Divamani Enterprises

Type: Savoury

Cuisine: South Indian

Preparation Time: 60 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup boiled rice
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1/2 tsp black gram
• 1/2 tsp bengal gram (optional)
• 2 red chillies

Instructions

1. Soak the rice for at least 8 hours.
2. Grind it very fine with salt.
3. Let it ferment for at least 8 hours.
4. Once it is fermented, check the consistency. It should be thinner than dosa batter consistency but not watery.
5. If it is not, add water.
6. Add 2 tsp of oil and put it in a deep pan.
7. Stir it continuously so that it does not burn (Rice batter tends to stick to the bottom).
8. Keep the flame low and continuously stir till it reaches a consistency where you can make a ball.
9. Let it cool a bit.
10. Prepare the steamer with tray. Add two glasses of water at the bottom of the steamer.
11. Tray should be covered with thin cotton cloth or banana leaf. If neither is available, grease the tray.
12. Make oval shaped balls of around 2-3 inches length and 1 inch diameter. Use the balance oil to grease your hands while making the balls
13. Place it on the tray. Try not to place one ball over the other. Spread it evenly.
14. Once the tray is full, cover the steamer with a lid and put it on high flame.
15. The steam will be strong after few minutes. At this point, reduce the flame and let it cook for at least 15 minutes.
16. In the meantime, prepare the rest of the balls.
17. Also take a few large plates and keep it ready. Keep the sevai press with small holes also ready.
18. Once the time is up, take the hot ball and place it into the hole of the sevai press. The oval shape of the ball helps to slide it neatly. The upper lid of the press should be fastened properly.
19. Hold it about 2 inches above the large plates and start pressing down the sevai press. Ensure that the press is moving in concentric circles around the plate. (There is another variety of sevai press which is available now wherein we don’t need to press it down, we have a handle over the top lid which can be moved in a circular direction. This presses down the batter through the holes making the sevai. Here, the sevai press is held in the left hand while the right hand moves the handle. The left hand should move in concentric circles so that the sevai is well spread)
20. Use one plate for one set so that it cools easily and does not stick to each other. Once one set is cold, transfer it to a large container.
21. Repeat for the rest of the batter.
22. Once the entire batter is done, you need to temper the sevai.
23. There are two ways to temper it.
    1. Take a pan.
    2. Add oil, mustard, black gram, bengal gram and red chillies.
    3. Once the mustard sputters and the black gram and red gram are mild brown, you can pour it in the container which has the sevai and lightly mix.
    4. The alternate method, take the sevai and put it into the pan and saute once lightly and remove from flame. This ensures that the sevai can be served hot. You may have to do this in several batches so put the oil and mustard in the pan in batches.
24. Both the types of tempering can be tried for understanding the difference in taste.
25. Serve with coconut chutney and sambar.

The procedure given above is for plain sevai. This can be converted into several other sevai dishes. Each of these requires an additional set of steps. Look out for further blogs on this.