghee or butter and grounded coconut are the other ingredients used in this dish. Have a look at the preparation of this special dish.

Ingredients used

• 1 cup of slightly roasted Rice flour
• 3 tablespoon of Urad dal
• ½ cup of freshly grated coconut
• ¼ teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 2 teaspoon of black sesame seeds
• A pinch of Asafoetida / Hing
• Water as per the requirement
• Oil for deep frying

Method of preparation

• Take the freshly grated coconut in a mixer and add the cumin seeds. Ground the mixture to a fine paste.
• Heat some water in a pan, heat it to a boil and simmer it for some time.
• Now, take the slightly roasted rice flour, Urad flour, grounded coconut- cumin paste, asafoetida, butter and some salt for the taste in a wide open mixing bowl.
• Pour some boiled water and mix the ingredients to form smooth dough. Use a long handled spoon or wooden ladle in mixing the ingredients. Keep it aside for 15 minutes.
• Take out one small portion of dough and roll it to form a small gooseberry shaped round piece.
• Continue the process until whole of the dough is made into small bead shaped dough pieces.
• Now, place the small round and bead shaped dough pieces on a clean and dry cotton cloth. Keep it for 4-5 minutes.
• Heat the oil in a deep bottom frying pan or Cheena chatti, keep the flame in a medium high state.
• Once the oil is hot, slowly add 10-15 dough balls into the oil. Reduce the flame to a low-medium state.
• Deep fry the dough balls to form light brown coloured crispy Cheeda, seedai or Kaliyadakka.
• Take it away from the flame and keep it on a paper towel, this will remove the excess oil.
• Serve it as an evening snack recipe and store the rest of it in an airtight container.