Homemade rice flour

This is a simple post to explain the preparation of homemade processed rice flour using raw rice. This flour is especially used during festivals to prepare the traditional indian sweets and snacks like nombu adai, thenkuzhal, kozhukattai, seedai, thattai etc. and also idiyappam. Preparing snacks and sweets with this rice flour yields better results than the store bought ones. If preparing in large quantities, it is better to get it ground in the flour mills. But here I have used only mixie for grinding but the only tedious job with this method is to sieve finely.

Homemade Rice Flour Recipe

Makes :  4.5 cups

Ingredients

• Raw rice  -  2.5 cups

Method

1. Wash rice well for 2 to 3 times and soak in water till immersing level for at least 2 hours. The more time it is soaked the better.
2. Drain the water completely using a metal strainer and spread it on a clean kitchen cloth for at least 20 to 30 minutes. This time depends on the quantity of rice being dried.  Drying can be done both indoors and in direct sunlight. 
3. The rice need not be dried completely. It should be slightly moist as we will anyways dry roast the powdered flour.
4. As already mentioned, you can have it ground in flour mills if making in large quantities.
5. If grinding at home, grind the rice in batches in a mixie to a fine powder. Ensure to stop the mixie in between to avoid it from getting hot.
6. Sieve the flour to remove coarse particles and add the coarse particles when grinding the next batch.
7. Repeat the above 2 steps until the entire batch is finely powdered and sieved. Ensure to discard the final set of coarse particles. 
8. My mother says that for preparing thenkuzhal you can use this flour as it is without roasting.
9. Dry roast the flour in a pan in low to medium flame till vapour starts to come. Do not let it change color. Do this with constant and even stirring. This step helps to remove the moisture content from the flour so that it can be stored for future use.
10. Sieve it once more to remove any other coarse particles resulting out of roasting. 
11. Allow it to cool down and store in an air tight container.
12. If correctly prepared, you should be able to draw kolam out of this rice flour .
13. This rice flour if properly handled can be stored for up to a month. But it is always best to make them fresh as required.

Notes

• For most of the dishes minimal roasting to remove the moisture content is sufficient, whereas for nombu adai the flour needs to be roasted a little more for additional flavor.
• The flour can be prepared well ahead(before 4 to 5 days) of making the actual dish.