Salt Adai- Savoury Rice Cakes

This is a recipe adapted from the famous cookbook ' Cook & See' Part 1(English version of 'Samaithu Paar') by S. Meenakshi Ammal. I have modified the original recipe to suit my dietary habits. The ingredients used are the same as specified in the book.

Ingredients

2 cups Rice flour

1/2 cup Black-eyes peas

5 cups of water

1 tsp Coconut gratings

2 tsp oil

2 tsp ginger peeled and finely cubed

2 green chillies cut into bits

1 tsp mustard

1 tsp urad dal

hing

handful of curry leaves

salt

Procedure

Dry roast the black-eyed peas till it exudes the smell of the beans. The beans dont need to get browned. Add about 1/4 cup of water to the roasted beans and cook them till done. I cooked them in the pressure cooker (one whistle). Take care that they dont become mushy.

Dry roast the rice flour till you can draw fine line with it. This is to ensure there is no moisture in the flour. The flour at this stage feels dry. Take some flour between your thumb and index finger and try to trace a line while spilling the flour from between your fingers, as if drawing rangoli (kolam in Tamil). When the flour is well-roasted you can draw a fine line pattern. The photograph below shows this.

Add the oil into a pan. Once hot, sputter the mustard and redden the urad dal. Then add the green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and hing. When the ginger softens (test with the spoon you will be using to stir the pan), add 4.5 to 5 cups of water and let it come to a boil. Then add enough salt to the water (water should taste salty) and stir in the roasted rice flour. Add more water to incorporate all the flour. Stirring the mixture is important to prevent lumps. Then add the cooked black-eyed peas and coconut gratings and keep stirring. You cannot walk away from this pan, you have to keep stirring. The mixture would turn into a single mass around the spoon within a few minutes. Let the mixture cool to handle. Then form round disks (cakes) about 1/2 inch thick, make a hole in the centre with your finger and steam it for about 10 minutes. I steamed them in an idli steamer. To check whether the cakes have steamed well, insert a clean spoon into a cake and it has out come out clean.


These cakes are usually served with home-made butter. But I would not load up on all that fat. I think they would go well with any chutney, pickle or sambar. As for me, I would like mine plain.

Tip: Use non-stick pan for roasting and preparation of the dish to ensure uniform distribution of heat while roasting and usage of less oil (fat).

This is our entry to the Monthly Cooking TIPology event hosted by Sushma of Recipe Source.

Source: Cook & See Part 1 (Samaithu Paar) by S. Meenakshi Ammal
Reference: Patti (my grandmother) - Dad's mother