South Indian style – with seasoning powder recipe
Bonus – Lemon rice noodles with fresh green peas
Savory preparations using rice and rice flour are very common and popular in South India. One such preparation is String Hoppers or Rice noodles. Growing up, these rice noodles were made from scratch by pressing them through a special device. The process started with making rice flour by soaking, roasting, and grinding rice. The next step was cooking the rice flour to a porridge with water. The third step was to roll the cooked mixture into large balls and steam it!! Finally, we would put these cooked balls through a pressing device to make the string hoppers. As kids we loved to help ‘press’ the device and practically eat the noodles as it dropped down at the bottom. We had no clue about the efforts that went into preparing the dish from scratch.
Today we get a variety of instant rice noodles that can be cooked in hot water and enjoyed immediately. Although I must say, it is always good to season the instant varieties rather than enjoying them plain.
Today I will elucidate 2 seasoning options –
☝️ Sesame seasoning – where a sesame powder is prepared from scratch and mixed to the warm noodles
✌️ The second bonus seasoning is good old lemon flavor
Step 1 – Sesame seasoning powder –
Sesame rice noodles
Ingredients
- 4 cups Rice noodles cooked
- 4 tbsps Sesame seasoning powder
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Sesame seeds
- 1 tbsps Peanuts
- 1 tbsps Channa dal (broken chickpeas)
- 4 tbsps Sesame oil
For the Sesame Seasoning powder – Dry roast the following and grind to a fine powder –
- 1 cup Sesame seeds white
- 2 tbsps Peanuts
- 2 tbsps Channa dal
- 5-10 Red chillies dry
Instructions
- Season/fry mustard seeds, sesame seeds, peanuts and channa dal in sesame oil
- Add the cooked warm string hoppers to the pan
- Sprinkle 4 tbsps of sesame seasoning powder and mix gently until well coated
Lemon flavored rice noodles
Ingredients
- 4 cups Rice noodles cooked
- 4 tbsps Sesame oil
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp Cashew nuts broken coarsely optional
- 1 tbsp Channa dal (broken chickpeas)
- 1 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 cup Fresh green peas (frozen can be used thawed)
- 2 Green chillies chopped
- 1 tbsp Cilantro leaves chopped
- 2 Lemons
Instructions
- Season/fry mustard seeds, cumin seeds, cashew nuts and channa dal in sesame oil
- Add finely chopped green chillies, plenty of coriander leaves and shredded turmeric root. Add the fresh peas and saute till peas are cooked
- Squeeze 2 large lemons, remove seeds
- Add the warm rice noodles, turmeric powder and toss to coat completely
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