Like Malyalees, Konkanis love shevayi/idiyappam/sevai/shyavige . I was a huge fan of them while growing up. At my home, aayi makes the boiled rice version of these noodles for breakfast. I like that version since it is very easy to make and more healthy. But I wanted to post this, more popular method also here, for a long time now. These are bit easier to press because of the coconut. So here it is finally. (Thanks Chitramami for reminding me about this).
At native, aayi has a special shevayi danto – an equipment to make these shevayi which looks like follows. It was bought some 30 years ago, when she was newly wed. I don’t have this special equipment here, so I use normal chakli press.
I had a hearty laugh today, when aayi told me two interesting stories about these noodles. These were the two beliefs she was told, when she made these.
– At our native village, we find all sorts of insects, ants and small animals inside the houses. Most of these are harmless. But few of them, especially ants can bite. One such family of ants, that can bite is called “ kenchka ” in Konkani. Their bite is pretty bad. So when these show up, people pray them to go away and they promise to offer these shevayi if they go away :)). So these noodles are prepared only when the kenchka shows up in the house.
– Around Sirsi(my aayi’s birthplace) , when some relatives come and stay for a long time and they don’t show any signs of going back, the women make these noodles and serve. This is supposed to be a sign to say “go away” :)). So if you are staying at someone’s home and they serve you these noodles, then you know what you are supposed to do ;).
I don’t think anyone believe these anymore, but its really funny to know such stories.
Read Manjula’s shevayi .
Ingredients: 1 and 1/2 cup rice 1 cup fresh/frozen coconut Coconut oil Salt
Method: Soak the rice in water for around 3-4 hrs. Grind it to a smooth paste with coconut and salt, adding required amount of water. Its okay if the batter becomes watery. Now heat this batter in a nonstick(preferably) pan. Keep mixing till all water evaporates and the dough becomes dry.
Make balls of the dough and steam them in cooker or steamer (I have a pasta cooker which I use to make rice daily. I use it as steamer also). Steam for 15mins.
Take out the balls, put them in press(apply some coconut oil to the press before putting the dough) and press to make the shevayi .
They cool immediately, so close them in a tight vessel. Usually these are served with either mango pickle or soyi rosu (sweetened coconut milk) . I like to eat it with coconut chutney also.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 55mins
I have been thinking to bake and decorate a cake for my parents for a long time now. But since both of them don’t prefer sweets and because of the diabetes, I avoided it for so long. Then I thought of making it with sweetener and later I came to know, sweetener should not be cooked/baked. I asked my colleague Cindy, who gave me the idea of sweetener for baking . Now the next question was, which cake to bake? I didn’t want to bake the same cakes again and again, so I decided on searching for a all new cake. I wanted something that both pappa and aayi would eat with interest. So after around 1hr of considering different options, I decided to make something which had a strong ginger flavor. Pappa simply loves ginger in everything, so I thought he would like it. So ginger cake it was.
I made a very small cake this time, I am really fed up of throwing cakes in trash (we are having cake overdose, thanks to my cake decorating classes). So it came out to be a beautiful tiny cake, which even though didn’t rise much, looked like a perfect one.
Then it was time for decorating it. Since I had chosen pappa’s favorite ingredient in the cake, I decided to do aayi’s favorite decoration. The first thing that came to my mind was basket weave. She simply loves those woven flower baskets. She loves roses, so that was next. I messed up a bit in both basket and the flowers and buds on top. Both pappa and aayi simply loved it, worth all my effort. Only problem was, I could not use sweetener for icing. There should be some other sweetener which is suitable for icing, I will search that next time. I had to use normal confectioner’s sugar for it.
The cake was just out of the world. A best choice for any ginger lover. It had a strong gingery flavor and the grated pieces were a bonus. I will be baking this cake more often now.
The recipe I followed was adapted from All recipes . I made quite a few modifications to it and I am happy that I did those modifications. I would have hated the cinnamon taste in this particular cake (I absolutely hated the cinnamon flavor in last few cakes and so decided never to use it again).
Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter 1 cup sugar or baking sweetner 1 tbl spn fresh grated ginger 1 cup all purpose flour 2 tea spns baking powder 1 tea spn vanilla extract 1/2 cup milk 2 eggs
Method: Preheat the oven at 350 F for about 10mins. Sieve together flour and baking powder, keep it aside. Mix butter and sugar(or sweetener) till they are well mixed. Now add eggs, vanilla extract and mix well till the eggs are mixed. Pour in milk and mix again. Now add the flour-baking powder mixture, a little at a time, mixing it all the time. When everything is incorporated well, add the grated ginger and mix. Grease a baking dish, dust it with some flour. Pour the cake batter into it and bake at 350F for about 40mins or till a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. While serving, dust with some confectioner’s sugar or decorated it.
Makes : 6-7 big pieces Preparation time : 10mins (excluding baking time)
