Alma Bax 
These onion fritters are a traditional dish from the coastal town of Piyava Vodi, Sri Lanka. They are made with rice flour and sun-dried onions that have been soaked in water for a day before being ground into a paste.
Piyava Vodi is a rice-based onion fritters recipe from the coastal region of Kerala in South India. It’s a popular dish during the fasting period of Ramadan, and it’s usually served with coconut chutney.
Vodi’s are rice-based, sun-dried fritters that are deep-fried till crispy and crunchy. Vodi’s are the most popular fries in Konkani cuisine, and they’re a must-have for every Konkani dinner. Vadi/vodi/oodi/odi is a side dish served with lunch or supper. For many Konkanis, a handful of these fryums with a bowl of steaming hot conjee/rice is comfort food. In most Konkani households, everyday lunch/dinner consists of a bowl of steaming hot rice with daat dalithoy (Konkani style dal) and these fryums.
These fritters are often prepared throughout the warmer months of February to May. In coastal Karnataka, the blazing sun and heat become intolerable in February and March. That was the period when my mother, aunts, and grandmother would meet on our terraces and backyards every day to cook a kind of fritter (vodis) and papad. My mother continues to prepare large quantities of vadis and papad, which she then preserves for the whole year and gives to our relatives.
Rice or split black gram (urad dal) are often used to make these fritters. To create a certain kind of crispies/fryum, a spice and a few other ingredients are added to a rice/urad dal based batter.
These fritters should be dried in the sun for at least 5-7 days. These fritters are traditionally sun dried on mats woven from coconut tree leaves. However, large sheets of plastic may be used to sun dry these fritters, with weights on the edges to keep the plastic from blowing away.
This article is about piyava vadis, or rice-based onion fritters. Piyavu means onion in Konkani, while vodi/vadi/odi/oodi indicates fritters. When deep fried or microwaved, these rice-based fritters become extremely crispy, snappy, and light. These fritters are made with a lot of onion and a spicy rice batter. When these fritters are deep fried, onions give them a wonderful taste and fragrance. These vodis are simple to create and dry quickly when exposed to the sun. If you don’t have enough room to dry them outside, see the microwave suggestions at the bottom of this page. In Kannada, these fritters are known as erulli sandige.
Only a few individuals nowadays manufacture these vodis at home. Time and drying space are both limited. Make a small batch of these fritters using the measurements shown below, and I am certain your work will be well worth it! If you like these (and I’m sure you will), go ahead and double the recipe next time.
Here’s another more incentive to give them a go. With plenty of coconut oil on top, the fried, scorching hot fritter batter with onions is a delight to consume. As soon as this boiling hot, spicy rice batter is ready, we devour a bowlful of it. Also, after the batter has thickened overnight, eat it with plenty of coconut oil on top the following morning. Also, half-dried fritters (sun dried for 1-3 days) are delicious! If you try it on, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups rice for dosa (short grained rice)
- 3/4 cup onion, finely chopped
- 12-15 dried red chilies or 4 teaspoons red chili powder
- season with salt to taste
To dry the plastic, you’ll need large sheets and weights on the edges to keep it from flying about.
Approximately 10-12 servings
Method of Preparation:
Getting the batter ready:
P.S. Prepare the batter for these fritters the night before you want to cook them.
1To prepare vodi peet, start preparing the batter the day before.
1. Soak the rice for at least 30 minutes.
2. Wash and crush it, together with the dried red chilies and salt, into a smooth paste using as little water as necessary.
3. Pour 4 to 5 cups of water into the ground batter in a pan. To begin, we’ll need a very thin batter that will cook through. The batter has been diluted more than the neer dosa batter.
If you use less water to cook, the batter will thicken quickly and will not be cooked completely.
4. Season with salt. Salt should be checked and adjusted as needed.
Because the batter cooks down to half its original volume and the vodis shrink as they dry, keep it slightly less salty than necessary. They’ll dry salty, so use a bit less salt than you think you’ll need to get ideal vodis.
5. Cook the mixture over a medium to low heat, stirring often to achieve equal cooking and avoid the batter from sticking to the bottom.
6. Cook until the batter is no longer uncooked.
7. In the end, we’ll need a medium-consistency slurry that’s neither too thick nor too thin.
Why?? If it’s too watery, you’ll end up with a runny batter, which will result in flat out vodis. However, they will dry nicely and produce tasty vodis, but they will lose their lovely form.
If the batter is too thick, it will cool down to a thick batter that will not drop off your fingers while making vodis for sun drying.
8. If the batter is still uncooked after it has thickened, add water, combine, stir, and continue to cook for a few more minutes. The quantity of water you need will be determined by how raw your batter is. The greatest thing is that you may keep adding water in whatever quantity until your batter is fully cooked.
9. The goal is to have a smooth batter that is medium thick in consistency at the end.
10. What should you do if your batter has clumps? It’s possible that clumps will develop while the batter cooks. You should be able to smooth them out with the back of your laddle if they’re little. If they’re large and a lot of them, you can put the batter in the mixie once it cools down and grind it for a minute to have a smooth batter.
