Lemon sevai/ idiyappam/ Lemon flavoured string hoppers

Adya has his own understanding of my blogging life I am sure :). Every time I enter the kitchen to cook something, he presumes it’s for blogging. How do I say this? Days when I am simply cooking & not documenting, he still runs to get my blogging equipments (lights/ camera :)). It’s funny and cute. I do not restrict Adya from touching these equipments. I make sure he doesn’t drop it or break anything but I kinda give him a free pass because I realise he really enjoys being a part of whatever he thinks he is being a part of :). It’s also fun for me (well.. mostly) because this is still something that we are doing together & definitely does count towards an effective bonding and what better than to bond over food right? 🙂 I also know that a recipe is a sure success if he tastes what I have made & goes for more. He sure does have some adultish & an awesome palette. Anywho, I have a lot of people messaging me saying how cool it is for me to have Adya model for my blog and to those people I want to show how he’s the controller of the whole scene & not me :D. He decides if he wants to be a part of it and if he wants to be, how much as well :). I enjoyed taking the below pics where as you can see he slowly but steadily occupies the territory :D.

Stage 1 – Run & occupy a place close to where the food photography happens :).
Stage 2 – Very cutely start goofing around with the food such that amma can’t really complain.. in this case, start pulling the sevai/ string hoppers out of it’s vessel.
Stage 3 – Since mommy didn’t say anything, go closer to the food & occupy a space nice & cosy :).
Stage 4 – Oooh, spatula aka spoon. Why not start playing around with that & dig the food????
Stage 5 – Try hard to take food using the spatula & not hands. We are cool & etiquette conscious that way you see :).
Stage 6 – Put as much as food as you can into your mouth, the rest can fall down & make a mess. Who cares?! 🙂

Now that you all have a perfect understanding of how the blogging pictures happen at home, we shall proceed :). I love sevai/ idiyappam/ string hoppers (going to use the word sevai for the rest of the blog). I have absolute fond memories of my mom making hot hot sevais at home using her iron mould/ cast. We still have it, only we don’t really use it anymore. There are so many brands that package these sevai that can be used within a week of purchase & all that it requires is heating in a microwave oven or steaming for a few minutes. It tastes almost home made. Almost only because fresh sevais are fresh sevais. There is no match for it :D. But, it’s definite work & if it can be avoided without really impacting on the quality/ taste & health bit, that’s ok i think. So, we used this brand called Arokya’s sevai. The sevais are slightly dense (each strand) and so perfect for making these flavoured sevais. This dish literally takes less than 10 minutes to put together & tastes so damn yummy. I have the capability to finish of this huge bowl you see below just all by myself :).

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Lemon Sevai/ Idiyappam/ Lemon flavoured string hoppers

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

 

Course: Breakfast, Main Course

Cuisine: Indian

Servings: 3 persons

Ingredients

• 5 medium sevai/ idiyappam/ string hoppers 2.5 cups roughly
• 1.5 tbsp urad dal/ black gram
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1.5 tbsp channa dal/ bengal gram
• 2 nos green chillies
• 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
• a few curry leaves
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 tsp refined oil
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp lemon juice roughly 3 medium size lemon squeezed

Instructions

1. Wet the sevai with a smig of water & microwave for 1 minute or till it's soft. 

2. Take it out & let it cool. Once it's warm, using your hands just break the sevai such that they resemble vermicelli. Set it aside. 

3. In a small pan, heat some oil. Once heated, add mustard seeds. Let it splutter. 

4. Now add the channa dal & urad dal, let it brown. Saute to ensure nothing gets burnt. 

5. Once the lentils/ dal turns brown, add the chopped green chillies, ginger, turmeric powder & curry leaves. Give it a quick stir. Let the raw smell of green chillies fade off. 

6. Finally turn off the heat. Add lemon juice & salt at this stage & mix everything together. 

7. Pour this whole mixture on top of the microwaved sevai & mix everything well. Just check & adjust for salt. 

8. Serve warm. We at home love to eat this as is. However, it tastes great with coconut chutney as an accompaniment. 

Recipe Notes

1. You can make fresh sevai for this. 
2. You can replace ginger with asafodita.
3. You can add more green chillies if you like it spicy.
4. Instead of microwaving the idiyappams/ sevai/ string hoppers, you could just steam them (similar to how you would steam idlis) for 2-3 minutes in hot water. 

Stepwise pictures

Wet the idiyappams/ sevai/ string hoppers with just a touch of water & microwave for 1 minute or till they become soft.

Take it out & let it cool down a bit. Once these are warm, just break them into pieces to resemble vermicelli. Set it aside.

In a small pan, head some oil. Once heated, add mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Then add, channa dal & urad dal. Let them brown. Saute to ensure they don’t blacken/ burn.

Now add finely chopped green chillies, ginger, curry leaves & turmeric powder.

Saute till the raw smell from the chillies fade off. Turn off the heat.

To this add the salt, freshly squeezed lemon juice. We did this in a separate vessel since the pan can be reused later for seasoning purpose :).

Pour this mixture on top of the sevai & mix well.

Check & adjust for salt at this stage.

Serve warm. We at home love it plain. However, this goes really well with coconut chutney as an accompaniment :).