How to make vada?

Question

How to make vada?

Answer 1

soak rice and lentils in water (try 4 cups of urad dal, one cup of white rice). let soak in water for a 12 hours (overnight is good). then, drain out the water as much as possible. puree the drained rice and lentils in a blender until smooth (but not completely smooth...should still have a LITTLE texture, just no recognizable lentil or rice pieces.) add a good spoonful of salt when u grind the lentils. this is your batter. you take this and you deep fry bits of it at a time to make vadas. so, take a big pot of vegetable oil, heat it until very very hot. to test if it is hot enough: if a drop of batter in the oil sizzles immediately and rises to the top, then it is hot enough. if you use oil that's not hot enough, your vadas will be leaden and greasy. anyway, once your oil is hot enough, take a tablespoon or two-tablespoon amount of batter, plomp it onto an oiled smooth surface (i like to use the outside of a ziploc bag), carefully put a hole in the middle with your finger. then once you've shaped/formed your vada, slide this into the hot oil. depending on the size of your pot, you can slide in several at a time. let it bob up and down and get brown on one side, then flip it over and then drain it on paper towels and eat fresh!

you can add some onion, green chiles, ginger, cilantro when you grind the batter.

Answer 2

Ingredients

1 cup of black gram, skinless (urad dal)

Salt to taste

a pinch of asafoetida

8-10 curry leaves

1 tspn of cumin powder

2 green chillies chopped

bits of coconut

a small sprig coriander leaves chopped

1 tspn of crushed black peppercorns

Oil to fry

Recipe

Wash and soak urad dal for six hours. Grind into a fine paste. Add salt, asafoetida, curry leaves, cumin powder and all the other ingredients except oil to the batter and mix well.

Heat oil in a kadai. Wet your palms and take batter into the palms. Shape into balls and make a hole with wet finger in the centre like a doughnut.

Deep-fry this in medium hot oil until golden brown and crisp.

Serve hot with sambhar and coconut chutney.