Vadam is a summer time traditional activity at most of the household
in southern part of Tamilnadu. It is
prepared in bulk and stored for the whole year.
My mom involved me in helping her right from my 5th grade. Nowadays, there are lot of stores who sell a
variety of vadams but I always prefer to make it home as it gives me an immense
pleasure and satisfaction when it is made by me. As a working woman, I plan for this activity
during my weekends. This time, I planned
in early start of the year to make it at end of April to utilize the long
weekend.
Koozh vadam is made from a mix of rice and sago flour. As I make in larger quantity, I ground raw
rice and sago mixture in flour mill (ratio of raw rice and sago is 1 kg:200 g) and
make vadam in batches. The method I follow
is the traditional method followed at brahmin household which I learnt from my mom.
INGREDIENTS:
Vadam flour - 5 cups
Green chilly - 15
Lemon juice - 10 (extracted from 10 big size lemons)
Salt - To taste
Oil - 3 tsp
Asafoetida - a small
piece of bar
Water - 12.5 cups
PREPARATION:
Mix raw rice and sago and pulse it in a mixer to a fine
powder. If making in large quantity, suggest
to grind in flour mill . The ratio of
rice:sago should be 1 kg:200 g. One kg
of rice and sago mixture would yield approximately 5 cups (aazhaku) of flour.
In a heavy bottom big vessel (I used my 10 L Pressure
Cooker), add 12.5 cups of water, add 3 tsp of oil, salt, and asafoetida bar and
bring it to boil. I recommend the salt
to be on the lesser side so that when we fry the vadams in oil, it would be at
the optimal level.
Meanwhile, grind green chilly with little salt to a fine
texture adding little bit of water.
Also extract the juice from lemons, add very little salt, and
keep aside. Recommend to do this because
of the citric nature in lemons which imparts a slight bitter taste. Adding little salt would make not turn the
flavor of bitterness in lemon. So keep in mind while adding salt in water as we also add salt in green
chilly and lemon juice.
When the water starts boiling, add the ground green chilly
mixture, and let it boil a minute or two.
Switch off the stove, remove the vessel from stovetop, and
add the lemon juice and mix well.
Immediately, start adding vadam flour little by little and mix well with
a long ladle. Initially, it would look
like there would be lumps formed while adding flour but later we can mix
thoroughly. Slowly, add the flour and stir
continuously and mix all the flour in the hot boiled water and at one stage,
you would end up forming a dough. Mix
well to break any lumps and form a smooth dough. This is the basic dough for vadams.
Allow it to cool for some time. While it is cooling, I usually make small
balls out of it so that I could easily refill the dough in the press . I do this at home before going upstairs so I
would not stand in sun for a longer time.
Take a plastic sheet and spread it the area and keep stones
at the end. Take a nada plate in the
murukku press , fill the flour inside, and press a long muruku in the
sheet.
Dry in the hot sun and keep them open at home in the evening
. Let it dry for 2-3 days. When fully dry, you can break them and store them in
airtight containers.
When required, fry in hot oil, and serve as an accompaniment
for rice.
