Koozh Vadam

Koozh vadam also known as vadavam, vathal, karu vadam will definitely bring back memories of our childhood, when we see these crispy pieces.
It is a day long process where all the members of the family are involved in making “koozh” in large quantities, spreading and pressing it on a white cloth under hot sun, chasing the crows away from eating it, (but the children who watch the vadam will eat the koozh and half dried vadam in between and put the blame on the crows) removing the dried vadam from the cloth, all fun filled annual affair in Summer days.
Even though, it is not prepared in large quantities now-a-days, people still make it in small quantities and of course with more varieties. No white old cloth, but it is replaced with a neat clean plastic sheet. No need to someone accompany the vadam in the hot sun to chase away the birds. Just put red chillies on the vadam here and there. Birds will stay away seeing the red chillies.
The basic Koozh is prepared in many ways with Rice and Javvarisi (Sago) added with green chilli paste and salt. The rice can be raw rice or parboiled rice. It will be soaked in water for about 6 to 8 hours and then ground to a fine paste. Or the rice and javvarisi is sent to Flour Mill and ground to a fine powder. Then enough water is added to the flour to make a paste. Ferment it over night and next day early morning the Koozh is prepared. Some people make the Koozh in the night and keep it till next day morning.
When making the koozh, carrot or beetroot juice is added to the batter, to get natural colour. Commercially, lot of varieties of these Vadams are available in the market. However when we prepare at home, we can make it according to our own taste.
Below is a simple way of making these Koozh Vadam.

Rice Vadavam:

Ingredients

  • Rice flour – 4 cups
  • Green chillies – 8 Nos
  • Jeeragam – 2 teaspoons
  • Asafotida Powder – 1 teaspoon
  • Salt – 2 teaspoons or as per taste
  • Water – 8 cups

Directions

  1. Previous day evening, put the rice flour in a big vessel and add sufficient water to make it like a thick dosa batter. Keep it over night for fermentation. Next day, early morning add more water and make it a thin batter.
  2. Grind green chillies and jeera to a fine paste and add to the rice batter. Add salt and asafetida powder and mix well.
  3. Keep a thick bottomed broad vessel on the stove. Add 8 cups water and bring to boil. When it starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and slowly add the rice batter continuously stirring. (You can take a help of another for pouring or stirring). Cook on low flame stirring continuously till it thickens. Taste for the salt and if you require more add it and mix it well. Remove and cool it.
  4. Spread a clean thick plastic sheet in a place where you get sunlight (mostly terrace or backyard). Using Murukku Press with “one star hole” plate, put the koozh dough into the press and make long straight lines. Finish all the dough.
  5. Allow to dry in the hot sun for the whole day. In the evening, you can easily gather the dried vadams. You can break it into desired length. If it is not fully dried, then next day also dry it in the sun. Store it in a container. It will stay good for more than a year.

Javvarisi Vadam

Ingredients

  • Javvarisi (Sago) – 2 cups
  • Rice flour – 2 tablespoons
  • Green Chillies – 4 Nos
  • Asafotida Powder – ½ teaspoon
  • Salt – 1 teaspoon or as per taste
  • Lemon juice – 1 tablespoon
  • Water – 6 cups

Directions

  1. Soak javvarisi for about 6 to 8 hours or over night.
  2. Next day morning you can make the koozh.
  3. Grind green chillies and salt to a fine paste.
  4. Put a thick bottomed vessel on the stove and pour the water and bring to boil. When it starts boiling, add the soaked javvarisi and stir well. Mix the rice flour in little water and make a thin batter and add to the javvarisi along with ground green chilli paste. Add lemon juice also and stir continuously till the javvarisi is transparent.
  5. The Koozh should be of pouring consistency. If it is too thick, then add enough hot water to make it loose. If it is too thin, just add little rice flour mixed with water and make it to a right pouring consistency.
  6. Spread a clean plastic sheet in the terrace or backyard where you get sun light. Take out a small round spoon of this batter (use round size spoon) and pour it on the sheet. It will get spread round on its own. Finish all the batter like this.
  7. Dry it for the whole day. When it is dried well, store it in a container.
  8. You can also grind the soaked javvarisi along with rice flour to a fine paste and make this koozh. In that case the vadam look like white appalam. If you use whole javvarisi, when it is fried you will find the small rounds in the vadam.

