The weekend that is coming up is going to be a busy one, what with Varalakshmi Vratam, Onam and Raksha Bandhan all being celebrated within a day or two of each other.
While I had ambitious plans of posting separate recipes for each festival, I finally settled on making just two desserts; Ada Pradhaman and Palada Pradhaman. The basic ingredient for these two recipes is Ada or Palada, which are essentially steamed flakes made with rice flour paste. You get readymade ada in abundance, but I decided to make ada at home.
Today, I am posting just the procedure for Homemade Ada. I will post the recipe for Palada Pradhaman tomorrow.
You will find more recipes for Onam on this post about Onasadya.
How to Make Homemade Ada for Ada Pradhaman and Palada Pradhaman
Makes: 1 Cup Ada
Soaking Time: 2 Hours
Cooking Time: 1 Hour
Ingredients
- Rice – 2/3 Cup
- Salt – 1/8 tsp
- Coconut Oil – A Few Drops
- Banana Leaves – 2
Method to Make the Rice Batter
- Soak the rice in 1.5 cups of water for 2 hours.
- Drain the water.
- Grind the rice with very little water to form a thick paste.
- Add just enough water while grinding such that the paste drops off the spoon.
- Add salt and mix well.
Method to Make Homemade Ada or Palada Pradhaman
- Cut each banana leaf into 4 equal portions. Discard the spine.
- Using just 1-2 drops of coconut oil, grease the surface of the banana leaf.
- Spoon some batter onto the oiled surface and spread into a thin layer.
- Carefully roll the banana leaf and tie it up with a string.
- Repeat with the remaining banana leaf pieces.
- Place the banana leaf rolls in a steamer and steam for 10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and let the steamer cool for 10 minutes.
- Open the steamer and takeout the banana leaves.
- Open the banana leaves and let them cool to room temperature.
- Cut the Ada into small pieces.
Tips
- You can also make ada with rice flour. If you do, just dry roast the flour for a few minutes, let the flour cool and then mix with water and salt to form a very thick slurry. I made one batch this way and it turns out perfectly fine.
- Your batter should not run-off the banana leaf. If it does, add some roasted rice flour to it to thicken the flour.
- You can also use butter paper in place of banana leaf.
I am new to your blog, what did you use to soak your rice in?
Just plain room-temperature water!
Brilliant Aruna:) such a detailed and well explained recipe. Will definitely try this:)
Thank you, Auradha. Do let me know how it turns out.
Brilliant one ,Aruna…I thought Ada is made by sun drying the rice flour like vadams..
The store-bought ones must be sun-dried Swapna. What I loved about fresh Ada was the texture. I even stored some in an steel box for 2 weeks and reused (after soaking in hot water). Worked like magic.
But I can make out the difference between store bought ones and homemade ones through your pics..Your homemade Ada must be really soft…
I have made ada prathaman but never bothered to make fresh ada. Always the easy way…get a packet from the store and it is handy too when other preparations need my attention. This year, I am going to try your recipe.
The one side effect of blogging is I am trying everything from scratch. And I am surprised at how ridiculously easy somethings are!
amazing.. Kudos yaar making it from scratch is something great. I always go for store bough one. 😉 Should try this time
It is very easy. If you do not have banana leaf try it on butter paper. Works just as well.
wow this is amazing! What a treat to see something so authentic! thanks so much.
Thank you for the compliment. 🙂
very interesting!!
Wow Aruna, hats off.. I always go for store bought Ada for making pradhaman. never know its this simple. I can get banaa leaf here and i thinking with what i can replace banana eaf.. Any idea ya? how about aluminium foil
Use butter paper. Works like magic. I made both Ela Ada and this plain ada in butter paper as well.
Sure will try Aruna:-) thanks
I have been planning on making ada pradhamam for so long.. after seeing your recipe, making ada at home seems so easy – so much better than store bought pack!
Yes, it is. And so rewarding. Do try it!
Its sad that at my side of the planet we don’t cook in leaves. This looks so beautiful!!!
Ada from scratch -wow! Thanks for sharing!
😀 😀
Reblogged this on MAXIMUSOPTIMUSDOMINUS.
seems to be easy. Will try soon.