Arisi vadam rice vadagam recipe
Easy arisi vadam or ilai vadam
This one of the simplest vadam and the quick and easy vadam.
Take one tumbler raw rice and soak in water for two to three hours .
For one tumbler rice add one tea spoon sago or javvarisi and soak both together.
Wet grind in a mixer at night
Add salt after grinding.
The next day we can make the vadam after we ferment it for six to seven hours. So either we grind at night or if we grind in the morning we can make the vadam in the evening.
After 6 to 7 hours add ground green chilly paste ( the quantity will depend upon how hot we want the dish to be . Add asafoetida and one teaspoon white sesame seeds.
Mix all the ingredients well so that we get a well mixed batter.
Elai vadam stands for making vadam are easily available in shops.
Using a elai vadam stand, spread the batter on all the plates in the stand, the way we pour and spread batter for dosa using a ladle ( karandi )
Place the stand in an idli cooker and cook for four minutes. We can use a pressure cooker also without the pressure cooker weight.
Traditional arisi vadam or vadagam recipe
This is the traditional, authentic method of preparing arisi vadam or vadagam.
The steps are
Take some raw rice soak in luke warm water for half and hour, wash it and remove all water.
Spread the rice on a clean white cloth and allow it to dry in shade under a ceiling fan. Spread it out on the cloth so that it dries quickly.
Once the water has evaporated for one kilogram raw rice add quarter kilogram sago or javvarisi and dry grind in what we call "machine" . The same flour can be used to make onion vadam and other types of vadam.
(This is a shop with machinery exclusively for dry grind large quantities of rice and other pulses. There is a separate machine for dry grinding turmeric to turmeric powder and red chillies to red chilly powder. This shop is quite popular in Tamil Nadu and is crowded particularly during summer when vadam season is at the peak. Actually some times we cannot get our ingredients ground immediately, either we have to wait or give it to the shop owner or operator and collect it after a few hours.)
Once the flour is ready, for one tumbler flour boil one tumbler water in a vessel.
Now mix water to the flour and dissolve it in water. We can also add the flour directly to the boiling water. The advantage of dissolving first is water is that the chances of the flour solidifying or some solid pieces remaining is eliminated.
To the boiling water , add one tea spoon oil .
Green chillies and salt are ground in a mixer and the liquid mixture is kept ready.
This is added to the boiling water. The quantity of green chillies can vary according to our taste.
Then add the flour dissolved in water slowly and stir well.
Once the flour / batter is cooked the colour changes from white to an off white colour.
The same batter can be used to make vengaya vadam by adding pieces of onion and placing the vadam by hand.
When the batter is cooked and semi solid remove from the stove and allow it cool.
Using different acchhu as we call it we can make vadam of different shapes on the plastic sheet.
It is dried in the hot sun till the evening. If it is not dried completely the drying process is repeated the next day. When the vadam are completely dry they are removed from the sheet, stored in a dry container and fried in oil whenever required ( and that is quite often because they are very tempting as side dish for bisibela bath or sambar rice or just as an evening snack for kids and adults alike.
( We remember that during our childhood vadam preparation was during summer holidays ) and we were given the duty of protecting the drying vadam from birds. We were given a long stick to shoo away the birds ). Of course we liked the half dried vadam that was partly hard and partly soft and so we used to eat a few !