Medu Vada is a popular South Indian dish served with Sambhar and Chutney. Usually the Vada is dunked into the Sambhar to allow it to soak up all the Sambhar. My family likes it with only a Chutney so skipped making the Sambhar. Recipe Links to both the Sambhar and Chutney are given below.
For the Medu Vada:
Ingredients :
- 250 gms Urad dal/Black gram dal
- 6 green chillies
- A big Chickpea sized piece of Hing /asafoetida
- 2 inch piece of ginger
- 8 sprigs of curry leaves
- A small fistful of coconut slivers
- 1/2 tsp pepper ground extremely coarse
- Salt
- Oil for frying.
Method :
Soak the urad dal for five hours. Drain and grind to a smooth thick batter without adding water in the wet grinder. Those of you using the mixer will need to sprinkle a little water to facilitate grinding. Tip into a bowl. Grind the ginger, green chillies and hing coarsely. Add it to the batter along with the coarsely ground pepper, slivers of coconut, salt and finely chopped curry leaves. Heat oil in a pan. Drop in tiny dumplings of the batter into the hot oil, and fry to a rich golden yellow. Remove, drain on a tissue and serve hot with coconut chutney.
Note: Always drop in a small dumpling of the batter to check the temperature of the oil. It should rise to the top immediately. If it doesn’t, wait for the oil to heat. Dumplings fried in underheated oil result in greasy Medu Vada.
