Uzhundha vadai / medhu vadai / mina pappu garelu / urid dhal fritters

 

A very healthy and tasty snack,  especially for children. I love the smell, outer crispiness and inner softness of this vadai. Quick and easy to prepare and it makes a wholesome snack too. Any tamilian will go ga-ga for this vada preparation :). Usually this vada is served along with venpongal or idly in hotels and it goes very well with sambhar and coconut chutney. In south India it is a must during festival feasts.

 

 

Ingredients:

Urid dhal - 1 1/2 cup

Onion- 1 no

Green chillies- 4 nos

Ginger- 1/2 inch piece

Curry leaves- some 10 leaflets, minced finely

Jeera- 1/2 tspn

Pepper corns- 10 nos (coarsely grounded)

Oil for deep frying

Salt to taste

Method : 

Soak urid dhal in water for 40 minutes. Cut onions, green chillies and ginger into small pieces. Mince curry leaves and coarsely ground pepper corns. Grind the soaked urid dhal in a food processor to a smooth paste. Add enough salt when grinding. The batter should be thick and not watery. Now mix onions, green chillies, ginger, curry leaves, jeera and pepper to the ground batter. Mix well. Take a small lime-sized ball of batter and make it flat. Make a hole in the center of the flattened batter with your finger. Now drop it in hot oil. Fry all the batter in the same way. Crispy, soft medhu vada or uzhundha vada is ready to be served.

Taste enhancing tips for this recipe : You can add two teaspoon of tuvar dhal when soaking the uri ddhal and grind together. I read in a magazine that it increases the crispiness of vada. You can grind the batter coarsely too. That gives a different, more crispy taste. Do not soak the dhal for more than one hour. Do not make the batter watery. The batter should be thick enough so that the vada imbibes less oil.  But when the batter is too thick the vada becomes hard and rubbery. So find a balance in the consistency of the batter. You can shape the vada with your hand. But before doing this dip your hand in water so that the batter doesn't stick to your hand. Otherwise you can use polythene sheets which are coated with oil for shaping the vadas. You can add carrot scrapping, coconut pieces, any minced healthy greens to the batter for that extra touch. Serve with coconut chutney. Happy cooking !!!

Mupparuppu vadai/ Fritters made with three different dhals

 

My mom taught me how to make this vadai. This is a variation of the usual vadai recipe.  We normally make vadai either with channa dhal or urid dhal. But in this recipe channa dhal, urid dhal and moong dhal are added in a ratio of 1:1:1 to make crispy vadais. You can also use these vadais to make urundai kuzhambu, which is a mouth-watering delicacy. As I have already mentioned if you use different variety of pulses in your cooking you will get all the necessary amino acids and in this way vegetarians can meet their protein requirements. I was not sure how these vadais will turn out since I was making them for the first time. But they turned out to be extremely tasty, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Do try it as it makes a tasty and healthy snack.

Ingredients :

Channa dhal ( kadalai paruppu)- 1 cup

Moong dhal ( pasiparuppu)-  1 cup

Urid dhal (uzhundham paruppu)- 1 cup

Onion- 1 no (red onions are better)

Spring onions (optional)- I had some at home so I minced them and added to the batter, you can also use spinach

Green chillies- 4 nos

Curry leaves- 10 leaflets (minced fine)

Ginger- ½ inch piece minced finely

Cumin seeds- 1 tspn

Chilli powder- 1 ½ tspn (adjust according to your taste)

Asafoetida- few pinches

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method :

Soak all three dhals together in water for one hour. Then grind them together with enough salt and asafoetida powder into a coarse batter. Cut onion and green chillies into small pieces. Mince ginger and curry leaves. Now add everything to the ground batter and mix well by adding chilli powder. Taste the batter and adjust salt once again. Now the vada batter is ready. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Take small lime sized batter and drop them in oil. Do not overcrowd the pan. Take them out when the vadas become golden brown in colour. Fry all the batter in batches. Crispy vadas are ready to be relished.

Taste enhancing tips for this recipe : Grind the batter into a coarse paste. Take care that the vada batter is thick and not watery. When grinding add water in very small amount and only when it is absolutely necessary. Do not make large vadas. Then the inside of the vadas remains uncooked. Happy cooking !!!

Paruppu vadai

This week end some of my friends came. So I wanted to prepare something very traditional other than the usual sambhar, rasam, chicken stuff. So I made puliyotharai, curd rice, paruppu vadai, payasam, appalam and mor milagai. Everyone enjoyed the food and I am very happy . Paruppu vadai is my dad's favourite. It is also called as aama(i) (tortoise) vadai because of it's shape and masala vadai because of the addition of  masala items to it. When I was working in MKU we use to go for tea break to a nearby small tea shop. A cup of tea and this vadai is a wonderful treat amidst those working times and those are also the time for hot, hot gossips . I thoroughly enjoyed those times. When we travelled to USA my periyamma prepared these vadai. Hers are one of the best I have ever tasted. The vadai I made yesterday turned out to be a very tasty, golden, crispy treat.

Ingredients

Channa dhal- 1 cup

Moong dhal- 2 handfulls

Onions- 2 nos

Garlic- 4 pods

Ginger- 1/2 inch piece

Coriander leaves

Green chilli- 5 nos

Saunf- 2 tspns

Coriander powder and chilli powder- 1 tspn

Asafoetida a pinch

Oil and salt

Method

Soak channa dhal and moong dhal for 40 minutes. Make sure you soak them only for short duration. Never soak them more than an hour. Soaking them longer makes the vadais imbibe more oil. So the final product turns out to be very soft and oily. Grind the soaked dhal into a coarse paste with enough salt and a pinch of asafoetida. Try not to add water when grinding. But if you need water add very little. The batter should be thick and you should be able to make aamai shape out of it.  Before grinding take a handful of dhal and keep aside. Now cut the onions, green chillies, garlic, ginger and coriander leaves into tiny pieces. Then mix these cut items with the coarsely ground batter along with soaked, unground dhals, 2 tspns of saunf (fennel seeds), coriander powder and chilli powder. When you cut and mix the masala items with batter the entire place starts to smell of fresh masala. Then take small amount of ground batter in your hand and mould them into the shape as shown in the picture. Heat oil in a kadai and when it is hot enough drop the shaped vada batter in it. Remove them from oil when they turn golden in colour. Fry the remaining batter in batches. Tasty, crispy vadai will be ready to serve.

Taste enhancing tips: Do not soak the dhal for more than an hour. Use moong dhal for grinding as well as for adding to the ground batter. This makes the vadai more crispier. All the above mentioned masala items (ginger, garlic, saunf)  makes the vadai very falavourful so do not miss them. Try to make small vadais so that you can be sure that the inner portion is also cooked well when the vadais turn golden in colour. Happy cooking!!! and enjoy your week end .