Shevai

My 100th recipe had to be another amchi fav, breakfast eats...SHEVAI.
A big thanks to a dear friend who let me borrow the dhanthe for the authentic ' shevai pilche' experience. Thank's R, anytime u want to eat shevai (come along with the dhanthe), let me know.

Grease the cup of the shevai dhante.
Have the pressure cooker ready with boiling water.

Grease steel (drinking) glasses.


Fill the gllasses with the batter and steam for 15 mins.
Unmold the cooked batter.
Press the dough and make shevai similar to the pic below.

If you are an Amchi, you already know what I'm talking about....rest of you, make a konkani friend to eat this delicacy.

Ingredients:
Rice – 3 cups
ukudo thandul/boiled rice /kuthari/matta– 1 cup
coconut – 1 1/2 cups
Salt to taste

Method:
Soak the white rice for 4 hours.
For the ukudo thandul, I washed, dried and then powdered it coarsely in the coffee grinder.Soak the ukudo thandul powder, seperately for 4 hrs.
Now grind the regular rice with the coconut to a smooth paste. Mix it with the soaked boiled rice, salt and grind to get an even smooth batter mix.

In a konkani house, this is cooked in a special way : In a heavy bottomed pan, cook the batter on medium heat to evaporate excess moisture and bring the batter to upma consistency. While the cooked batter is still warm, not hot...form cylindrical shape ( typically the hands are dipped in cold water in the process, to prevent burning hands).
OR
like I did, apply oil to steel drinking glasses, pour batter into the glasses and steam like idlis in a pressure cooker for about 15 mins. Steaming this way was perfect size for my shevai press and I like the part where I don't have to handle my food too much.

Now grease the shevai dhanthe cup and press the warm idli molds to make shevai. If the batter gets cold, it becomes very hard to press.

This shevai is usually eaten with godda rossu which is sweet (freshly squeezed and strained) coconut juice mixed with jaggrey and ealichi powder.


The pic below is from my visit to India, Aug 07....Vikek was trying his hand at squeezing out the shevai for our breakfast and Miheer is curiously waiting for his breakfast. Gaurav, the boy looking the other way, didn't think SHEVAI for breakfast was that big a deal! It was very special to me and I am thankful to Mom and Vanni for a breakfast made just for me.