Vada and Sambar recipe-Chettinad Style

      Vada is a famous South Indian appetizer. In Chettinad Marriages and festivals Vada is usually served during breakfast and also as an evening snack along with Idly. Idly is steamed and it's usually soft and fluffy, Vada is deep fried and it is crunchy. The crunch of the Vada goes really well with the softness of the Idly.

       This Vada Recipe is an authentic Chettinad recipe. It uses Urad dal and its very nutritious even though its deep fried. It can be served as a snack or as an appetizer.
       The traditional accompaniment for Vada is Sambar. You can find a dish called Sambar Vada in almost all South Indian restaurants. Its Vada soaked in Sambar.
      I have included a traditional breakfast Sambar recipe in this post. It uses green chilis for the spice instead of sambar powder. It tastes quite different from the other styles of Sambar.

 VADA
Preparation time:20 min
Cooking time:20-30 min
Serves:2-3

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Urad dal.
• few Channa dal(for crisp)
• 1 Green Chili.
• 1/2 tbsp. salt
• Oil for Deep frying. I used canola oil. You can use corn or peanut oil too.

Method:

• Soak the Urad dal in 4 cups of water for 1.5 hours.
• Grind it in a wet grinder along with green chili for 20 minutes by adding very small amounts of water ( About a 1/4 cup).
• You can use a blender to grind the Dal.
• Grind it into a fine paste. You should not feel the coarseness of the Urad dal.
• Add Salt when you are about to finish grinding.
• The consistency of the dough should be not be too thick or too watery.
• Heat the Oil in a deep bottomed sauce pan.

• Take a  small square plastic sheet or a banana leaf and spray some water on to it.
• Place a lemon size ball of ground dough on the plastic sheet.
• Press the dough down gently using your hand with out applying too much pressure.
• Use your index finger to make a hole in the middle of the dough.
• The hole ensures that the Vada cooks all the way through.

• Slide the Vada gently from the plastic sheet into the hot oil and let it fry.
• After its cooked for 2-3 minutes on one side flip it over and let it cook on the other side.

• When Vada turns golden brown fish it out of the oil.
• Place the Vada in a piece of paper towel to remove excess oil.
• Continue the process for remaining dough as well.
• Vada is ready to be served..

Note:

• When the dough is watery you can add some rice flour to adjust the consistency
• When the dough is tight/thick add little water  to make it to desired consistency.
• Let the vada get crisp .So try to fry it for sometime.
• Check the salt after your first batch.If its not enough .Add required salt and mix it well.

You might be intrested in Vella Paniyaram,BananaFlower Vada.

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Moongdal Sambar

This moongdal sambar/Sambhar is quite easy and can be accompanied for every breakfast dish.There are many varieties of sambar and i do two different style of sambar one with toordal and other is moongdal sambhar .My grand ma call this as pachadi  and  make it as a sidedish for roti .I did this sambar for vada and raagi semiya.
You can make this sambar in two ways.

• Put all of the ingredients in pressure cooker and temper it later .
• Pressure cook the moongdal seperate and then do the saute and tempering process later.

This recipe of sambar is by the second way i mentioned.

Preparation  time:15 min
Cooking time:10 min
Serves:2

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Split Green gram dal/Moongdal/Pasiparuppu.
• 4 green Chili's/Pacha milagai.
• 1 medium Size Onion/Vengayam.
• 1 small Tomato/Thakkali.
• Required water.
• Salt to taste/Uppu.

To Temper:

• 1/4 tbsp Mustard seeds/Kadugu
• 1/4 tbsp Jeera/Jeeragam
• 1 tsp oil/Ennai.
• Pinch of hing/Asafoetida.
• Few curry leaves(i didn't add any)

Method:
Preparation:

• Cook the green gram dal/Moong dal  in 1 cup of water till the dal turns soft and mushy
• I usually use a pressure cooker to cook the dal. It cooks in no time.
• Cut the tomato ,onion into fine pieces.

Cooking:

• Heat the oil in a sauce pan and add Mustard seeds.
• Let the mustard seeds splutter.
• Add Jeera,curry leaves,hing to the oil.
• Add green chilis, onion and saute till the onion becomes translucent.
• Add tomatoes and cook until soft.
• Add the cooked Dal and required water and salt.
• Mix well and cook this covered until the Sambar boils. 
• Check salt before switching off the flame.
• Chettinad Sambar is ready to be served.

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