Sambar Vada

There was a potluck party at office last Thursday and we were assigned
to prepare some appetizer. Many ideas came to mind, but I was very keen
on recipes of every one's like/choice and also simple enough to prepare
for 20+ people. I know if I would have assigned for any dessert, things
would be very easy. Ideas started with spring rolls and ended up with
very simple, easy to make sambar vadas. 

I love to say more about this south Indian delicacy. hmm. But how? OK, let me go this way. It is an savory doughnuts made using urid dal, soaked in hot sambar (a kind of gravy). The crispy doughnuts instantly absorb sambar and become very soft and spongy. Sambar prepared without any vegetables does suit this recipe well, but you can add them if you wish. Also, getting a perfect shape Vada is little tricky and it is entirely depends on adding correct quantity of water while preparing the batter. If you are not getting proper vada shape, drop them just like balls. The taste remains the same. :-)



If the sambar is watery, soak vadas for 2-5 minutes before serving or else presoak the vadas in warm water for 5-10 minutes and then add to sambar. Its absolutely depends on how you prefer to eat.



Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 1 hour for soaking + 30 minutes for grinding
Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes
Makes: 30-35 vadas

Ingredients:



For Vada:



Urid Dal - 3 cups

Salt - to taste

Ginger - 1 inch, chopped

Onion - 1/2 cup, chopped

Green chillies - 2 no

Black pepper corns - 3 teaspoon

Oil - for deep frying



For Sambar:

Toor dal - 3/4 cup

Tamarind - 1 lemon size

Vegetables (carrot, beans and potato) - 1 cup (optional)

Shallots / Red Onions - 1/2 cup

Tomato - 1 no, chopped

Sambar masala - 2 tablespoon

Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Salt - to taste

Curry leaves - 1 string

Mustard and urid dal - 1/2 teaspoon

Oil - 3 teaspoon



For Serving:



Onion - 1/2 cup, very finely chopped

Tomato - 1/2 cup, very finely chopped

Coriander leaves - 10 strings, chopped

Sev - 1/2 tablespoon (optional)

Method:



For Vada:



1) Wash and soak urid dal for an hour and grind it to a fine paste. Add only < 2 handful of water to make a perfect batter.

2) Towards the end of the grinding, add salt, onion, coriander leaves, green chilli, ginger and pepper to the batter and make fine paste.

3) Make sure the batter is only light thick to get soft vada.

4) Heat oil in a Kadai/Frying pan.

5) Take another bowl with water near to your batter pan.

6) Dip your right hand first into water and take a lemon size batter and gently make a hole in center (As in dough nuts) using your right hand thumb. Please see here for detailed vada making.

7) Put this vada into oil slowly.

8) Repeat this vada making step for the remaining batter. Each time dip your hand into the water to make perfect shape of vada.

9) At a time you can put 3 to 5 vadas depending upon your pan and vada size.

10) Turn to other side to fry the upper part of the vada.

11) Fry till it becomes golden brown in colour.

12) When vada is fried well, remove it from oil and transfer it to a plate/bowl with the paper towel which absorbs the excess oil and allow it to cool.

13) Take warm water in wide bowl and put vada on it and keep it aside for 10 minutes.(Optional)

14) Vadas are ready.



For Sambar:



1) Pressure cook the toor dal. Once cooked, mash using potato masher as much as possible. Keep aside.

2) Soak tamarind in warm water for 15 minutes and extract juice from it. Keep aside.

3) Take a pan and heat oil. When it is hot add mustard and urid dal. Allow mustard seeds to splutter.

4) Add curry leaves followed by chopped onions and saute till onions are translucent.

5) Add tomato and cook till they completely mashes.

6) If you are using veggies, add now and sprinkle little water to cook them. Continue cooking till vegetables become soft.

7) Add salt, sambar masala and turmeric powder. Cook for 2 more minutes.

8) Add tamarind juice, mashed toor dal and two cups of water.

9) Boil it till it reaches the sambar consistency.

10) Sprinkle a big pinch of asafoetida and mix well.

11) Remove from stove and allow it to cool for a while.

12) Transfer to a wide bowl.



For Serving:



1) From warm water bowl, take vadas and squeeze out the water absorbed by very gently pressing them in between your palms.

2) Put the vadas into sambar bowl for 2 minutes.

3) While serving garnish with onion, tomato, coriander leaves and sev.

I am happy to send this recipe to Vatsala's Potluck Dinner and and Srav's culinary concepts.

What To Cook For Varamahalakshmi Pooja - Mupparuppu Paayasam - Trilentil Porridge

MUPPARUPPU PAAYASAM

VARAMAHALAKSHMI or THE GODDESS WHO GIVES BOONS is worshipped by almost all the women in South India. She is worshipped on an auspicious Friday which precedes the Shraavana Pournima . Shraavana pournima is the full moon which occurs between the 20th of July and the third week of August.

