We had
a potluck last week with some friends and had prepared masaal vadai as one of
the items; Shiva Shankari had mostly made it and it was a super hit item which
all of us liked very much. This is a conventional item in most south Indian homes
but we at home are more acquainted with medu vadai so its an exiting dish for me. I had tried this once with
‘pattani paruppu’ instead of gram dal, when we had my sister and family at
home; it had turned slightly watery and so, thanks to Shankari only this time I
learnt it right from her.
Yields: 35 Vadais approx.
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Soaking Time: 2 hours
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1.
Gram dal or Pattani paruppu – 500 gm
2.
Onion – 3 large
3.
Ginger chopped – 2 tbsp
4.
Curry leaves chopped – a fistful
5.
Coriander leaves chopped – a fistful
6.
Green chilies – 4-5 finely chopped
7.
Fennel seeds – 1 tbsp
8.
Salt to taste
9.
Oil for deep frying
Method:
Step 1:
Wash and soak gram dal (or pattani paruppu if you are using that) for 2 hours.
Step 2:
Drain the water completely; leave the dal in a colander for few minutes to
drain out water thoroughly. This is where I had made mistake in my first
attempt.
Step 3:
Save a fistful of soaked dal and grind coarsely the rest of the dal in a
mixer jar without adding water.
Step 4:
Collect the ground dal in a mixing bowl, add to it the retained whole dal and all
other ingredients except oil and mix well. Adjust salt and spices.
Step 5:
Heat oil in a deep kadai; take lemon sized ball of the batter and pat into 3" diameter discs with the help of your palms (use very little water if necessary to grease
palms). Fry 5-6 in a batch and repeat for the entire batter.
Step 6:
Serve hot as is or with coconut/ pudina chutney.
TIPS:
* Thin
discs fried in simmered heat for long time render crisp vadais while fatter
ones are soft.
*Vadakari
is a spicy curry made out of left over masaal vadai as an accompaniment for
aapam or poori or idli or dosa.
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