The Versatile Uluttam Vadai

The Versatile Uluttam Vadai

The split black gram dal is a very nutritious pulse. Soak some, grind with spices, and fry, and you get the versatile Uluttam Vadai! Besides being the perfect accompaniment with idli, for an ideal breakfast combination, this vadai makes a tasty dish in a variety of avatars! Vadai Curry is prepared by immersing the cut pieces of crisp hot vadais in hot and spicy sambar. For the exotic Thair Vadai, dip the vadais in warm water, gently squeeze out the oil, and immerse in seasoned curd. Rasa Vadas are hot vadais soaked in flavourful rasam, and lighter on the stomach than the Sambhar or Vadai Curry! The best Vadais we have tasted so far are the ones distributed at the Hanuman temple on Saturdays. The fact that the vadais had adorned Lord Hanuman as a garland along with the tulasi (basil) garland lends it a divine flavour. Whenever we visited our village, Rukmini prepared the most exotic vadais. That is the magic of this dish. Whenever and wherever you happen to relish it, it seems to be THE best. To prepare the delicious Rukmini Vadais (as we have named it) we can follow the given recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
Split black gram dal – 2 cups
Fresh ginger – 1’’ piece
Salt – ½ tsp
Pepper – ¼ tsp
Onion – 1 very small
Curry leaves – a few
Cooking oil – for frying

METHOD:
1. Wash and soak black gram dal for half an hour.
2. Cut onions very finely into thin thread like slivers.
3. Drain the dal. Add ginger and salt, and grind coarsely without water.
4. Sprinkle very little water if the dal mixture sticks to the jar.
6. Add onion slivers, curry leaves and crushed pepper and mix well.
7. Heat oil in a kadai.
8. Dip your hands in water, and the take a lemon size ball of the dough, and pat it into a thick vadai.
9. Make a hole in the center using your finger.
10. Gently slide the vadai into the hot oil.
11. The vadais can also be patted to shape, on a banana leaf or a sheet of plastic.
12. Fry the vadais in batches of four or six, till golden brown in colour.
This vadai will be slightly crisp and firm on the outside, and soft inside, as shown in the picture.

Relish vadais as they are, or with a chutney dip, or make any of the variations with sambhar, rasam and curd!


A Note from Dibs: Although a relatively easy dish, there are huge variations in the texture of the vadais. There are two important factors in vadai making. One is the consistency and texture of batter, and the second is oil temperature for frying.

I don’t like to add soda and so on to any of my cooking. It is my experience that, how firm or soft a vadai is, depends on the amount of water used in grinding, as well as how smooth or coarse the batter is. Half an hour of soaking is sufficient for soft vadais, when the climate is not too cold! I have found soaking the dal for longer duration prouces rubbery vadais. A smoother batter with more water gives a softer and spongy texture. Very little water, and coarse batter like Rukmini vadais above, give a nice firm texture.

As with any deep frying, the temperature of oil should be closely monitored. If the oil is not hot enough, the vadai will eventually cook, but will result in a very oily and soggy vadai. If its too hot, the outside will quickly burn, leaving the insides uncooked. A best practice is to test, by dropping a spec of batter in the oil. If it rises immediately to the surface, and not burnt, the temperature is right. If oil is not hot enough the batter will sink and rest at the bottom. If its too hot, oil will smoke, and batter drop will be burnt in no time!


This post goes to My Legume Love Affair event started by Susan of 'The Well Seasoned Cook', and hosted this time by Sra of 'When my Soup Came Alive' !

Red Kidney bean salad - No oil or Ranch

Come, let us snack on this guilt free salad!

Ingredients:
Red Kidney beans-1 cup uncooked
Frozen corn-1/2 cup
Shredded carrot-1/4 cup
Shredded cabbage-1/4 cup
Finely minced onion-1/4 cup
Salt
Garam masala powder(optional)-a pinch
Red chilli powder(cayenne powder) or pepper powder-a pinch
Coriander leaves/cilantro-1 tsp chopped
Lime juice-1 tsp

Method:
Soak red kidney beans overnight and pressure cook for 4 whistles or until it turns soft.
Cool and drain water from red kidney beans.
Thaw frozen corn. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients and serve.
This is a great meal for people who are dieting.

I am sending this recipe to Divya's Diet food event.
Also, sending this to Sra's and Susan's 4th helping of legume affair event.

Molagootal & Vazhathandu Pachadi ~ Lunch Series#2

The next in my lunch series is again Molagootal. But this one is different from the Keerai molagootal blogged earlier. When it is said only molagootal, then it refers to the one which I am posting here. If any greens take the place of veggies, then it is specifically referred as keerai molagootal. The basic method is same for both. Veggies/leaf cooked in dal,coconut gravy. The common veggies used are ash gourd(elavan/puzhinikkai),vellarikkai, raw banana, yam, snake gourd,koorka and the like. Ash gourd is a must. Rest of the veggies are just add-ons to increase the taste. Most of the times its elavan/ash gourd only molagootal. Sometimes, depending on the veggies availability and time, I add few pieces of those.

Ingredients
Ash gourd/elavan chopped into small cubes - 2 cups

moong dal - less than 1/2 cup

salt

turmeric - 1/4 tspn

For grinding

grated coconut - 1/2 cup

red chilly - 1 no

cumin seeds/jeera - 1 tspn

Method

Pressure cook chopped veggies, dal and turmeric with enough water. Grind coconut, red chilly and jeera to a smooth paste by adding required water. Take the cooked dal veggie combo . Mix salt and stir in the ground paste. Adjust the thickness of the gravy by adding water. Bring to a boil and simmer for few minutes. Season with mustard seeds and garnish with curry leaves. This is a bland dish. But it makes a wholesome nutritious soup if u make the consistency thinner. While serving molagootal with rice, add a teaspoon of ghee to the hot rice. Its really yummy.

Usually the side preferred to molagootal is spicy/tangy one. Here it is Vazhathandu/banana stem pachadi. It is very fibrous and is known to remove kidney stones. Drinking vazhathandu juice is highly recommended for kidney stone problem. The outer layer of the stem is removed and then chopped into round pieces. While chopping each pieces, remove the fibre by rolling the finger around the thandu. Put the pieces in water mixed with some buttermilk, to retain the color. Take 3/4 round pieces and chop them into tiny cubes and put them back in water. Use a skewer and rotate it in the bowl of chopped banana stem along with water to remove any left out fibre. Cleaning and chopping the stem is time consuming, but its qualities makes the effort worth.

Chopped banana stem - 2 cups

tamarind - gooseberry sized

turmeric

salt
For grinding
grated coconut - 1/2 cup

green chilly - 2

red chilly - 1

mustard seeds - 1/4 tspn

Soak tamarind in a cup of warm water for 10 minutes. Extract juice and add turmeric and salt to it. Bring the tamarind water to boil. Add the chopped banana stem and let it cook till soft. Grind the coconut,green chilly,red chilly and mustard seeds to a smooth paste. Add to the cooked tamarind mixture. Adjust the consistency by adding water to get a medium thick gravy. Bring to a boil and garnish with curry leaves. Season with tablespoon of oil and mustard seeds.

Usually rasam is also prepared whenever molagootal is made. If it is only for two of us, then I omit rasam, since my husband is not very keen on having rasam.