11. What if your batter thickens up too quickly? Add the water, combine well, and continue to simmer for a few minutes longer. The quantity of water you need will be determined by how raw your batter is. The greatest thing is that you may keep adding water in whatever quantity until your batter is fully cooked.
12. Once you have a well-cooked batter, turn off the heat. If you’re preparing piyava vodi (onion-flavored fritters), add finely chopped onions. Keep it shut. It will thicken as it cools, and due to the addition of onions, it will dilute a bit by morning. So you should have a great consistency batter to create vodis in the morning.
Alternatively, finely chopped onions may be added to the batter in the morning before preparing vodis.
13. To create vodis in the morning, combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a glass, combine the water and the oil. Spread a coating of it on the surface of the plastic or whatever you’re vodis-ing.
14. Using your fingers, put a spoonful of batter onto the plastic or any other surface you’re using for sun drying. Mom typically weaves a mat out of coconut leaves called a madal in Konkani.
15. Dry them in the sun for 4-5 days. They come off the mat as they dry and may be moved to plates to dry further in the sun.
16. Store them in sealed containers after 4-5 days of sun drying. To enjoy crispy, crunchy vodis, deep fried them as required.
Consumption of vodi peet:
We want our vodi peet piping hot and slathered in coconut oil. Simply the batter or the batter with onions with a drizzle of coconut oil on top. Once the batter has cooled, or the following day, it tastes delicious.
Taking pleasure in half-sun dried vodis:
Half-sun-dried vodis are also a favorite of ours. After a few hours in the sun, they’ll be all gooey and delicious to eat. After one day of sun drying, this dish is perfect to eat.
What if you don’t have enough room to dry them in the sun? Without direct sunlight, vodis also dry out. Without direct sunshine, you may eat half-sun dried vodis. Even a few hours of direct sunshine, such as 2-4-5 hours, may aid in the drying of vodis. In such instance, sun dry them for a few additional days to keep them for longer than a year.
After cooling, the fried batter looks like this: You may also serve it with a generous amount of coconut oil on top.
Drying in the sun:
The following morning, the sun drying process begins. Spread a clean plastic sheet beneath the sun the next morning. To make it easier to remove dry fritters from the plastic sheet, grease one side with a combination of water and oil.
Once everything is in place, mix up the batter well and start spreading spoonfuls of batter out on the plastic sheet as shown below. They should be spread out on the plastic sheet with some space between them.
A closer look at the same.
Allow the fritter batter to dry in the hot sun for 6-7 days, or until the fritters are crispy and well-dried.
These fritters decrease in size after 2-3 days and come off the plastic as they dry. Removed them from the plastic and dried them for another 3-4 days on a dish.
This is how dried fritters look:
Your piyava vodi (sun-dried fritters) are ready!!
12. Allow the sun-dried fritters to cool to room temperature before storing them in an airtight container in a cold, dry location.
13. When ready to serve, deep fried the fritters in heated oil (or microwave them in a single layer for 1 minute).
When deep frying these fritters, they bubble up and become light.
14. Fry them on both sides in hot oil to ensure consistent cooking. Make sure the oil is hot enough to cook properly. These fritters don’t blow up completely if the oil isn’t heated up correctly, and they stay a bit hard, unlike the light, fully puffed up fritters.
15. You may eat these fritters all year long and for years to come. When kept correctly, in dry, airtight containers, then sun dried for 6-7 days in the strong sun, they will last for years.
This is how deep-fried fritters look:
Suggestions for serving
Simply eat them as is.
Serve them as a side dish with rice and dalithoy (Konkani style dal).
Serve them with congee as a side dish. (In Konkani, pyej)
Alternatively, serve as a side dish with any Konkani meal, lunch, or supper. They are delicious with sambar rice, curd rice, and any dish.
If you can’t sun dry these fritters, use this microwave method:
If you don’t have access to a sunny location, you may dry these fritters in the oven. Bake these fritters at 200 degrees Fahrenheit until totally dry (for about 5-6 hrs). These fritters are very crispy when done.
P.S. You may also use garlic instead of onion in this recipe. If you wish to add garlic, use two large bulbs for two cups of rice (for the measurements mentioned above). When preparing the above batter, peeled garlic must be peeled, gently crushed, and mashed with the rice.
Cheats for making delicious, crispy fritters using leftover rice:
If you have a lot of leftover rice and are tired of making chitranna, mosranna, fried rice, or other dishes with it, you can convert it into delicious, crispy fritters in no time and with no work.
All you have to do is make a smooth paste out of leftover rice, red chili powder, and salt with as little water as possible (just enough water to grind the rice and turn it into a paste). And, as previously said, create fritters with this ground batter and sun dry them as previously stated.
Tags: eerulli sandige, onion fritters, Konkani meal, Konkani recipe, vadi, fries, Konkani food, Mangalore food, Udupi cuisine, Konkani cuisine, odi, fryums
The garlic sandige recipe is a traditional dish from the Indian state of Kerala. It is made with rice and onion fritters that are dried in the sun.
Related Tags
- onion sandige online
- sandige recipe
- konkani odi
- onion fryums recipe
About Author
