Vella Cheedai

Ingredients

Rice flour                      2 cups
Urad dal powder           2 tbsp
Coconut  pieces             2 tbsp
Jaggery                          1 cup
Cardamom powder        1 tsp
White thill                      1 tsp

Preparation

In a pan dry roast the rice flour until you get a nice aroma.Do it on a low flame.Set aside and cool it.In the same pan dry roast urad dal,cool it and powder it finely in a mixer.Stir the coconut pieces in 1/2 tsp of ghee.Add water to the jaggery and let it dissolve completely.Now using a srainer strain the jaggery water mixture. It will remove all the impurities if any.Boil the jaggery water and and bring it to a one string consistency.Now slowly spoon by spoon add the jaggery syrup to rice flour and urad dal powder together with coconut pieces,white thill and cardamom powder to forma thick dough.
Depending on the quality of the rice you may need the full jaggery or half of it.So take care when you add the jaggery syrup.Set aside for 1 hr.Place it on a damp cloth or a kitchen towel.Take a small piece of the dough and using a greased palm roll out marble sized balls bigger than the Uppu Cheedai.Drop a handful at a time and deep fry until golden brown.A few cracks here and there is perfectly normal.Just make sure they don't break.Drain the fried Cheedai on a kitchen towel to remove the excess oil.Store in air tight containers.

Variation

How to make jaggery syrup if you are using rice which is soaked drained and powdered.
Soak the raw rice in water for 1hr.Drain and place it on a white cloth or kitchen towel so that all the moisture will be absorbed.Powder it in a mixie and sift it in fine sieve. now you will get a fine rice flour.Dissolve the jaggery powder in water and strain it to remove impurities and boil till it comes to a ball consistency.

What is a ball consistency?

Take a cup of water.When you drop a little of the jaggery syrup in wate rand roll the jaggery it should form a small ball immediately.If it melts it means it should be cooked for some more time.If it solidifies it means the syrup has cooked beyond this stage.So take care you get the right consistency.This is the recipe for jaggery syrup which is used in making the Vella Cheedai if you are using the soaked and powdered rice flour method.