1. Urad Dal Vada: Soak the reqd amount of Urad Dal for 3-4 hours. Then grind it without adding a lot of water. The vada batter shd not be too soft. If it is too soft or if u add a lot of water then the vadas tend to soak up a lot oil while frying. It comes with practice. While grinding add a little salt. Add a little less than what u think is necessary becoz vadas don't need a lot of salt. Heat oil for deep frying. Now take a plastic sheet and sprinkle a little water on it. Your hands should also be wet. Put a little batter on the sheet and spread it in the shape of a vada. Now slowly slide the vada into the oil. Fry till done. If u cannot be bothered with the whole art of making these vadas just take a spoon and put the batter in the oil in small lumps.
Points to remember: 1. Not too much water for aking the batter. 2. the batter should not be too soft. 3. As soon as the batter is ready make he vadas. Don't wait too long to fry them. Otherwise the vadas will soak up oil.
Variations:
You can add onions, jeera, green chillies and ginger to this batter. You can also add some vegetables like cabbage or carrot cut into small pices to the batter.
For Dahi vada once the vadas are fried put them directly into a bowl of water. Wait for a moment. Take them out and squeeze them. Now put them in the bowl in which u have the yogurt. For seasoning the yogurt take a little oil. Once its a little hot add red chillies, mustard seeds and urad dal. Once the mustard seeds start to flutter remove from heat and add a little hing. Now let this seasoning cool a bit and add this to the yougurt.
2. Masala Vada: Take reqd amouunt of chana dal and soak it for about 3-4 hours. Soak, along side this, a handful of rice, and jeera. Once the dal is soaked keep aside 1/4th of the amount of dal and grind the rest of the dal along with the rice and jeera. Once the batter is soft remove and mix the dal that u set aside. Chopped onion, green chillies and ginger can be added to the batter along with the reqd amount of salt. Heat oil in a kadai. Wet your hands and make flat vadas and put them into the oil. Fry till done. If u cannot be bothered with this just take a spoon and put small lumps into the oil.
Variations: You can add vegetables like cabbage and carrot to this batter.
3. Sabudana vada: Soak Sabudana (Sagoo) in water for 3 hours. For every 1 cup of sabudana take 3-4 large potatoes. Boil the potatoes and peel and mash them. Now mix the soaked sago with the potatoes. Chop and add to this some green chilles and ginger. Add some jeera and reqd amount of salt as well. Heat oil in kadai and make the batter into small balls and fry till done.
Batata vada recipe
Ingredients for preparation 3/4 lb. potatoes 3-4 onions, chopped finely 2 cups bengal gram flour (besan) 3-4 green chillies A small piece ginger 4 cloves garlic 2 tbsp grated coconut Sugar to taste Juice of one lime A few sprigs coriander leaves, chopped Salt to taste Oil for deep frying 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp red chilli powder 1 tsp cumin seeds A pinch of soda-bi carb (baking soda)
Method
Pressure cook the potatoes till soft. Peel and mash. Set aside. Blend together the green chillies, garlic and ginger to a fine paste. Mix together the potato, onions, ginger/garlic/ chilli paste, coriander leaves, sugar, lime juice and salt to taste. Heat a little oil and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. When the mustard crackles, remove from heat and add to the potato mixture. Mix well. Make a smooth batter with the bengal gram flour, salt to taste, cumin seeds,red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Add a teaspoon of hot oil when making the batter. Let the batter remain thick. Divide the potato mixture into equal sized portions, the size of a lemon. Dip each ball in the batter and deep fry till golden brown in color. Serve hot with chutney/ketchup.
All the above recipes go well with coconut chutney and ginger chutney
