The doughnut-shaped crispy fried snack item on your South Indian platter has been a favourite with all. Hot, deep fried, crispy from outside and soft from inside, it’s called medu vada or medhu vadai and is traditionally served with sambar and coconut chutney. Made from a batter of white urad dal, gently spiced with black peppercorns, curry leaves, green chillies and fresh coriander leaves, this crunchy snack tastes best when smeared generously with coconut chutney. The batter of lentil is kept to rest for a few hours and then deep fried till golden crisp, giving its portions a round shape with a whole in the middle, like doughnuts. The result is a soft, fluffy, porous and delicious vadas.

Salty with a mild peppercorn flavour, these soft-crisps are a good breakfast and tea-time snack. You can easily make perfect medu vadas at home.

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Medu Vada Recipe

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

White urad dal: 1 cup

Green chillies: 4

A few curry leaves

A few coriander leaves

Black peppercorns: 8

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Method

Wash urad dal thoroughly.

Soak it in plenty of water for four to five hours.

Drain the water completely and grind it to a slightly coarse paste in a grinder.

Add few drop of water after every three-four spins if required. Keep scraping off the sides of the grinder after few spins and then grind again. Grind till you get a mildly coarse white urad dal paste.

Transfer it to a big bowl.

Beat it clockwise with hand till fluffy. Drop a spoonful of dal paste in a bowl filled with water. If it comes up on the surface of water, then the dal is perfectly aerated otherwise beat it for some more time till it gets fluffy. Add crushed pepper corns, salt, finely chopped green chillies, coriander leaves and curry leaves to the dal batter. Mix well.

Heat oil in a deep thick bottomed pan.

Spread a plastic sheet on your left palm. Grease it with oil.

Take water in a bowl. Wet your right hand with water.

Pour four tablespoons of dal paste on the greased plastic sheet.

Flatten it with wet hand. Dip your thumb in water and make a whole in the centre with your wet thumb. Shape the vada perfectly round from the edges with the help of your wet fingers.

When the oil is appropriately hot, wet your right palm and transfer the vada from the plastic sheet on your palm and slide it in the hot oil very carefully. Be careful, the oil may splash if you would not follow this step cautiously. The oil should be perfectly hot. To check, drop a small ball of batter in the oil. The ball raises up if the oil is perfectly hot for frying vadas. If the oil is too hot, vadas will be over-browned from outside and will remain uncooked from inside. If it would be less hot, vadas will absorb excess oil and they will become hard.

Deep fry them in batches flipping on both sides till golden brown. Serve hot with sambar and coconut chutney.

Tips to make soft vadas:

Urad dal should be soaked for three to four hours before it is ground in a food processor. While grinding it, do not add water.

If it becomes difficult to grind, add a few drops of water after every two-three spins. Keep wiping the sides of the grinder with a spoon or spatula. The consistency of the batter should be stiff enough to hold in hand and given a shape. Batter should not be runny. The thinner the batter is, the more oil the vadas will absorb while getting fried.

If the batter turns runny, add two to three tablespoons of rice flour and beat properly.

To make vadas soft and fluffy, beat the dal batter for 15 to 20 minutes just before frying vadas. Also add salt just before frying. To check whether the batter is properly beaten or not, put a drop of batter in a bowl filled with water.

If the drop floats on the surface of water, it means that the batter is beaten perfect to make fluffy vadas. If the drop settles down at the bottom of the bowl, whisk the batter for some more time till the drop starts floating on the water surface.

Use a greased plastic sheet to shape and transfer them easily in hot oil.

To make this job easier, you may use “Medu Vada Maker”. Always use urad dal from fresh stock to make soft vadas. Dal from old stock may turn in to hard vadas.