Medu Vada (soft vada) is very popular in South India as breakfast and
snack.
Try this easy recipe for these fried fritters. Made with split black
gram, medu vadas are crunchy on the outside and soft inside and make a
great picnic food.
Servings: 4 Cooking Time: 30
minutes (excluding the soaking time for dal)
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups urad dal (split black gram)
Vegetable Oil for deep frying
Salt to taste
Preparation
Soak the urad dal for 3 hours.
Drain the water and in a blender,
grind into a thick, smooth
batter, adding only a little water. The batter should not be watery.
Add the salt when you're ready to fry the vadas.
Heat oil in a deep frying pan.
Keep a bowl of water handy. Take a plastic sheet (or
ziploc bag) and brush some oil on it, and then place a small golf-sized
ball of the batter on it, flatten it a bit, and make a hole in the
center, as in a doughnut.
Drop it into the pan.
Repeat with the remaining batter, reduce the heat to
medium, and fry the vadas until golden brown.
Serve the medu vadas with hot sambar
and coconut chutney or ginger
chutney.
Cooking Tips
Salt makes the batter watery, making it difficult to make the balls for
the vadas. So add salt to half the batter first, and when you've used
all of this, then add salt to the remaining batter.
For grinding lentils and grains, use a high-powered blender that can
grind these to a smooth consistency without getting overheated quickly.
