Millet fritters(Nanchne vadi or Ragi sandige)

As I said in my earlier posts, I asked my aayi to make as many different types of sun dried items as possible. So every weekend we did some vadis/papads, weekends because I wanted to see how she makes them and also take all pictures. If she had stayed here for few more days, I could have written a book on sun dried items ;).

Nanchne(Konkani) or ragi(Kannada) is finger millet. I had helped my neighbor (whom I called mami), in spreading these, when I was a kid. After that, though I tasted these many times, I had never actually got into making these myself.

We made these with the ready made ragi flour, so these were very easy to make. Only problem was, these vadis shrink a lot when dried. Even though we were careful about the salt, the ready vadis became slightly salty. But these were very crispy, had great taste of sesame seeds in the background.

Ingredients:
1 cup ragi(finger millet) flour
5 cups water
3 tea spn chili powder
2 tea spn sesame seeds (til)
1/4 tea spn asafoetida powder
Salt

Method:
Mix ragi flour and water and cook it on a medium flame mixing continuously. Add chili powder, salt and keep mixing till the mixture is cooked. It should be of a consistency of thick dosa batter.
Let it cool to room temperature, add asafoetida powder, sesame seeds.

Spread a plastic paper under hot sun. Sprinkle a handful of water on it and then spread small vadis.

Dry it for 2-3 days till they are completely dried and are very crispy.
Cool them to room temperature and store in an air tight container. When required, deep fry them in oil (or microwave them in a single layer for 1min) and serve.

PS: When the vadis are dried, they become tiny and usually become salty if you add salt according to the batter volume. So keep in mind to add less salt than normal.
Traditionally whole ragi is soaked in water for overnight, ground to a smooth paste. Then it is strained using a cloth to remove any skins and other steps are followed like above.
Some people make a little hard dough and then press it in chakli press like normal chaklis, then, dry them under hot sun.

22 thoughts on “Millet fritters(Nanchne vadi or Ragi sandige)”

  1. We always made these odis with garlic or onion in Mlore area in the summer. But your pumpkin odis are generally not made here. I guess its a regional thing
    AS kids we would help our mom spread the odis in the sun, we used spoons to drop them since the batter would burn our hands. Mom would use her hands and made cute “modak” shaped ones compared to our shapeless ones. We would complete the work before 9am when mom had to leave for work and the sun’s heat got stronger.

  2. you are on a vadi roll…. i think it is good to have these on hand as when you are short on time or sabji, this comes in really handy.. these look really good… am sure they taste great too

  3. These look fabulous, I love sun-dried items. Too bad, here in Sweden, there is no sun 🙁 Do you have any experiences with drying these in the oven on a super low temperature?


    Shilpa: Rashmi, I have never tried making any vadis in oven. You can give it a try, keeping very low temperature. But I think by that method, the shelf life of these will be less than the normal ones.

  4. Shilpa,U seem to be on a Vodi Spree!!Lovely one! I didn’t know abt Nanchanya vodi! Wd surely try these someday. Thks abt the tip on Salt. Lovely post.

  5. You are killing me with these vadis. I have a stock of vadis that came from India during the parents visit. But I miss the whole process of making them. Summer vacations were so much fun when we were making these. reminds me of all those times. Hopefully, my kids will have those memories, too. Maybe, next summer.

  6. The vadis look yummy.. I tried some of the sabudana ones earlier this week. came out great. Can you tell me what you use for plastic sheets? I used some painter’s drop cloths but they were so thin, that it was a pain trasporting them in and out the house.what a mess!! thanks for posting such yummy vadi recipes!! 🙂

    -Shirin.

    Shilpa: Shirin, we used any thick plastic. These were the bags we got while shopping cloths. Is you are making them in small quantity, transfer them to a baking sheet or any other big vessel once they start coming off the plastic.

  7. I often visit your blog. You just blew me away by your varthal’s(vadi) variety! Hat’s off to you and your Mom. I am definitely going to try a few. Thanks

  8. hi!

    i wanted to know whether i can bake the vadis in very low tempertare in oven? cause we dont get much sunlight here in madison,even in summer and we dont have any open area to dry the vadis

    thank u
    bye

    Shilpa: Rashmi, I have never tried making any vadis in oven. You can give it a try, keeping very low temperature. But I think by that method, the shelf life of these will be less than the normal ones.

  9. Wow…Wodi spree. I never knew we could make out of ragi. You have a huge collection of the sundried items. We cousins used to help my grandmom(mamama)do happol, papod and wodi’s every summer. Miss everything.

    I appreciate your dedication and time spend on the blog, in spite of your busy schedule.

  10. Dear Shilpa,
    You are really having good patience. Even if I know how to prepare most of these items,I do not have the patience of writing/picturising. you are really great. i like your style of expression. It is very easy to follow the simple steps for a new cook. Hats off to you.
    -Sabitha

  11. Hi Shilpa, I came across your website when I was searching for some konkani recipes. I appreciate all the hard work that you are putting in. Thank you so much for having these delicious amchigela konkani dishes :).

  12. Hi
    I tried out the ragi sandige at home..its superb! Thanks for the recipe. If u don’t want the sandige to be salty try adding salt to the dry flour before cooking it, then mix with water and start cooking
    (the amount of salt can be guessed easily when put to dry ragi flour). Try adding garlic paste (fresh) to the ragi paste and cook well before adding sesame and hing, this gives a nice flavor and taste when fried later.

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