Nonbu adais - sweet as well as salt

This is a special adai prepared for Kaaradayaan nonbu. Everytime i miss to take snap shots hence this year, I decided I will keep my camera ready (battery charged) so that I can share the recipe with you. By god's grace this year pooja too went on well and the Offerings (neivedhyam) - adais came out very well.

Lets get on to common preparative procedure for both the dishes.

First seek the blessings of Lord Ganesha and then Nala raja that all the preparations go smooth. Then start the work....

1. For both sweet & salt adais, the preparation of rice flour & cowpeas are same. You can either purchase processed rice flour / idiyappam or appam podi (available in kerala stores) or follow the below method.
2. Soak the cowpeas / chawli / kaaraamani for 4 hours and pressure cook
3. Soak raw rice for 30 minutes
4. Drain the water
5. Spread the rice on a clean cloth & let it air dry
6. Powder it in a mill or using a mixer grinder, finely
7. Sieve and measure & keep ready in separate bowls
8. Heat a kadai / wok, dry roast this flour till nice aroma comes
9. Spread a paper, transfer the roasted flour to it and allow to cool

Let us start with sweet thing first :D

SWEET ADAI :-


Ingredients :

1. Processed rice flour - 1 cup (I used Melam idiyappam / appam podi which is too good for this purpose)
2. Water - 1.5 cups
3. Powdered Jaggery - 1 cup
4. Boiled cowpeas (kaaramani / chawli) - 1 tbsp
5. Coconut - grated - 3 tbsp (normally small shredded pieces of coconut is used in the recipe. But grated coconut has its own advantage as the fresh milky taste blends well and it is easy to chew for the children & aged people)
6. Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
7. Ghee - 2 tsp (optional)

sweet adai

Procedure :

• Prepare the flour as mentioned above. If you are buying ready made flour, then just follow the process given for roasting the flour
• Heat 1.5 cups of water in a vessel
• In another vessel boil some more water (to use if needed)
• When the water in the vessel starts boiling, add the powdered jaggery.
• 
  
• Boil by keep stirring till the jaggery dissolves completely
• Remove from flame, using a fine strainer, strain for impurities
• Transfer the filtered jaggery water to a wok, add the boiled cowpeas, grated coconut and bring to boil (You can add the cardamom powder at this stage)
• Now while keep stirring add the rice flour little by little to the boiling jaggery water
• the mixture will thicken now. If you feel you can add some more water (say a tbsp or two) now (which you have boiled separately)
• Allow this mix to cool down a bit. (Add ghee now & mix well)
• In a bowl mix some ghee or (gingely oil) and some water to use as a greasing agent to prevent the dough sticking to your hands
• Divide the dough into small balls of equal portion (dip your hand inthe oil+water mixture to grease the fingers?)
• now gently knead each portion, shape into ball, flatten them into discs, make a hole in the centre.
• Same way prepare all the portions and in a steamer, steam it for 10 minutes
• Delicious, Soft & Sweet adai is ready!

SALT ADAI 

Ingredients :

1. Processed rice flour - 1 cup (I used Melam idiyappam / appam podi which is too good for this purpose)
2. Water - 1.5 cups
3. Salt to taste
4. Boiled cowpeas (kaaramani / chawli) - 1 tbsp
5. Coconut - grated - 3 tbsp (normally small shredded pieces of coconut is used in the recipe. But grated coconut has its own advantage as the fresh milky taste blends well and it is easy to chew for the children & aged people)  

Ingredients For tempering :-

1. Sesame oil - 2 tbsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
3. deskinned Black gram / white urad - 1 tsp
4. Curry leaves - 1 sprig (finely chopped)
5. Asafoetida powder - 1 big pinch
6. Green Chillies - 2 nos (finely chopped)

salt adai

Procedure :

• Heat oil in a wok.
• Add mustard seeds. When it start spluttering, add whole urad / black gram, asafoetida powder
• When dal turns golden borwn add chopped curry leaves, green chillies and fry for few seconds
• Now add 1.5 cups of water, boiled cowpeas and grated coconut, bring to boil
• Now add 1 cup roasted flour and mix well. If you feel you require some more water then add it little by little checking the consistency.
• Switch off the flame.
• Allow it to cool
• Shape them the same way as described for the sweet adai

Note :-

1. If the flour is fine, adequate water is used, the adais will remain soft even after several hours of preparation.
2. Knead each portion of dought lightly will remove the lumps & give smooth texture to the adais.
3. If you use grated coconut, it has two advantages. the freshly grated coconut will be juicy hence it blends well with the flour & gives added tastes and it makes the adai easily chewable for children and Old people

Serving suggestion :- Butter makes an excellent accompaniment for the dish