For My MOMS and Posting the 251st, Sambhar Vadai… a fried treat after a long time

 

Hi All!

Days are rolling by and the work pressure is manifesting and at times managing home and work seems a herculean task. There are times when I wake up with the thought of  quitting the job but by the end of the day I am still working and continuing to hate myself for being so tired and unorganised. I know, all the working Moms would empathise with me and so I dedicate this post to all the Moms and Moms to be who work so hard to keep the family running, to make the family feel special and love them endlessly….

WISH YOU A HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!!

I had made this combo a while ago and my MIL who is here with us had simply loved eating it, so I thought of posting this for her and also for my Mom who is still recuperating after her major surgery. To  both my Moms, for just being there for me, when I needed you.

This recipe is very common in South Indian homes as the vadai keeps frequenting their kitchen but for us it was a treat as I do not indulge into frying that easily.

I had made this combo for a  Sunday brunch and for which I got up around five in the morning to grind the batter, make the sambhar, the chutney and before every body woke up,  I was done with my photography session too…

The vadai turned out light and crisp and the sambhar and chutney just blended well with it.

Ingredients For the Vadai

2 cups Urad dal soaked

7-8 green chillies

2 inch piece ginger

7-8 sprigs of curry leaves

2tsp cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Method

Soak the urad dal for 4-5 hours and then grind it. Beat the paste with a beater.

The trick to making good vadai lies in grinding the lentil with minimum water to a paste and then beating the paste to double in volume. A thick and nicely beaten batter makes crisp and spongy vadai.

Grind together the green chillies, ginger and curry leaves coarsely and mix it with the beaten batter along with salt to taste and cumin seeds.

Wet your hands and take a small portion of the batter (a medium sized lemon) and  flatten it on the four fingers using your thumb and make a hole in the centre and slide the flattened batter into  medium hot oil and deep fry the vadai till golden brown in colour. Remove it on a kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil. One can fry 3-4 vadais at the same time.

I served the vadai with a Tamilian style sambhar that I had made using the Sambhar Masala S got for me from the famous Grand Sweets in Chennai and to go along with it I made the coconut chutney. I garnished the sambhar- Vadai in the Sarvana Bhavan style with some chopped onions.