My friend Deepa is a great cook. She used to make time consuming items with no fuss! The way she carries herself will send out psuedo signal that any dish she makes is a 1-2-3 done type. Last week she made so many items and one of which is my favorite Methu Vada. And she gave me couple of great tips like adding green chillies at the end and refrigerate for few minutes... My son who is notorious for his picky eating, loved her vadas like anything. Now that she has set the bar high, I was inspired..made vadas right after the next day..yet I dare not to ask my son to compare with Deepa Aunty's vadas..
But it came out well indeed and he ate with no complaints - he seemed to like it based on the way he gulped them. ;-)
- Soak 1/2 cup of Urad dhal for atleast 8 hrs.
- Drain the water and grind it in a blender to a smooth batter
- Sprinkle very little water in the course of grinding
- More water will ruin the vada shape & texture
- At the end, add 1 green chilly, 1/4 tsp pepper, salt per taste and grind again
- The pepper may be coarse - that is intended. Just make sure the chillies are shredded well
- In a handheld electronic mixer (that you use to beat eggs / cake mix..) beat the batter for 2 minutes on low speed - this is a tip I remembered reading elsewhere! - this step will aerate your batter
- To find if the batter is well aerated, just drop a small pea sized ball of the batter in a bowl of water. If it sinks right away, batter needs to be aerated. If it floats, it is well aerated. Aeration will yield fluffy soft vadas.
- You can even beat the batter with your hands for couple of minutes to provide the necessary aeration
- Now refrigerate the batter for 10 to 15 minutes minimum
- Add a handfull of finely chopped red onions to the batter and add salt if needed
- Add 2 chopped curry leaves to the batter
- Heat a pan of oil - keep it in medium flame
- To check if the oil is hot enough, drop a small pea sized batter in the hot oil - if it sizzles and rises to the top immediately, oil is good to go
- Wet your hands in cold water, gently scoop the batter with your bare fingers, and roll up into a ball and gently make a hole using your thumb, drop it into the oil
- In couple of minutes, flip the vada unside down and let it fry until both sides turn golden brown
- Drop the vadas minimum 3 in a batch and using a peforated laddle scoop them all onto a paper towel to absorb the excess oil
- Serve hot with chutney
- To keep the vadas crisp for few hours, you may either preheat the oven to 250 degrees - turn it off and keep the vadas in OR just keep a steel plate on the hot oil pan (after frying) and place the vadas over the plate and cover up with another plate
A reader asked if we can refrigerate the batter and use for latter. Initially my response was "it may not taste good.." But Today (02/14/10) I made methu vadas with a day old batter. Oh Boy! it still tasted so fresh and soft and tasty. So yes, my friends! in my experience u can save it for atleast a day and still make heavenly vadas.
