Sabudana Vada / Tapioca Fritters

Sabudana Vadas are delicious deep-fried fritters made with tapioca, potatoes, and peanuts. When I mentioned to one of my friends that this is basically a double-carb deep-fried fest, she balked. It seems almost illegal to make, let alone consume, such decadent food these days. The calorie-police are all over the place :).

But, as I always say, that's why we have special indulgent days in the year in the form of birthdays, anniversaries, and festivals. So, set aside your guilt to try these out during an indulgent evening.

I added a few additional ingredients - onion, cloves, and cardamom - that are not commonly added to sabudana vadas. I couldn't help adding the essential ingredients that spice up masala vadas. But, not to worry, the cloves and cardamom do not overpower the vadas. They bring a subtle flavor and aroma that will intrigue your guests enough to wonder what the "secret" addition is.

Milagu Vadai / Pepper Vadai (Anjaneyar Vadai)

Milagu vadai is a thin deep-fried disc prepared from coarsely ground whole black gram and lots of cracked black pepper. It is a common religious offering to the Hindu God, Hanuman (also known as Anjaneyar). Ever since I was three years old, I have had a special fascination and reverence towards this particular Hindu God. So, this vadai is a special favorite. I love its simple taste, and the feeling of peace, quite, and hope it evokes.

This is a very simple and easy preparation that takes no time at all to make.

Masaal Vadai

Masaal Vadai evokes a very funny and obscure memory. Back home, these crispy, fragrant fritters are usually used as baits in mouse/rat traps. They are known to be excellent lures to capture the scraggly critters! And I vividly remember the time when there were quite a few vadais in my place, because we were trying to catch an elusive mouse. We didn’t get to eat any vadai, though. The mouse ate a few before it was finally trapped. It was then safely released into the wild. 

Although my mom has never made this kind of vadai, they are extremely popular in my city. Every other street corner would house a mobile frying station (a frying pot and accessories on wheels) that will dish out masaal vadais, pakodas, bajjis, etc. Totally unhealthy street food, but tempting nonetheless. Since I had my nose up in the air, I never had such street-food delicacies from street vendors - a regret. But, one of my mother’s aunts who is an excellent cook, used to prepare this for tiffin/snacks. I don’t think she remembers the day/s she made this for me when I stayed at her place, but I sure do, for I bugged her with questions and observed her making the vadais. And I told myself, someday, I would make them too. So, here I am. 

It’s simple to prepare (as I always mention). If I can do it, anybody can do it. 

Aama Vadai / Indian Lentil Fritters

Vadais are crispy lentil-based fritters. There are several versions, one of which I’ve written about here. The other common vadai that is made during special occasions is the aama vadai. It is made with a mix of pulses and lentils that are relatively coarsely ground to make for a crispy texture. 

My mom makes the world's best vadais! So, I learned to make these from her.

Ulundu Vadai / Medu Vadai / Urad Dhal Vadai

Continuing with the Festive theme, the prescribed savory item that signifies celebrations and festivals is the Ulundhu Vadai. Vadais are crispy, deep fried, crunchiliciousness made of Blackgram Dhal, also known as Urad Dhal. These days, it’s much easier and time saving to buy the de-husked version of the pulses than go through the minor hassle of peeling and separating the husk after soaking the pulses in water. But the farther one starts from first principles, the better the output will be!

This kind of vadai is extremely easy to prepare, and is both mine and Anand’s favorites. The only catch is in forming the vadai and dropping it safely into the oil.

 
Ingredients

1. 1 cup of de-husked black gram dhal (urad dhal)
2. 2-3 dried red chillies
3. ½ teaspoon of Hing
4. Salt to taste
5. A few curry leaves
6. 1 teaspoon of ghee (optional)
7. Vegetable oil to fry - 2-3 cups

Preparation

1. Soak the urad dhal in water, for 1 hour
2. Drain the water and grind the dhal to a relatively smooth paste with the red chillies, hing, salt, and curry leaves, adding as little water as possible. My mother keeps stressing on adding as little water as possible.
3. Both mother and mother-in-law recommend mixing the resultant batter with a teaspoon of ghee. Ghee makes everything taste better!
4. Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan. Test if the oil is hot enough by dropping a pea sized amount of batter. If the batter sizzles and begins to fry immediately, the oil is hot enough.

Forming the Vadai

Urad dhal batter is generally sticky and mushy. It’s not greasy, but it likes to adhere to your hands, making it hard to form the vadai with your hands. So keep a bowl of water nearby to wet your fingers periodically - before and after touching the batter. Secondly, this kind of vadai requires a dainty hole in the middle (like a smaller donut) to ensure even cooking of the batter. Else the outside of the batter crisps up faster, leaving the insides uncooked and mushy. Not pleasant. So, traditionally, a wet banana leaf was used by women to dump a small ball of batter onto it, after which the batter was flattened out (with wet fingers), and a hole was made in the center. Then, after wetting one’s fingers again, the flattened batter was carefully removed from the leaf (by usually inverting the leaf) and gently transferred to the hot oil. Care must be taken to retain the hole, so that the vadai cooks evenly. If the batter was ground with too much water, it makes it much harder to gather slippery batter from the leaf.

These days, in lieu of banana leaves, we use pliant plastic sheets - one way to recycle/reuse the tonnes of plastic wrapping and covers we amass.

Form vadais on the plastic sheet/banana leaf and gently transfer them into the hot oil. Do not splash the batter into the oil, for the little bit of water in it can decide to dangerously splutter. Once the oil is hot, reduce the heat to medium/medium-high, else you risk burning the vadais outside. Turn the vadais gently until both sides cook/fry to a pleasant golden color and transfer them onto paper napkins to drain excess oil.

It is an art to form the vadais. One needs some relentless practice to from even shaped, perfectly formed vadais, so give yourself a pat on the back if you have come close enough to retain the elusive hole in the vadai! I have also come to confirm my mother’s theory that left over batter that sits in the fridge makes exceedingly crisp and wonderful vadais the next day! Of course, it is also accused of drinking a bit much oil in its post-refrigerated state, but the taste and crispiness makes one forget such trivialities :)

Variations:

Hotels add a teaspoon of baking soda to the batter to plump up the vadais. But home-made, conventional ones don’t have this ingredient.

Some people add a few spoons of raw rice to the soaking dhal, because ground rice makes the vadais even crispier. But again, the traditional ones skip the rice.

Finally, one can get creative and add finely chopped vegetables such as onions, carrots, spinach, ginger, etc. to the batter to give the vadais more crunch, texture and flavor.