Ulundu Vadai Recipe/ Medhu vadai

Saturday, September 07, 2013

Ulundu Vadai Recipe/ Medhu vadai

Ulundu vadai is one of the common snack item, we often make in our home. For any festivals or occasions, we prefer idly or pongal as breakfast with chutney, sambhar and vadai. And, whenever I go to restaurants for breakfast, I never miss ordering the ulundu vada. My mom makes crispy, soft vadai and when I was in school, vadai with sambhar makes my breakfast. Initially, I was struggling to shape the vadai. But now I am managing to do it if the consistency of the batter is perfect. Only practice gives better results for shaping the vadai.

Ingredients:

Urad dal(ulutham paruppu) - 1 cup

Shallots - 10 or Big Onion - 1

Green Chilli - 2

Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 1/2 tbsp(optional)

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece chopped finely

Asafoetida - a pinch

Curry leaves - few chopped finely

Coriander leaves - few chopped finely

Salt - as required

Water - as required

Oil - to deep fry

Method:

1. Soak the urad dal in water for a minimum of 1 hour. Drain the water and grind it by sprinkling water little by little. (Don't add too much water for grinding.) The batter should be thick enough to get the perfect shape. So grind it accordingly. Grind it till you get fluffy batter.

2. Chop the onions, ginger, green chilli, coriander leaves, curry leaves finely. Then mix the chopped ingredients with the batter along with cumin seeds, asafoetida and salt.

3. Heat oil in a kadai. Meanwhile take a polythene sheet and grease it with a drop of oil. Wet your hand with water and then take a ball of batter, pat it on the polythene sheet. Make a hole in the middle and transfer it carefully to the kadai. (You can also do this in your hand itself if you are comfortable, take a ball of batter and make the hole with your thumb, carefully flip it into the hot oil). You can master both the methods only by practice.

4. Fry the vadai in medium flame. Once the vadai turns golden brown on one side, flip it to cook the other side as well. Drain it in tissue paper.

Serve the vadai when it is hot, with coconut chutney and sambhar.

Points to remember:

If you add more water while grinding, then the vadai will drink more oil and you will not be able to shape the vadai. So to get crispy and soft vadai, the consistency of the batter should be perfect.
Wet your hands now and then while shaping the vadai to avoid stickiness.
If your batter is runny then add little rice flour.
Grinding in the grinder gives better results than grinding in mixie.

Warm Regards,
Happy's Cook - Divya