A delicious, crispy, and spicy vada with lots of dill, pepper, and onion. This Medhu Vada is an authentic South Indian treat.
The iconic breakfast that’s popular, not only among South Indians but around the world, is Idli-Vada-Sambhar. It’s a dish that makes an awaited appearance every weekend in many homes. Vada might not necessarily happen often, but it is arguably the most popular among the three. Vada is considered a snack in South Indian cuisine. And we cannot confuse it with its cousin, the pakora/bajji, or another street snack, the Vada Pav. Medhu vada is made during festivals, for parties or for an evening snack. There are quite a lot of varieties of vada. It’s mostly made out of legumes, in contrast to the often chickpea based pakoras and bajji. I also have a version of vada with mint and cashews that is crispier and heartier in texture.
Medhu Vada or Ulundhu Vada is made of black skinless whole black gram/urad daal. The black gram is soaked for 2-3 hours and ground to a smooth paste. My favorite part comes next, the flavorings, which we’ll come to in a bit.
Tips and Tricks to getting the perfectly dry-crispy medhu vada:
- Soak the urad daal in cold water for 2 hours and at the most for 3 hours. Fill the urad daal with water, 2 inches above the daal. Wash/rinse the daal really well about three times to remove any grime or bitter flavor that attaches to the daal.
- For grinding, I find the cuisinart or the Indian grinder does a great job. You could absolutely use a blender too. The only drawback about a blender is, you have to scrape the sides and mix in the daal every few seconds. It works.
- Before grinding the daal, drain all the water with the help of a colander. Then add it to your choice of contraption to grind the daal. Use a tablespoon of water at time to grind the daal. The consistency should be thick. It’s almost the consistency of a stiff peak cream.
- Anything you add to the medhu vada batter later should not have water content in it. If you plan on using dill, wash, chop the dill and pat dry it completely before adding it to the batter.
- Most importantly, make the medhu vada immediately after the batter is made. If you refrigerate it and make vada later, there will be more moisture in the batter, it will ferment and it will soak up a lot of oil and just not work. It can turn slightly bitter too.
ADDITIONS to MEDHU VADA/Ulundhu/Urad daal Vada:
- The popular addition to Medhu Vada is onions, curry leaves, thinly sliced green chilies, pepper, cumin and cilantro. Finely chop everything before adding it to the batter.
- Ginger is something many add. You can grate, thinly slice and add it or grind an inch of ginger when you grind the daal.
- Dill is another popular addition when it’s not accompanied with IDLI-vada sambhar.
- Grated carrots or cabbage is a great addition to it. Check out ABITWHOLESOMELY ‘S blog for a red cabbage version.
- By mistake if your batter has gotten little watery, add some lightly toasted semolina/rawa to soak up the excess moisture.
- For the added crispiness, add 2 tbsps of rice flour.
Frying the Medhu Vada:
- Frying the medhu vada requires a kadahi or a deep pot. Always fry with a non flavored oil, like vegetable oil or canola oil.
- The temperature/heat of the stove should be on medium high. Do NOT keep it on high, the medhu vada will brown/burn too quickly and not cook from the inside. It’s like frying a donut.
- You can use a thick plastic to make the vada, a banana leaf(traditionally used), or your hands. Wipe your hands with water, you want to take a golf sized or bigger ball of the dough. Press it on your hands, make a hole in the middle. Carefully drop it in the oil. Alternatively, you can use a ziploc or a thick plastic, rub a little water on it. Take a small about of dough, press to 1/2 inch thickness, make a hole in the middle. Wet your right fingers, carefully slide the vada on you fingers and drop it in the fryer.
- You can even use a donut maker to make the vadas if you are not too sure about getting it perfectly shaped.
- Make sure to not fry it on low heat either, the vada will soak up lot of oil and get soggy.
- You can make them in a electric donut maker or a appe/kuli paniyaaram pan to avoid the deep frying.
DIFFERENT USES OF MEDHU VADA BATTER:
- This batter without any addition can be used to make dahi vada. Fry the batter, soak in water, wring the water and dip it in spiced yogurt.
- Mysore bonda, a Karnataka speciality can be made with coconut bits to the batter and fried, shaped like small balls.
- A very popular dish from Chennai is vada in rasam. Soak the small balls of medhu vada in rasam and it’s so good.
- urad daal or ulundu or split white lentils - 1 cup
- Salt -1 tsp
- ½ red onion, finely chopped
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp crushed black pepper(very coarse, mostly half and quartered. Not powdered at all)
- 2-3 green chilies, thinly sliced (use according to your heat levels)
- 10 curry leaves, finely chopped (optional)
- pinch of asafoetida
- 1 cup dill leaves, chopped and dry
- 2 tbsp rice flour
- few coconut slices (optional)
- Vegetable oil for Deep frying.
- Take a bowl and add the urad daal. Wash and drain the urad daal at least three times to remove any grime and bitterness. Add clean water and soak for about 2-3 hours.
- Drain the daal very well using a colander or strainer. Grind the urad daal with 1 tsp of salt. The batter has to be stiff and the consistency of a stiff peak cream. Add a tablespoon of water at a time to grind the urad daal. It should be fluffy and thick.
- Scoop the batter out in a larger bowl.
- Add the chopped onion, cumin seeds, pepper, chilies, curry leaves, asafoetida, dill, rice flour, coconut and mix it well with your hand and whip it incorporate a little bit of air into the batter, just for about a minute.
- Now you are ready to make the MEDHU VADA.
- Keep a pot/kadahi on medium high heat. Let the oil get hot.
- A tip to see if the oil got hot it to dip the back of a wooden ladle in oil, if bubbles form around it immediately, then your oil is ready. Also, you could drop a piece of the batter to see if it sizzles and floats to the top immediately.
- Take a plastic sheet/ziplock, lightly brush it with water and take a golf sized ball of the batter and flatten it. Make a hole in the middle and with your wet right fingers, carefully lift it off the sheet and carefully drop it from the sides into the hot oil. BE VERY CAUTious WHILE doing this.
- Flip after its floated on top. Cook another minute or two, until golden brow.
- Take it out on a paper towel to drain the excess oil and serve immediately with some chutney.
Urad Daal – HERE
Donut maker that can be used to make Medhu Vada- HERE ON AMAZON
IF you make Medhu vadai, please tag me and let me know how you liked it.
*Please do tag me on Instagram @foodfashionparty if you make this, using the hashtag #foodfashionparty. Check out my book MASALA AND MEATBALLS.
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Bina
Very helpful tips, Asha ……..even after all these years of making medu vadas, they still fail when I am somewhat careless with grinding and frying. Have never added Dill and should try this version soon.
Angie@Angie's Recipes
They look so very inviting!