Varamahalakshmi is installed in a pot filled with rice, turmeric sticks, kumkum ( Vermilion ), lime, and a coin. The sacred pot or kalasham is anointed with sandal paste and vermilion and decorated with mango leaves, coconut and flowers. A silver face or mask of the Goddess is fixed on to the coconut on top of the kalasham.

The Goddess is showered with various fragrant flowers and leaves while chanting her hundred and eight beautiful names. Incense  sticks , wicks dipped in ghee and camphor are lit and waved in front of Her.

Sweets and savouries, rice preparations, fruits and coconut are offered to Varamahalakshmi during the pooja. Paayasam ( sweet porridge), vadai ( lentil fritters), kalanda saadam /chitraanna ( Variety rice ), Poli / holige (stuffed sweet bread) or kozhukattais (  stuffed and steamed sweet dumplings), idlies ( Steamed pancakes ), fruits and coconut are the customary neivedhyams ( offerings) for the Goddess.

"What to cook for Varamahalakshmi Pooja?" is the usual question which starts buzzing in our minds as the auspicious day starts drawing closer.

Paal paayasam, aval /avalakki paayasam, wheat / godi paayasam, sago / jevvarisi paayasam, kadale bele / paruppu paayasam, rava paayasam, are some of the paayasams which can be offered to the Goddess.

Mupparuppu paayasam is another paayasam ideal for neivedhyam. It is prepared using three lentils and hence the name mupparuppu ( three lentils ) paayasam.

                                                

INGREDIENTS

Tur dal - 1/3 cup

Bengal gram dal - 1/3 cup
Green gram dal - 1/3 cup
Milk - 3 cups
Jaggery - 1 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsps

Cashew nuts - 1 tbsps

Raisins - 1 tbsps

METHOD

1. Dry roast the three dals together in a thick bottomed pan till it emanates a pleasant aroma.

2. Wash the roasted lentils and pressure cook the dals adding 1 1/2 cups of water and 1 1/2 cups of milk until three whistles. Allow it to cool.

3. Dissolve jaggery in one cup of warm water and filter it.

4. Boil the jaggery water till it gives out a pleasant aroma of cooked jaggery.
5. Add the cooked dal to the jaggery water and cook until it thickens giving out a pleasant aroma.
6. Switch off flame after the payasam thickens.

7. Add the remaining milk.

                    

8. Heat ghee and add cashew nuts and fry till golden in colour.

9. Add raisins and fry till they puff up.

10. Top the paayasam with fried cashew nuts and raisins.

                                                

Offer the delicious Mupparuppu paayasam to Varamahalakshmi and savour the blessed prasaadam.

Peach Cobbler

Cobbler is a baked fruit dessert and is so named because of the "cobbled" look of the topping. It can be made with any fruit or fruit filling. Cobbler consists of a fruit or savoury filling poured into a large baking dish and covered with a batter, biscuit, or pie crust before being baked. Unlike a pie, cobbler never contains a bottom crust.  (Source-Internet)

The first time I read about cobbler was at Aparna's space. Then on, I noticed in various blogs and wanted to try it. The sight of fresh peaches in the market made me think of cobbler and I'm glad I tried it. I adapted the recipe for the biscuit dough from JoyOfBaking. I took the points for the fruit filling and went with what I had in my pantry.

You need

• Peach, skinned, stoned and sliced - 2 cups
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Cardamom powder - 1 tspn
• Corn flour - 1 tblspn

For Biscuit dough

• Maida/All purpose Flour - 1 1/3 cup
• Salt - 1/4 tspn
• Baking powder - 1 1/2 tspn
• Sugar -1/4 cup
• Ghee/Butter - 4 tblspn
• Fresh cream - 1/2 cup (or milk)

Method

Removing the skin of the peach is optional. I felt the skin very thick and peeled it. Cut the peach into thick wedges. Remove the stone. Take a buttered baking dish. Arrange the wedges. Mix sugar, corn flour and cardamom. Spread on top of the arranged peach. 

The peaches were not very sweet. Later after tasting I felt, it would have been better if the wedges were tossed in the sugar cornflour mix rather than just spreading on the top.

In another bowl take all the ingredients for the biscuit dough, except cream. Mix with a fork or spoon to resemble bread crumbs. Add the cream and gather the dough. Don't knead. Work lightly. 

Roll the dough into 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into circles or squares and place it on top of the fruit. Don't cover it entirely. Leave some gap between the biscuits. On baking, the biscuits expand. Instead of rolling the dough, you can drop spoonfuls of the dough on top of the fruit.

I had some ghee to be used up. So decided to try it in place of butter. I used solidified ghee. I got very flaky biscuits. If you are using salted butter, then omit the 1/4 tspn of salt.  In place of cardamom, you can cinnamon or nutmeg or any of your favorite fruit spice. 

Bake at 200 C for 40 minutes or till the top browns and the fruit under is bubbly. In my oven, the top doesn't brown well. So I switch to grill mode in the last 3-5  minutes.