I made this along with dosai for my friend who relocated to a different city recently. I had the menu planned and ran it by K for changes and he suggested idiyappam. I am not sure where it came from and I was initially skeptical to try it. So I called my mom and got the recipe and followed it to the T. I was surprised with the results and the sevai was soft and it was exactly the way my mom makes it . It is very easy to make as we do not have any grinding to do and I simplified it even further by using store bought rice flour. You can cool the sevai and make varieties similar to mixed rice like lemon sevai, coconut sevai, etc. Overall a tasty authentic dish that is also healthy. Off to the recipe.

Plain sevai, lemon sevai and channa side dish. For lemon sevai follow the method mentioned for lemon rice after the sevai cools. Use the sevai instead of rice.

Pic updated on 3/21/2013.

Ingredients
2 cups rice flour
Salt
2 – 3 cups hot water
Oil to coat the vessel

Method
Steam the rice flour for 5 minutes. My mom says that this makes the sevai soft.

Then add salt and mix.

This is the disc we use for sevai in the murukku maker. (Murukku maker is similar to a cookie press)

Add hot water to the flour and mix using a spatula.

Form a dough.

Fill the murukku maker with a portion of the dough and press it to get the sevai. Form the sevai over a vessel or idli plate that has been slightly oiled. (I oil it only before the first sevai because we do not want it to stick.)

I use the pressure cooker for steaming. Just follow whatever steaming method you use for idlis.

Pressed sevai ready for steaming. Love the pretty strands. Steam for 10 minutes similar to idli.

After steaming.