  9. Whenever you want, deep fry it in hot oil. Goes well with any type of rice items like sambar sadam, rasam sadam and variety rices.

41 Comments

  1. Hi
    The vadams looks great,and your recipes are mind blowing.

    I tried making the Javarisi vadams a couple of time ,But I’m in vain, it never came out well.I am wondering where I am going wrong..the dough comes out great after boiling,even while pouring it on the sheet it looks splendid but in a day or two it splits,the laid dough starts to disintegrate like a world map..
    could you plz help,by giving a hint how to resolve.

    Thanks
    shankari

  2. Hi Shankari,

    Thank you for visiting my site.

    I think the Koozh you are making is thinner than what required. The dough should be semi liquid so that when it is dried well, it will not break. Also you can add little rice flour while making the koozh which will bind the dough and it will not break.

  3. Hi Kamala,
    Thank you.

    will keep you posted about my attempts in making the vadams.

    Thanks again
    Shankari

  4. I tried the javvarisi vadams in the exact proportion and they came out very well…thank you so much….

  5. Its v nice!!! How many cup parboiled rice or raw rice before soak?

    Awaiting to hear it from u..will keep posted if it comes out well.

  6. Hi Achu,

    It depends upon how much you want to make. It is prepared in bulk so that it can be stored for a year. If you want to try, you can start with 3 to 4 cups and for one cup rice you can use 2 to 3 green chillies. Anyway, it should be prepared only during summer, that too during March-April.

  7. Kamala madam

    I am regular visitor to your site. 4days back tried Rice Vadavam and kept in sunlight. Today i have fried a little bit as sample. Taste is good. I know only sago vadam,urad dhal vadam. Now this rice vadam recipe will be permanent recipe for rice vadam in my collection. Thankyou very much for giving exact measurements with detailed preparation method.

  8. R.Anandapadmanaban

    Madam,
    Your recipes are marvellous. Almost the whole stock of south Indian recipes you have given in your website. In Vadam making can you please write about making of Rojapu Vadam. Kindly reply in urgence.
    Thanking you.
    With regards,
    R.Anandapadmanaban

    • Thank you Anandapadmanaban for your kind comments. The rose flower design vadavam are made commercially using “moulds”. Basically it is javvarisi vadam, but in the koozh little pink colour is added and poured over the moulds and dried. But I do not find any mould in the shops. So I never tried it.

  9. kamala venugopalan

    We made javvarisi vadam , but initially in the koozh was tasteing good but after drying when it was fried , the taste of salt was very high. How to determine the correct amount of salt. Can this salty vadams be corrected

    • Hi Kamala Venugopalan,

      When you taste the khoozh it contains water and you will not feel the excess salt. But once it is dried the water content in the koozh also absorbed and you get the salty taste. For vadams, you have to add little less salt. To determine the correct amount, when you prepare koozh, first add half of the quantity of the salt required. Then taste it. If you feel it requires more salt, then add little more but not too much. The taste of the koozh must be half salted.

      Now for the already prepared salty vadam, you cannot correct it. But you can consume it in different way. Fry these vadams and have it with curd rice. Or fry and add to the “Pori” (Puffed Rice) and make it as Masala Pori. Also you can fry and add it to curd and make Curd pachadi.

  10. meera sriram

    my dough for vadam comes out well. But when i fry the vadams, they turn out red, not white as it should be. could u suggest a remedy?

    • Hi Meera sriram,

      If the batter over fermented or more lemon is added to the batter, the vadam will turn red after frying. Sometimes frying on overheated oil for long time will also make the fried vadam red. When the oil is in moderate heat put some vadam and fry for just a second (like frying appalam) and check whether you get the white vadam (but it is actually turn light cream colour when you use parboiled rice for vadam). However, once you prepared the vadam, it cannot be rectified.

