Ulunthu Vadai / Medhu Vadai Recipe

Hubby's favorite is this ulunthu vadai but I like paruppu vadai than this one. I wanted to try this since long seeing amma making it for years for any festive ocassions. The only problem I faced was the perfect round shaped vadas......I wanted to do justice to this post here, so the ones posted here are the ones made by amma. Mine looked more like bonda shaped, you can see the ones at the back hiding ;) he he but sure am trying hard to get it perfect.

Ingredients:

• Urad dal / Ulutham paruppu (without skin variety) - 1 cup
• Green chillies - 1 finely chopped
• Coriander leaves - 1/2 tbsp finely chopped
• Curry leaves - 1 tbsp finely chopped
• Small onion - 10 finely chopped
• Jeera - 1.5 tsp crushed
• Salt - to taste
• Water - as required

Method:

Soak urad dal for 1 hour at least. Drain water and keep aside (I usually drain the water completely and then sprinkle little by little while grinding , doing so you can be sure of the quantity of water).

Now grind it to a fluffy texture sprinkling water now and then. Dont add much water as the batter will become runny. Once the batter is ready, add chopped onions, jeera, coriander, curry leaves, chillies to the batter, mix well and keep aside.

Heat oil in a kadai. Take a polythene sheet or milk cover slightly greased with a drop of oil. Wet ur right hand, then make a small ball out of the batter and pat it on the milk cover. Now make a hole in the middle and carefully transfer it to the kadai( It only comes by practise,I havent mastered it too).

Fry the vadai in medium flame, turn over to other side once it becomes firm. Take out and drain it in a tissue once it becomes golden brown on both sides.

You can have it as such or with coconut chutney. My option is to dunk it in sambar and then have it....Yummy combination!! Other than sambar vadai I luv it dunked in paysam, it is another yum combo. I used to reserve vadais at the last for this reason :)

You can make chat style thayir vada too using the bread dahi vada recipe that I posted few weeks back.

We always make this vadai when there is any padayal at home. Other than that, a perfect guest traditional meal is incomplete without this vadai. It is very crispy on the outside and soft inside.

My Notes :

• Wet ur hands now and then before making balls to avoid stickiness. Once you master this, you can try with simply making vadas with your hands without polythene cover which is messfree too.



• Add water little by little, If the batter becomes runny the vadas will drink more oil. For perfect crispy and soft vadas the batter should in correct consistency.



• Incase your batter becomes runny add little rice flour say 1 -2 tsp not more than that.