Sevai is a very typically South Indian dish that is prepared in several different ways – tamarind, lemon, coconut, sesame….. or just plain. It is often served at breakfast, but can be had for lunch or dinner too. In South India, you will often find sevai being served for dinner. South Indian weddings are normally in the morning. There will be a heavy breakfast, followed by a very heavy lunch. And then a tea-time snack like Mysore bonda. Therefore, dinner becomes a fairly light affair with sevai. The dish is delicious and I cannot imagine a week going by when I do not have this dish. Today’s recipe is lemon sevai. For the plain sevai recipe, please refer the idiaapam recipe in this blog.

Ingredients
1 cup red/brown rice flour
2 cups water
Salt to taste
To Temper
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (sarson, kadugu)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (sabut jeera, jeeragam)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi, manjal podi)
A pinch of asafoetida (hing, perunkayam)
1 tbsp peanuts
1 tsp split black lentils (urad dal, ulutham parupu)
1 tsp Bengal gram (chana dal, kadalai parupu)
1 sprig curry leaves
2 dried red chillies, broken into two pieces each
2 green chillies, chopped fine
Juice of one lemon
Method
Heat a wok and roast the rice flour for a couple of minutes
Set aside
Heat a vessel, add salt and water
Bring to a boil and slowly add rice flour
Keep mixing for about a minute till the flour becomes a paste
Set aside to cool
Make small balls of this paste and and to the idiaapam maker
Press (or rotate, depending upon the machine that you have) to make the string-hopper
Repeat for the rest of the paste
Transfer to a steamer
Steam for 5 minutes
Set aside to cool completely
Then crumble the noodles, gently and set aside
Heat a wok and add mustard and cumin seeds
When they begin to splutter, add the black lentils and Bengal gram
Roast till the lentils become golden brown
Add peanuts, turmeric powder, red and green chillies and curry leaves
Roast for about 30 seconds
Add the asafoetida and switch off the flame
Add the cooked and crumbled noodles and mix gently
Add lemon juice and adjust salt
Mix gently till the noodles are completely mixed with the tempering
Serve with your favourite chutney (traditionally, this is served with coconut chutney)
Enjoy!