Medu Vada

Medu Vada, meaning soft vadas, are a very famous snack / breakfast item in South India. They are generally served as a side item with Idlis / Dosas with either chutney or sambar. Generally people eat a single medu vada with a heavy breakfast and still crave for more :)

Medu vadas are soft inside and crispy on the outside when they are hot. They are super yummy and you cannot just have one :) Here is my recipe for medu vadas. I used to hate idlis back in India. So if we went to a hotel for breakfast, everyone used to order idlis with one vada each and I would get 2 vadas and skip the idlis altogether :P I just love medu vadas.

Heres the recipe finally after all my small talk :P

Preparation Time (15 min + 4 hrs / more soaking time)

Cooking Time - 30 mins approx


Ingredients
Urdh Daal - 2 cups
Onions - 1 small (optional - finely chopped)
Black Pepper Seeds - 1 tsp (whole)
Curry Leaves - 10 leaves (chopped)
Ginger - 1 inch (grated / chopped)
Salt - as per taste
Oil for deep fry


Thick plastic sheet - should not be flimsy

Method

Soak the urdh daal for atleast 4 hrs. Overnight soaking will give better results. Grind the soaked urdh daal with a tsp of salt and very little water (only if absolutely necessary). The consistency of the batter should be such that when the batter is taken in a spoon and dropped, it should fall like a big blob and NOT flow like dosa / pancake batter.


Start a deep pan with oil on a medium flame. Wait until the oil turns hot. Meanwhile add all the ingredients except the oil into the batter and mix well. Add more salt if necessary - depends on your taste.


Now, take the plastic sheet. For each vada, drop a large lemon-sized portion of batter on the plastic sheet using a spoon. Its better to do one vada at a time, unless you are an expert at making vadas, which I am not :) Wet your fingers with a little bit of water and flatten out the batter into a thick round shape. Then use your index finger to make a hole the size of your finger in the batter, so it looks like a doughnut. Then invert the plastic sheet with the prepared batter gently onto your fingers and slowly slide it into the hot oil.

Its kind of difficult to do so in the first try, they tend to break down or go out of shape when they are dropped into the oil. But you will get it right after a few tries. Nevertheless, shape doesn't matter, they just taste yummy either ways !! You can add 5-6 such vadas into the oil. After about 2-3 mins, turn them over and cook them until they are golden brown on either side. Make more vadas similarly from the rest of the batter.

Fresh and hot medu vadas

Enjoy them with chutney or sambar and make sure to eat them hot :D


P.S: I have tried to make the instruction as simple and understandable as possible, but if you still have doubts, you can definitely ask me here :)


- So