Medhu vadai Recipe: Medhu vadai is a very popular South Indian snack. I have heard elderly people say that it’s good for girl child. Every house hold makes and every other hotel in South India has it in their menu card. I prepare it for my kid on fortnightly basis – of course in less quantity so I don’t end up eating along too much.

I usually choose a day when I prepare sambar for lunch. I make these vadas in the evening, so my kid can dip and eat the vadas in the sambar while I have it with my coffee.

Ingredients:

1 cup urad dhal ( soaked for 1&1/2 hrs)
1/2 medium sized onion (finely chopped)
1 green chilly ( chopped )
1/2 tblspn pepper corns
1/4 tblspn cummin seeds
Few sprigs of coriander leaves (finely chopped)
1 stalk of curry leaves(finely chopped)
Pinch of hinge
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Drain water completely from the soaked urad dhal and grind it in a mixer to a fine batter – sprinkle very little water as you grind along, probably 1-2 tblspn of water( for large quantity batter, use wet grinder).

2. Once the finely ground thick batter is ready, add salt, hinge, chopped onions, chopped chillies, pepper corns, cummin seeds, chopped coriander leaves &curry leaves to the batter. Mix well using a spoon.

3.Refrigerate the mixed batter for 1 hour.

4. Heat oil in a deep kadai. Oil has to be hot enough, so that,  as soon as you drop a pinch of the batter, it would rise immediately to top of the oil. Now keep the flame to be between medium and high.

5. Grease a plastic sheet with oil and keep batter on it. Make the batter into round shape. Grease you hand with oil or water. Transfer the batter from the plastic sheet to your hands and gently drop it into the oil(there’s a knack of using hand alone without using the plastic sheet and it comes by experience)

6. As the vada turns brown, remove it using oil straining spatula and keep it over tissue paper to absorb excess oil.

7. Serve hot with chutney or sambar.

Happy cooking!