Sevai or
Santhakai is a type of
rice noodlesRice noodles are noodles that are made from rice. Their principal ingredients are rice flour and water. However, sometimes other ingredients such as tapioca or corn starch are also added in order to improve the transparency or increase the gelatinous and chewy texture of the noodles.Rice noodles...
popular in Southern India, particularly
Tamil NaduTamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai . Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by Puducherry , Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh...
and
KarnatakaKarnataka is a state in the southern part of India. It was created on November 1, 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act...
. Santhakai is made out of other food grains like
wheatWheat is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, ragi, etc. also are increasingly becoming popular.
Sevai/Santhakai is distinctly different from its cousin
idiappam in the sense of input material, making process, and post-extrusion recipes. Sevai is popular as a breakfast/dinner food and is considered easily digestible as it can be made with less or no oil, and it is steamed.
Sevai/Santhakai is mostly made fresh starting from
riceRice is the seed of a monocot plant Oryza sativa, of the grass family . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East, South, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies...
grains.
Sevai or
Santhakai is a type of
rice noodlesRice noodles are noodles that are made from rice. Their principal ingredients are rice flour and water. However, sometimes other ingredients such as tapioca or corn starch are also added in order to improve the transparency or increase the gelatinous and chewy texture of the noodles.Rice noodles...
popular in Southern India, particularly
Tamil NaduTamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai . Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by Puducherry , Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh...
and
KarnatakaKarnataka is a state in the southern part of India. It was created on November 1, 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act...
. Santhakai is made out of other food grains like
wheatWheat is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, ragi, etc. also are increasingly becoming popular.
Sevai/Santhakai is distinctly different from its cousin
idiappam in the sense of input material, making process, and post-extrusion recipes. Sevai is popular as a breakfast/dinner food and is considered easily digestible as it can be made with less or no oil, and it is steamed.
Making of Sevai
Sevai/Santhakai is mostly made fresh starting from
riceRice is the seed of a monocot plant Oryza sativa, of the grass family . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East, South, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies...
grains. It is also prepared from a dried Sevai packs (or rice sticks) like the instant ones in the Asian grocery stores. Traditionally, making of sevai at home consists of the following steps (with minor variations based on location and family customs):
- Soaking of parboiled rice in cold water for about 3 hours
- Grinding of soaked rice using a wet grinder
Wet grinder, a grinder used with water. Wet grinders have a wide application in industry, workshops, and commercial and domestic kitchens throughout Africa and Asia...
into a fine paste
- Making of dumplings from the rice paste and steaming the chunks (at least three variations are known in this step as follows)
- Sautéeing the paste into dough
Dough is a paste made out of any cereals or leguminous crops by mixing flour with a small amount of water and/or other liquid. This process is a precursor to making a wide variety of foodstuffs, particularly breads and bread-based items , including flatbreads, and pancakes, noodles, crusts,...
, make dumplings (also called kozhukkottais, steam the same on a idliIdli is a savory cake popular throughout South India. The cakes are usually two to three inches in diameter and are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils and rice. The fermentation process breaks down the starches so that they are more readily metabolized by the body...
vessel
- pour the paste into moulds of the idli
Idli is a savory cake popular throughout South India. The cakes are usually two to three inches in diameter and are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils and rice. The fermentation process breaks down the starches so that they are more readily metabolized by the body...
vessel and steam the same
- Sautéeing the paste into dough, make dumplings, drop the same into boiling water and through cook
- Pressing of cooked dumplings into fine strands using a type of Sevai press
Composition of Sevai
Home made Sevai is often made from 100% rice (with water and salt, of course) where as dry rice sticks may often have some additives like
tapiocaTapioca is a starch extracted from the root of the plant species Manihot esculenta. This species, native to the Amazon , but is now cultivated worldwide and has many names, including cassava, bitter-cassava, manioc, "mandioca", "aipim", "macaxeira", "manioca", "boba", "yuca" , "Sagudana" --with...
, corn starch, etc.
Instant rice noodles have other additives like
Wheat glutenWheat gluten can refer to:*The gluten found in wheat, a sticky substance composed of the proteins gliadin and glutenin.*Wheat gluten , a food prepared from these proteins, such as seitan or wheatmeat....
,
Guar gumGuar gum, also called guaran, is a galactomannan. It is primarily the ground endosperm of guar beans. The guar seeds are dehusked, milled and screened to obtain the guar gum. It is typically produced as a free flowing, pale, off-white colored, coarse to fine ground powder.-Production:Guar gum is...
, edible
starchStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds.Starch is produced by all green plants as an energy store and is a major food source for humans....
, etc.
Other names of Sevai
Sevai is called Santhakai in the western parts of
Tamil NaduTamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai . Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by Puducherry , Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh...
. it is called 'Shavige' in Kannada. People also loosely use the terms idiappam and semiya (
vermicelliVermicelli is a type of pasta, round in section and somewhat thinner than spaghetti. Vermicelloni is less common, and about the same size as fedelini . Both are thinner than spaghettini .-History in Italy:In 14th-century Italy, extra-fine spaghetti had varying local names...
) for Sevai, even though these foods are different from Sevai in several aspects. In Tamil, these are written சந்தைக, சந்தவம், சந்தைவ.
Foods prepared with Sevai
rightSevai is often flavoured with Lemon,
TamarindThe Tamarind is a tree in the family Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic .- Origin :...
, Tomato, Coconut, etc. and tastes best when served warm. Popular accompaniments for plain sevai are sweetened
coconut milkCoconut milk is a sweet, milky white cooking base derived from the meat of a mature coconut. The colour and rich taste of the milk can be attributed to the high oil content and sugars. In Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia coconut milk is called santan and in the Philippines it is called gata. In...
, more-kuzhambu, several vegetable kormas and mutton/chicken/fish
kormaKorma is a dish originating in South Asia which can be made with yoghurt, cream, nut and seed pastes or coconut milk; it is usually considered a type of curry. Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian kormas exist.-History:Korma has its roots in the Mughlai cuisine of modern-day India...
.