kalakkalsamayal: Samai-Sweet-Bread

#SamaiSweetBread :

#Samai or #SamaiArisi is called #LittleMillet in English. This cereal belongs to minor millet variety. The size of each grain of samai is the tiniest one among millet. That could be the reason to call it Little Millet in English. It is known as kutki in Hindi and Same in Kannada.

Generally millet are gluten free and non acid forming food.

100 grams of Samai [ Little millet ] has 7.7 gm of Protein, 7.6 gm of Fiber, 9.3 mg of Iron [ 72% 0f daily value ] and 17 mg of Calcium. Other than these minerals it is also rich in Phosphorous [ 220 mg 31 % of daily value ] and Magnesium.

To know more go to : Nutrients of Millet

To know on samai go to : Samai Arisi

I am regularly using different types of millet in my daily diet. I have been making Pongal, Upma and sometimes mixed Rice from millet. But I wanted to try new tasty dishes from millet. Recently I made masala bread and it turned out to be a tasty delight. But the main drawback of the dish is that the dough has to be fermented for 6 - 8 hours. It requires pre-planning and the time involved happens to be longer.

My mind was kept on thinking on how to make a sweet version of masala bread. When I made spicy masala bread and browntop millet bread, I learned that the cooked grains of millet acts as a binding agent for the dough as the cereals of millet are gluten free. And also fermentation of dough is necessary to make the dish soft & fluffy. First I ground soaked millet and cooked millet. Then allowed to ferment the whole night and steam cooked the next day morning. The taste was good and also the bread was soft. But my taste buds could find out slight sour taste. Then I tried with curd and baking powder to make a steamed sweet bread. The bread thus made without fermentation was palatable but the taste of curd was a drawback and also it wasn't come out soft.

When I was editing some posts from this blog, I came across the recipes of rawa Idli [ Sooji idli ] and broken wheat [ dahlia ] idli. One particular ingredient is being added to make rawa idli very soft. So I decided to combine the method of making Browntop millet bread and rawa Idly [ Sooji idli ]. The dish thus born surprised me and my husband. The dish brought out the aroma of that particular millet and the sweet was subtle and able to satisfy our taste buds. The taste reminds us of our traditional sweet, Puttu.

Kindly read on to know the magic ingredient that helped me to prepare a delicious Samai Sweet bread without fermentation.

Samai Sweet Bread - Little Millet sweet bread

The preparation involves two stages

Soaking and grinding
Steam cooking the prepared dough

Soaking Time : 2 hours

Preparation Time : 15 - 20 mins

Steam cooking Time : 15 - 18 mins

Ingredients :
3/4 Cup+1 Tbsp	Samai [ Little Millet ]
1/3 Cup	Coconut scrapings
1/4 Cup	Sugar [ adjust ]
1/4 Tsp	Salt
5 - 6	Dried Dates [ Raisins ]
8 - 10	Dried grapes [ kismis ]
2 - 3	Cardamom
a small piece	Nutmeg [ optional ]
1/4 Tsp	Cinnamon powder [ optional ]
1 Tsp	Fennel [ Sounf ]
1 Sachet [ 5 g ]	Eno Fruit salt

1/2 Tsp of ghee to grease the steaming vessel/pan.

Method :

Soaking and Grinding :

Take 3/4 cup of Samai in a vessel and wash once with water.

Soak in water for two hours.

Take 1 Tbsp of samai in a small bowl and rinse it with water once. Soak it with 2 Tbsp of water for 1 1/2 hours. After 1 1/2 hours pressure cook in a cooker for a whistle at HIGH and then reduce the flame to SIM and cook for 7 minutes.

Take out the cooked samai after the pressure cooker ran out of steam. Let it cool down to room temperature.

Then take soaked samai and 2 tablespoon of cooked samai in a mixie jar and blend together with little water into a coarse batter. Transfer into a big vessel. Add 1 Tsp of water into the mixie jar and clean to get the batter sticking on the inner surface of the jar. Add washed water also into the vessel containing batter.

Add sugar and salt. Mix well.

Preparing Dough :

Grease a flat bottomed shallow vessel/pan with ghee/oil and keep aside.

Finely chop dried dates [ raisins ] and set aside.

Take 1 Tsp of sugar, cardamom and nutmeg in a mortar and pound into a smooth powder with pestle.

Keep aside a small amount of chopped dried dates to decorate at the top. Add rest of them into the batter.

Now add fennel, cardamom-nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder [ optional ] and coconut scraping into the vessel containing batter. Mix well and then check the sweetness of the dough and if required add 2 to 3 Tsp of sugar.

The dough should be of idli maavu [ Idli batter ] consistency.

Finally add Eno fruit salt and mix well. The fruit salt produces lots of air bubbles in the dough and the volume of the dough slightly increases.

Steam Cooking the dough :

Heat an idli maker with three cups of water on a stove over high flame. Place the steamer plate in the slot inside the idli maker.

Pour the prepared dough into the greased vessel and tap gently to spread out evenly.

Sprinkle chopped dates and kismis over the batter.

Place the vessel/pan with dough over the steamer plate once the water starts boiling in the idli maker.

Close the idli maker with its lid and cook for 14 minutes.

After 14 minutes open the lid.

Now insert a clean and dry knife or toothpick into the bread.

If it comes out clean then the bread is ready and remove the vessel from the idli maker.

If not steam cook for another 2 - 3 minutes.

Remove the steamed bread from the idli maker.

Keep over the kitchen platform or on a table to cool down. Allow to stand for ten minutes.

After ten minutes slice the prepared bread with a clean and dry knife.

The bread thus made is so soft and it may crumble and fall off if not careful.

Enjoy tasty tasty soft samai sweet bread!!

mm... Ahaaa.... wow!! smelling great with coconut & samai arisi's aroma!!

The pieces can be stored in an airtight container after the pieces completely cool down to room temperature.

The bread remains good for a day.

Note :

Add only two tablespoon of cooked samai while grinding batter in the mixie. Otherwise the bread would become sticky. If some left over cooked samai is there then consume it with sambar, rasam or curd.

The bread can be prepared without adding coconut scrapings also. The same measurement of ingredients holds good.

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