Medhu Vada Platter - South Indian Delicacy

Medhu Vada is a traditional South Indian fritter or deep fried snack prepared using Black gram / Udad dhall / Ulutham Paruppu . Uddina Vade (Kannada) , Medhu Vadai(Tamil) , Garelu(Telegu) , Uzhunu vada(Malayalam) , Urad dal Vada (Hindi) are the various other names used in different parts of India .

 

 Medhu in Tamil means Soft and Vadai means Fritters , so it translates to Soft Fritters but colloquially it is often known just as Vadas .

In a south indian home, these vadas are made during many special occassions like marriages , birthday celebrations, festivals and as prasad during Varalakshmi Pooja , Ganesh Chaturthi, Krishna Janmashtami. 

Chutney and Sambar are the perfect accompaniments for piping hot and crispy vadas . If you happen to attend any Tamil wedding, you will be treated to sumptous soft Idli , Medhu Vada, Pongal and Kesari  as breakfast along with chutney, sambar and piping hot filter coffee .

The other famous variants are 

•  Rasam Vada - Crispy vadas are dunked in hot & tasty tomato rasam.
•  Sambar Vada - Crispy vadas dunked in piping hot Tiffin Sambar and topped with some coconut chutney. 
• Thayir Vada - Crispy Vadas are dunked in flavored yogurt spiced with coconut chilly mixture . The south indian style Dahi wada is slightly spicy from the North Indian Dahi Bhalla which is flavored using Sweetened yogurt alongwith variety of chutneys.

Click on individual names for detailed recipes 

• Tiffin Sambar 
• Coconut chutney
• Ven Pongal
• Kesari 

Diwali, is round the corner and this is the most rejoiced Hindu festival and celebrations are always vibrant and colorful.  Living up to the joy and cheer , we at FMBH are celebrating Diwali for our 272 week theme . So all of you enjoy this wonderful virtual Diwali with us and stay tuned for some exciting ,innovative and classic recipes from all my blogger friends. 

How is Medhu Vada prepared? 

• Simply put, a batter is prepared using soaked black gram / udad dhall and then the vadas are shaped and dropped into hot oil & fried until crisp and golden brown. 
• Simple as it may sound, there are certain tips and tricks to be followed which will help you get the perfect & crisp texture of the vadas as you taste at the restaurants . 
• The main challenge is preparing a fluffy batter using the soaked udad dhall . If the batter is ground to perfect consistency, then it is easy to shape the vadas . 
•  In this post, I have tried to cover maximum possible tips and videos to help you prepare tasty and crunchy medhu vadas at the comfort of your home. 

 Ingredients 

 1 cup udad dhall (split / full )

 1 tablespoon rice

 salt as needed 

 2 to 3 green chillies

 few fresh curry leaves 

fresh corriander chopped

 pinch of asafoetida ( Skip for GF) 

Oil for frying the vadas

For Thayir vada / Dahi vada 

3 tablespoons fresh grated coconut

1 green chilli

1/2 tsp jeera/cumin 

fresh corriander 

2 cups fresh curd / yogurt 

salt as needed

1 grated carrot 

For Rasam Vada 

Piping hot tomato rasam 

Fresh corriander leaves chopped

 Method 

• Wash the udad dal multiple times until the water appears clean . 
• Soak the udad dhall and rice for maximum 2hours and then drain the water & grind . Donot soak for more time . It will give sour taste . 
• When grinding batter for vadas,be it in mixie or the wet grinder,add water little by little and grind with patience. The batter will double in volume and feel very light. 
• Take a small blob of batter and drop it in a cup of water. It should float and not settle down like a blob. That is the right consistency. 
• When grinding in mixie use cold water as mixie jar tends to get heated up ,when you stop grinding and open the lid ,you can see the trapped air bubbles releasing one by one . This indicates good aeration.
• Once the batter is ground,add salt and beat it well with your hands.Using hands to beat the batter induces aeration which is most important for fluffy vadas.
• Mix finely chopped green chillies,curry leaves, corriander and asafoetida to the batter and keep in the fridge for 20 mins or until the oil is heated up well. 

Pro tips 

• Salt should always be added only after grinding the udad dhall else the batter won't double up
• If you are unable to grind for some reason , drain the water from the soaked udad dhall and refrigerate it . Grind it before 24hrs else it will give a foul smell . Also , rinse it nicely before grinding to remove the slimy coating.
• Keeping the batter in the fridge, helps to hold the shape of vada while patting it .
• Be very careful while adding water at the time of grinding . Too much water will make the batter watery and vadas can't be shaped properly. 

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How to shape the medhu vadas like donuts? 

• Wet your palms each time before shaping the vadas .
• Take some batter ,bounce them , flatten it , make a hole and drop it carefully in the hot oil.
• Donot add too many vadas in the oil, there must be space for flipping the vadas and even frying. 
• Fry on medium flame until it turns golden brown . this way the wadas will be soft and spongy from inside but crunchy and crispy from outside. 
• Frying on high flame will cook only from outside and the inside will remain undone and turn hard.

Thayir Vadai - South Indian style Dahi wada

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• Grind the coconut,jeera,chillies and little corriander to a fine paste .
• Whisk the yogurt /dahi/curd well until it is smooth and silky. Add this coconut mixture to the whisked dahi and add salt as needed. 
• In a wide bowl take some warm water and add 2 tbsp of this yogurt mixture to it and mix well .
• Dip the fried hot vadas into this warm water mixture for 1 to 2 mins and then transfer it to the yogurt mixture and let the yogurt coat the vadas nicely .
• Garnish with chopped corriander, grated carrots and put it in the refrigerator until serving.  You may also garnish with crisp boondis before serving .

Rasam Vadai

•  Prepare tomato rasam and keep ready. 
•  Dunk the freshly fried medhu vadas in piping hot tomato rasam such that the vadas are immersed well and serve hot . 
• Rasam vada always needs to be served piping hot .
• Incase the rasam has turned cold, remember to reheat in a microwave before you soak the vadas . 
• Never reheat or reboil rasam on a stove top, it will lose its flavor .
• If you do not have microwave , heat water in a wide pan and place the rasam vessel into that to get heated up . Works on the principle of double boiler .

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