The shape of the vadas in the pic are not perfect but are close to it, don't you think? :-) After several attempts i finally got the hang of it, but i had an accident few weeks before i made this and i dropped those vadas in oil hastily, out of fear and hence they were not perfect!
The mistakes i used to make are to grind the batter without adding any water. They would come in perfect shape, but it lacked something. It was not as crispy as my mom's vada. They were kinda thick like MRF tyres (not that i have tasted them ;-)) Then i added too much water and ended up with bondas. Bondas were not perfect either. They looked more like mini dinosaurs trying to come out of eggs. But, they were crispy and yum. So, after few trials and errors i got the hang of it. Adding little water while grinding did the trick.
Now to the recipe...
Ingredients :
Urad daal - 1 cup
Green chillies - 5 or 6
Salt to taste
Hing
Ginger - 1 inch grated (optional)
Method :
Soak the urad daal for 1 or 2 hours. Grind it with green chillies, salt, ginger and hing with little water. If you are using an indian mixer use the ice-breaker mode for few seconds in the end, to make the batter fluffier.
Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Take a plastic sheet (i used a small ziploc bag). Apply some water on it and take some batter and pat it into circle and make a hole in the middle. Dip your hand in water and remove this from the plastic sheet and drop it into the oil and fry till golden brown. Heat the oil in medium high. If it is too hot, the inside of the vadas will remain uncooked.
I tried baking vadas to get a healthier version. It was a total disaster. I added some baking powder to the batter and baked for 30-45 minutes. Can't remember how much time i baked it for, exactly. Anyways, i ended up with these...Have a good laugh ;-) They just tasted like spicy dosa and they were so flat and not very crispy!! :-)
Posts
27 comments:
your baked vadas look like pancakes.. hehehe.. very funny. you are right,adding little water makes vadas tasty. i have tried making vadas without adding any water.. they were so hard and i did not like it. soaking some cashews along with urud dhal and grinding makes the vada crisp and tasty.
Thx Mahimaa. That's a new tip. Will try it. I sometimes add rice flour to the batter if it becomes too watery and they turn out crispy too.
I was also making bondas instead of vadas for a long time. Putting a hole in the vada was a biig problem for me. These days they come fine :)
Soak a tablespoon of rice along with uraddhal.It will be really crispy.I too had the same experience in getting proper vadas.
After so many trials i m getting perfect ones.
Don't worry about mistakes! these are the stepping stones for the success! medhu vadas look so good and perfect. What are those sticks beside vadas? Sorry for my ignorance!
Thx gita, jeyashri and uma.
Uma those are chocolate sticks :-)
Wow that was one real handy tip,i always wondered whts the reason behind crisp vadas at restaurants ,while the one i made at never had the fluffiness and crispiness...will try out using rice while grinding and let u know the differene
Thx Alka. I add rice flour to the batter if it is watery and not while grinding. Hope u like it :)
I also used to add rice flour to the medhu vada batter..like the baked one, eventhough they look like pancakes..baked one seems healthier than deepfried na..
Thx Priya. Maybe if i had baked for some more time they might have become crispy. I just didn't have the patience :)
baked once look soo good vidya
I mean vibaas ,not vidya ,sorry
Thx Sagari.
My actual name is Vidya. My first son wanted the initials of all of us and hence the name ViBAAs :)
those are not baby potatoes.. u can use baby potatoes as well.. doesn't matter.. right?
enna innum thoongalaya? midnight ilaya anga?
Nice to read about your vada trials.I too add rice flour most of the times for crispiness.Have given up making them -bcoz I cannot shape them,so depend alway on ma for that.Yours look perfect actually,though i have not tried baked ones.Thanks for visiting my blog
Do u know when i first made vads after marriage. I stored them in a hot box to keep warm till my husband eats them they became so lossy and sweaty that we have to drag and bite them. Hmm people learn from expereinces. Nice tips on vadas.
thx curryleaf and lubna.
Lubna, i have done similar goofups too. First time i made chakli, i put it in the hotpack and closed it for the same reason. they were so soggy :)
Mahimaa, my toddler was up till 12.30 and was having a blast! :-O
I was sitting with sunday night blues!!
For softer Vadas,I always use just few drops of cold water while grinding and whip the batter for aeration .Baked vadas\dosa ,gotta try those:)
Vibaas, vada looks very tasty. I love to have this with sambher. good one.
Good try and a lesson for all of us (baking) anyways that looks great and size or shape doesnt matter though its all about being healthy... I can never make vada like that and I kinda dont experiment after the first time it ended up a "BIG" disaster... I wish I could pick a few from ur plate :)
Thx Yasmeen, Bhawana and Ramya.
Yasmeen, that's a nice tip. I've read somewhere else too about adding cold water.
Ramya, u r always welcome to come here..I will make the vadas (no, not the baked ones;-)) for you :)
Hi dear, check my blog i have something for u..
Seems like you worked hard and perfected ur recipe. I like ur description....you have a nice sense of humour! Actually if you need crispy vada....add 2 spoons of rice flour. The same will work...if the batter is too wet! Rice flour not only gives crispyness....adds nice color to the vada(just like restaurant ones)!!!:)
now that is a very good tip! I have had problerms making vadas (without the hole though) and they were not so soft. Now I know why. wonderful! It was a very good idea that you posted it. :) Thanks a lot!
Yr vada looks its perfect shape but mine s always bonda than... It wont come with that centre hole.
u have soemthing in my tiny world, come and pick up dear.
Really awesome dishes i see in this Blog
Keep it up this great work
for vegetarian Recipes visit this link
http://vegetarianspot.blogspot.com/
Post a Comment