Medhu vadai
Medhu vadai recipe – Ulunthu vadai – ulundu vadai- medu vada – with VIDEO and step by step pictures, tips and tricks to make perfect shape.
Servings: 15 vadai
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Urad dal/ Ulutham paruppu
- 10 Small onion/ shallots or Big onion – 1
- 2 Green chillies
- 1 inch piece Ginger
- 2 tablespoon Coriander leaves chopped
- 1 Curry leaves sprig
- ⅛ teaspoon Asafoetida
- Salt
Instructions
- Soak urad dal for 2 hour at least. (Use whole urad dal without skin(muzhu ulundu)for better result).
- Grind urad dal with only little water till fluffy. Please note the following points:
- Add urad dal little by little(no water),while the grinder is running.
- b)Just sprinkle water now and then to avoid jamming of the grinder. Using ice cold water is recommended.
- c)Stand near till you finish grinding for sprinkling water now and then and wipe the urad dal that sticks to the wall of the grinder container.
- d)This whole process takes around 12-15 minutes,you will get a fluffy white batter.
- Now chop onions,ginger,green chillies,coriander and curry leaves and add all these to the batter along with salt and asafetida.(You can add ginger and green chillies while you are grinding the batter itself,if you don’t want to come in mouth.If you decide so,first add ginger and chilles,then urad dal)
- Now mix well,keep aside and heat enough oil in kadai (be generous or else vadas may stick to the bottom and get burnt).
- Now wet your right hand well and make a small ball.
- And use ur thumb to make hole in the middle.
- and drop it in oil,(just invert the vadais over the oil and slightly shake ur fingers)
- Fry in medium flame,turn the vadais and fry till both the sides turn crisp and golden brown.
Video
Notes
- If your vadai drinks so much oil,then it means you have added more water,reduce next time. Try adding any one of the following only one teaspoon to reduce vadai drinking oil-Rice flour or gram flour or Maida/all purpose flour.
- Do not soak more than 3 hrs max. If it is delayed, keep the urad dal in fridge until you grind.
- Using ice water gives you more volume as well as fluffy vadais.
- Wet grinder gives best vadais. More volume and tasty too than mixie ground vadai.
- If in case you want to grind in mixie, soak for 3 hrs, leave it inside fridge for minimum 30 mins. Grind with ice cold water.
- After mixing salt, the batter leaves water. So make sure you add salt just before making vada.
- Never ever grind the batter with salt. It will become watery and you may not able to shape.
- If your batter is like a paste and dull in colour, may be the urad dal quality is not good.
- Don't grind for too long,it will make your batter sticky and you could not shape the vadais. Keep in refrigerator and try after an hour.
- Adding a teaspoon of toor dal or channa dal while soaking urad dal, gives you a nice browning, crispiness as well as texture to the vadai.
- If I grind batter in mixie, I add chopped onions in the end and give it a pulse. this gives a great flavor and nice golden vadai.
- A good variety/quality of urad dal also matters.
- If you grind everything correctly,you will get a crispy vadai,no need to add rice flour or anything!!!
- While grinding mixie, certain things you need to consider for perfect vadais.
a)Good quality urad dal for more quantity of vadai.
b)After soaking urad dal for 2-3 hours, I refrigerate for an hour. This gives fluffy batter, more volume and easy to shape too.
c)Never grind the batter for long time at once, grind few seconds - stop, grind again. Open the lid and add water little by little when needed.
d)Use ice cold water.
e)I added roughly ½ cup water for 1 cup good quality urad dal. I got around 26 medium sized vadas.
f)I grind green chilli, ginger, urad dal without water first, then add water little by little and grind.
g)Never add salt while grinding. Also dont grind for too long, your batter will become pasty and cannot shape.