Iyengars have a knack of making Exceptionally delicious thayir vadai.. It is a must in all our festivals.
Preparation time 10 minutes.
Cooking time 20 minutes.
Serves 4
Ingredients
Urad dal 1 cup.
Channa dal 1 teaspoon.
Curd 1 cup (fresh)
Grated coconut 2 tablespoons.
Green chilli 1 no.
Coriander 2 twigs.
Salt to taste.
Oil for deep frying 1/4 kg.
Grated carrot 1/4 cup for garnishing (optional).
Method
Wash and soak the dals for 45 minutes. Grind the coconut, corriander leaves and greenchillies to a fine paste. Add to beaten curds and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Mix well and pour into a shallow dish.
Drain and grind the dal adding salt and 1/4 cup water to a semi coarse batter. You should be able to hold the batter on the fingers with out dropping. Heat oil in a kadai, once you get a slight smell the oil is ready for cooking. You can also test by dropping a little batter into the oil. If the batter rises quickly then the oil is ready. Always keep the flame low while dropping the vadas. Wet your fingers and a plastic sheet, take a small ball of batter,press it to round on the plastic sheet, remove and drop into the oil. You can also drop as balls if you find the process difficult.Cook in medium flame till the vadas are golden. Drain the oil and add to the curd mixture. Finish with rest of the batter. Garnish with grated carrots and serve.
If you have any difficulty in following the steps or not able to get the recipe right, please do leave a comment. If your vadas turn out delicious, please do leave a comment.
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This sounds wonderful! It reminds me slightly of Middle Eastern falafal, which are made with ground chick peas. Can I grind the dal in a food processor? Your instructions are very clear for someone who has never followed Indian recipes. I appreciate that very much.
Thanks emily.
you can grind in a food processor. Hope you get it right.
bye.
[...] pooja neivedyam. Filed under: Uncategorized — lathanarasimhan @ 2:49 pm Urad dal vadai is made in the same way as the recipe already posted for thayir vadai. The only difference is to [...]
I tried making the vadas and it turned out to be very nice. Thanks for the recipe. I wanted to make a hole in the middle of the vada but was facing difficulty in making the hole. I added very little water while grinding the batter so the batter was like almost semi coarse but still I cudn’t make a hole.
Can you tell me where I could have gone wrong.
Good that your vadas came out well lakshmi! I have mailed you a detailed reply!latha.
[...] Thayir vadai (Curd Urad Dal Nuggets) [...]
Hi Latha,
As a fellow iyengar, I am delighted to see all our phrases used here.
I staunchily use only iyengar words even while talking to others. and then explain it in words of their choice. like saathamadhu for rasam.
And I adhere to all our festivals and have been in the USA for the past 20 yrs.
To make thayir vadai more delicious, after frying and draining the vadais, while they are still hot, drop them in a bowl of warm milk..and the squeeze them gently and then place them in the curd mixture.
Also, to retain the white color, I grind just green chillies, a little ginger, asafoetida and salt and add it with a pinch of sugar to the curd. If you are in the USA, then you can add 3 or 4 tablespoons of sour cream too. That gives it a thicker consistency and even after a few hours, doesn’t get the broken (thirinjufied) look. And I add cut coriander on top along.
But thirumpaarufy mustard seeds to the curd mix before you soak the vadais.
comes out great.
I just stumbled on this blog today. will keep checking it out.
hi
I just visited your site today following a link from another site. I was planning on making thair vadai tomorrow for Deepavali. I have made it before but your recipe calls for chana dal, which I will add this time.
Mala has mentioned squeezing the vadais in milk…….My amma would do this with plain water. I dont know if the milk makes a bigger difference. I guess I will try it and see.
I really like all the recipes you have here…….Awesome blog!
I will keep visiting!
happy deepavali….
Hi Latha,
I follow a lot of iyengar recipes since i am half iyengar…
I follow your method except the channa dal part and I do squeeze the vadas after dropping it in warm water fora minute, I guess this makes the vadas absorb the thair much better and makes it softer…
For the curd.. i add half cup of fresh coconut milk to the curd for richer taste…
Paru,,,
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