Its Vada, Dahi Vada!

Dear foodies,

With one major festival done, we have another one coming up soon, Deepavali/Diwali. The last few weeks I noticed a lot of searches for sweets, but hey you know I love the savories more, so how about some of that for you and me to enjoy. May be some medhu vada/ulundhu vada ? and may be some dahi vada too ? okay! So lets get started, shall we.... my mother made these when she was here this summer.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups - whole urad dal
• 1 tsp - whole pepper corns
• 2-3 - green chillies
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Wash and soak the urad dal in water for about 45mins. Drain all the water and blend the dal along with the pepper and green chillies using as little water as possible.Wet your hands a little with water as you add the dal and add water only by the teaspoons as find the need. A watery dough absorbs a lot of oil and is hard to shape as well. This is a globby batter that you can shape into dumplings unlike the pouring consistency of dosa batter. Add salt to taste and mix vigorously with a spoon or your hand to make it fluffy. This makes the vada's light and crispy.
2. Heat oil in a shallow pan, check if its hot enough by carefully dropping a small drop of the batter into it. If it bubbles around the edges and raises to the top immediately the oil is ready. Wet your hands slightly, place a glob of batter on your palm, with the forefinger of the other hand make a hole in the center (donut style) and slide it into the oil, or pick flip onto the free hand and then slide. You could also use a plastic sheet or banana leaf as a base while shaping the vada. But if you are in no mood for all this, just drop round balls of the batter into the oil, the taste is still going to be the same :)

and hey, don't forget Jai's appam pan method for frying. Yes, you don't have an excuse anymore to make deep fried goodies any more.

For the dahi in the dahi vada, south Indian style, grind together

• 2 Tbsp - grated, fresh coconut
• handful of cilantro/coriander leaves
• 1-2 green chillies

with required water ( ~ 1/4 cup) and add it to 2 cups of beaten curds with salt to taste. When the vada's are ready, soak them in the yogurt mixture for 1hr allowing it to soften and absorb the dahi. But if you are in a rush, dip them first in some light buttermilk/water, squeeze lightly between your palms and then drop them into the yogurt mixture. This step softens them up allowing them to take in the yogurt mixture.

Serve garnished with some more chopped cilantro and a sprinkle of red chilli powder and chat masala :)

Other variations would be to soak the vada's in sambar or rasam instead of dahi/curd or adding a few chopped onions to the batter. But do make enough vada's to munch on by themselves, afterall, the crunchies are the best part of the vada right ? along with some coconut chutney or mango pickle...Off it goes now to Pallavi, who is hosting her first event, Yummy Festival Feast - Diwali! and I forgot a main event here JFI, started my Indira!! Sorry Srivalli :(, one extra special order of dahi vada to you for the Festival Jihva :)

I had some issues with blogger y'day with it not allowing comments on my posts, especially the previous one here. So if you had something to share, please do drop in a line today :)