  11. Hi Mam,

    made javarisi vadam and came out very well but when i fried it the vadam was not at all crisp but hard and rubbery.can you please tell me why

  12. I’m a beginner
    for rice vadam which rice should be used par boiled rice or other specified rice varieties ?

    • Both the rices you can use. If you are using rice flour, you can make flour from the raw rice. If you are soaking and grinding, then use Parboiled Rice.

  13. Is it raw rice or boiled rice flour

  14. 5inally prepard Koozh vadam ,the steps are really helpful nd vadam also sooo tasty………..:-)

  15. Hi
    I have tried Javvarisi Vadam its very tasty. Can i grind big onion and green chilli together to a fine paste and do the same procedure? I like onion flavor….please reply

    • If you grind the onion, sometimes it will give bitter taste. Normally for Onion vadam (also called pakoda vadam), sambar onions and green chillies are chopped finely and add to the Koozh and make small drops and dry it. It will taste like pakoda when fried.

  16. These vadams are very tasty but there is an issue . It sticks to your teeth. Can you please help me with an idea to avoid this issue ? What is required to take care while preparing ?

  17. Hallo Madam,

    After long I have come back again to clear one doubt. Yesterday I made javvarisi vadam and put for drying. Today I could see in a vadam,there are some gaps coming. could please advise me what could be the reason…it has not come a full round shape, there is some gaps in between. I made this in pouring consistency only. when I poured, it was round but after 1day, there is some gaps coming in a vadam…waiting for your reply..if u correct me, so that next time when I make, I may not go wrong.

  18. One more doubt also. today I tried rice vadam. till how much thickness, v have to stir. the consistency of the dough should be how much thickness. please give any example. for putting in murrukku press, how much thickness it should be…I know both vadam, I was doing for 1st time..if you correct me now, both rice and javvarisi vathal I can do it correct…please advise me where I went wrong in both vadams. my rice dought was not tough dough, its little bit semiliquid type.

    • The consistency should be like a soft dough. If you take a lump of the dough in your hand, you should be able to make a ball. If it is semi liquid, you will not be able to use it in Murukku Press. Meantime, Vadams are prepared in summer only. How you are trying in this season??

  19. rice vadam, it got dried today. I just fried a little. size is small after frying. taste is good.my rice vadam is not the same size as your picture given. size is small after fying. I have put in single star murrukku press only, after drying it was very thin and frying small size rice vadam. size I did not get as ur picture shown rice vadam. please correct me where im going wrong in preparation.

    • Hi Suchithra,

      Regret delay in replying. If the oil is not hot enough to fry the vadam, it will stay in the same size even after frying. Heat the oil properly and then add few vadams, it will immediately get fried and the size will be doubled.

  20. Eagerly waiting for reply to my messages. thanks suchithra.

  21. Thank you mam for the reply. I stay in muscat, it’s too hot here now, so drying part no problem. making part only, I was making mistake. with regard to rice vadam, I got clarified now. please help to clarify my javvarisi vadam doubt also. Im pasting my question below again:

    I made javvarisi vadam and put for drying. Today I could see in a vadam,there are some gaps coming. could please advise me what could be the reason…it has not come a full round shape, there is some gaps in between. I made this in pouring consistency only. when I poured, it was round but after 1day, there is some gaps coming in a vadam…waiting for your reply..if u correct me, so that next time when I make, I may not go wrong.

  22. sure mam will go as per ur instruction. thank u.

  23. I believe people from different states have different recipe for the same “Tamilian” Vadaam. Is that true?

  24. Krishnamurthy

    Hi I live in Bangalore Koramangala and would like to buy a few of those vadams in my neighbourhood. Alternatively if there’s some home delivery or on line sales pl let me know. Or if some one can bring some and sell them here. Please let me know even if it’s available in HSR BDA complex I can buy from there
    S
    Krishnamurthy
    Mob: 9448262730

  25. Parimala Govindan

    Your vanthal was awesome I tried which came out well but while drying some mud got stuck on them what to do? Kindly suggest almost every thing

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