Little crisps of sunshine

In summer, the vadams are set out to dry. This year, we meet the makers: people painstakingly following traditional processes to make these crunchy treats using rice, millet, vegetables and even local greens  

Kallidaikurichi, a small town in Tamil Nadu, located on the banks of the River Thamirabharani, was once known for hand-made appalams. Today, only a few people continue to make them. For years, Uma Kannan’s mother-in-law was one of them, supplying to customers across Tamil Nadu. In 1998, when Uma took over, she decided to pivot, focussing on vadams, the sun-dried, rice-based crispsversions of papads .

“My husband was working overseas and my child was in school. So, my friend and I began to make vadams and sell them to my mother-in-law’s customers. Since then, my customers have been increasing steadily,” says Uma.

She is not the first homemaker-turned-entrepreneur to do so. Vadams are dear to Tamil families: almost every family has a carefully stored stash in the pantry, no matter where in the world they live.

These popular palm-sized accompaniments, usually paired with rice for lunch, are also fairly complex and time consuming to make. Traditional recipes use no preservatives, instead relying on hours of strong sunshine to dehydrate the batter into a shelf-stable crisp, which can be fried when needed. Hence, entrepreneurs who follow traditional processes, usually from small towns across Tamil Nadu, are finding enthusiastic buyers across the country.

For Uma, March to August are the busiest months, during which time her days begin at 4am. Her husband V Kannan, who has retired as a heavy machines mechanic and his younger brother, both actively help Uma by cleaning the terrace, then carrying all the paraphernalia including grass mats, cooked rice in large vessels, moulds and buckets of water and cloth napkins. At the end of the day, they roll the sheets and bring the dried vadams down. Normally, it takes five 5 to six 6 hours of sun drying for two to three2 to 3 days for the vadams to dry completely.

“I think making vadams is rather easy,” says Uma, “Raw rice is washed, soaked, shade-dried and ground. I add a little sago flour to the rice flour to get crispiness and texture. This mixture is cooked to the required consistency depending on the type of vadam I am making. While cooking, I add salt, green chillies, asafoetida, and cumin or omam (caraway seeds), and after I switch off I add lemon juice (which acts as a preservative).”

Uma uses approximately 10 kilograms of rice per week to make various types of vadams during the peak season, March to July. Her specialty is traditional versions such as koozh vadam, ribbon vadam, onion vadam, ela vadam and sambar vadam. Customers carry Uma’s unique sambar vadams in particular across the globe, to Canada, US, Europe and UK.