When the sweet shop let us down and did not give us our vella seedai in time for Janmashthami, my husband looked so crestfallen, that I rashly offered to make them. With no experience whatsoever of making the sweet, I turned to the Internet. To my utter delight a blog offered three ways to make the same seedai. One was the old fashioned way of soaking and drying and then pounding the rice and then making the dish (nah!); the second one was a little easier (still nah); but it was the third that won my vote. It was a two-minute noodle version of the seedai! And guess what? I already had all the ingredients at home. To cut a long story short, the seedais came out perfectly, my husband smiled again and I am now thinking of may be making some of the Deepavali bakshanams myself instead of buying them from outside. But before that, is Navarathri and we all know it is sundal time. Make it a festive affair with this simple snack.
A little bit of advance planning is all you need to make your home smelling delicious. So, for those of you who want to make a sundal a day for each of the nine evenings, it is simple. The process is ridiculously easy. Read the recipes and stock up on the ingredients. Here are some of the easiest recipes , but also the tastiest. You can make them out of peanuts, kabuli chana, kothu kadalai, chana dal, green moong, karamani and pattani. So, buy them in advance. All of them use the same spices and garnishes, but, surprisingly, taste very different from each other. Check if you have oil, asafoetida, mustard, curry leaves, green chillies and coriander, besides freshly grated coconut. If you choose to make a sweet version of the karamani sundal, then you need to have jaggery and cardamom as well in your pantry. If you have all of the above, you are good to go!
Choose the sundal you want to make. Wash it well and soak overnight (the peanuts and chana dal sundal do not require an overnight soaking. A couple of hours would be more than enough). Rinse well and pressure cook with salt to taste and just enough water so that it does not become too mushy. In a pan, heat some oil. Add mustard, asafoetida, curry leaves and chopped green chillies (you could add dried red chillies instead too). Once the tempering is ready pour it over the sundal and garnish with green coriander and fresh grated coconut. For those who like the taste of ginger, slivers of ginger would be a nice touch, as would be a squeeze of lemon, just before serving.
