Arisi Vadam (Koozh Vathal)

My husband reminded me of this vadam (fryums) when we were discussing about the life in India.Vadam is always prepared only during summers. I was in India last year during the summer and helped my mom in making this. Now being in US we can never think about that unless somebody gets you this vadam from India. I was lucky this time, because the weather in Phoenix where I live now is almost similar to India(Infact summer in India is far better compared to the very hot summer in Phoenix) and I could easily let them dry as these have to be dried in Sun. So I thought to try these vadams and called my Mom and got the recipe.One big difficulty in making this is if the water level increases slightly your effort in making this will end in vain. So we need to be very very careful about the water measurement. This is the first time I have tried making it and I'm so happy that I could make it perfectly.

Ingredients:
3 Cups of Rice
12 cups water(1:4 ratio)
10 -15 small onions
6 Green chilles
A pinch of Asafoetida
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Wash and soak Rice (Sona masoori) in water overnight.
2. Grind the soaked rice into fine paste by adding water (Water used to grind also counts in the total measurement).
3. Finely chop the onions and keep aside (do not add more onions as the vadam will turn brown when you fry them).
4. Boil the remaining water in a big vessel with heavy bottom preferrably pressure cooker. Meanwhile grind green chilles with salt and asafoetida.
5. When the water starts to boil nicely, add the rice batter and the chilli paste. Make sure to mix thoroughly without forming lumps.
6. Reduce the flame to medium and cook the rice batter until it is cooked well and becomes semisolid.

Cooked rice batter

7. Spread a plastic sheet in the balcony where you get nice sunlight and make vadam in the shape you desire.

Vadam kept for Sun drying

8. Allow it to dry completely (takes 2-3 days). Remove it from the sheet and store in air tight container. (When it dries it shrinks and puffs up when fried in oil).

Dried Vadam

9. Fry it in oil and enjoy it.