Rice Flour is used for so many dishes, be it spicy dish, starter/appetizer and even sweet dishes. There are several processes, which goes into the making of the rice flour. Anyone can make it at the comfort of their home provided you have a good mixer or a blender. But earlier days, when we did not have these mixers, the raw rice was crushed to fine powder with a wooden pestle, a rice pounder, which had iron ferrules at the ends and is called 'Rokali' in Telugu language. These wooden pestle with iron ferrules was so heavy that one hit in a deep holed stone, where rice was placed and the rice gets a heavy hit and crushed to some extent. Slowly as it goes on, the rice is powdered and then sieved in the sieve for more fine flour and the remaining was again put to get crushed.
For the work to move on fast with large quanities of Rice, in my native, we used to have two helpers doing this job. Like if one hit the rice, and take it out, and the other helper puts their wooden log to hit the rice and vice versa. It goes in a Rhythm. I have also seen these flour is sieved in large quantities in a large steel flat vessel called 'Thambaalam' in Telugu. In those days every house had these types of steel utensils to serve for these purposes and during several ceremonies, it was even borrowed from the neighbors and then of course returned back once they finish the functions/ceremonies. These vessels were even named so that they are returned safely to their respective houses to whom it belonged.
And comes Deepavali/Diwali, the biggest festival celebrated by Hindus in India, all the ladies used to gather in a place and get this done by having a good chat. At my grandparents place, this particular stone was installed in the farm house, where everyone used to gather before the festival day, and as grandchildren, we used to have good fun seeing this done so meticulously. The main dish in South India is named differently in different states, like 'Ariselu' in Telugu, 'Kajjaya' in Kannada, 'Arisa' in Oriya and 'Adhirasam' in Tamil. And of course, this rice flour is used in varius other dishes too, which I will blog as it goes. And specially, the world famous 'Modak' being the main sweet dish in the Gowri Ganiesha Festival, which is celebrated in the month of September.
Here again, some dishes require dry rice flour and some wet rice flour. The dry rice flour can be stored in an air-tight containers whereas cannot store wet rice flour for a longer time and hence should be used for cooking immediately. Some dishes also require the rice to be fried first and then powdered them.
The wet rice flour was used to make Idlies and Dosas, Gunta Ponganalu and Uttapams during the days, before refrigerator came to the markets, and especially during the functions at home, where huge quantity of batter to be in use. Here the black gram/urad dal is soaked for around 2 hours and blended to a paste with the stone and pestle and then without adding water mixed with rice flour. Then this batter was stored in an earthern pots and hanged in the store room. Just before using they used to soak it in water for some time and then taken for cooking the delicious textured dosas and idlies and many more dishes.
Here I will show how the rice is cleaned soaked, dried and then blend into fine flour. And, as I blog further, will add further recipes using rice flour.
Ingredients being only Rice. Lets take 2 cups.
Method:
1. Firstly wash and soak the rice in water for around 3 to 4 hours.
2. Then drain the water and spread the rice evenly on a dry cloth. Dry this in a shade place for around 7 to 8 hours for dry flour and for wet flour, has to get dried, not more than 1 to 2 hours only.
4. Further, this rice flour is steamed in a steamer, wrapped in a cloth for around 5 minutes and again dried on a cloth for around 4 hours, and then stored in the air-tight containers. This step ensured that the rice flour remains for longer duration and also the dishes can be made quickly (purely optional).
Isn't it easy to make fine fresh rice flour at home in small quantities. So what r u waiting for. Now that you got to know try it out and do please leave your comments....:)