Thursday, November 2, 2017

Article On Preparing Vada's And Biscuit Ambado Perfectly.


Preparing of Urad Dal Vada's And Biscuit Ambado (In Konkani) … Achieving crispy exterior, soft and fluffy within Vada’s are a dream come true for every person who has tried preparing these yummy Vada’s / Biscuit Ambado’s (in Konkani) at home … Sometimes they turn out perfect, sometimes too oily or sometimes it just turns out dud … Grinding them to the right consistency is the only trick to get perfect Vada’s … Today I am sharing with all of you a awesome mixer grinder trick for grinding of Urad Dal … Thanks to Usha~akka for sharing this tip of using chilled water while grinding the dal, which gives you perfect batter for Idly / Vada . Here is some “Biscuit Ambado And Vada Served With Dalitoy” ....... Read more about the method here ……


First and foremost I would like to write out here that .... Today’s post or article is written with the intention of sharing a “Tip & Trick” of preparing these vadas / biscuit ambados by grinding in mixer grinder to get a perfect batter.  I have included this in the blog to help out those people who want to prepare these Vada's perfectly but are either hesitant to do so or have not yet achieved perfect result and are on the look out for the same. So this is only an article on the subject, while for the recipes of those particular Vada's / Biscuit Ambado you will have to go to the links provided below at the end of the article. I have included all the different varieties of Vadas / Ambados prepared by me using different types dal's till now. Just click on the links to the particular one's you want to check on the recipe.  If you face any difficulty or are not able to understand, please go through some other links for step by step procedures. Still if you are not able to grasp, you can always leave a comment or message me for the same and I will be only glad to help you out. 


** Vada / Biscuit Ambado (in Konkani) needs no introduction to any Indian all over the world. The dish is so famous and liked by all that people simple yearn to eat this often. Vada sambar is served during breakfast at most of the GSB / Konkani Saraswat marriages or thread ceremony functions or for that matter any occassion. Learning to make a perfect vada is an art that can be learned only thru’ repeated efforts ie trial and error. If you cannot make a perfect holed vada, do not fret or feel the batter will now go wasted. You can drop large spoonful of batter into hot oil and make them into round shape, which we call biscuit ambado in konkani. Both are the same in different shapes, that’s all. It took me some years to perfect this and sometimes still it becomes difficult if the batter consistency goes wrong by haste. I have added step by step pictures for the benefit of people who are not aware of the procedure in my post of Vada preparation before. I will be sharing the link to the step by step procedure link at the bottom of this article. So please do check on those pictures for a proper understanding of the preparation. 


** Grinding of the batter to the right consistency is what one has to learn as the first step to achieving the right consistency in preparing of the Vada’s. The second being trying out to make them with center hole. Due to my hectic life as I was always busy attending my business, I had no time to venture properly into food topics. Again, I am thankful to my friend Shyamala Kini who pulled me into this food world and pushed me into posting my cooked food in her group. Unfortunately, my dear friend is no more and left for her heavenly abode all of a sudden. I do miss her a lot. Today, I have created my own food group, by the name “Konkani Delicacies” after having a successful blog and page of my own. 


** Coming back to grinding of Vadas, it is always a pleasure to share knowledge with my friends all over the world and it gives me immense satisfaction in writing about the same here. I hope all of you benefit from this tip and try and make lovely vada’s at home and share them with your family and friends. There is nothing that a person can’t achieve if you put your heart into it. Persistence is the key to success. This tip was shared to me by Usha akka (Usha Bhat) another friend of my mine in her own food group. It so happened that once when we were discussing about how grinding urad dal in mixer grinder yields to thinner textured paste compared to the one ground in wet grinder (stone grinder). Discussions are always very enlightening and one get's to learn a lot from them. There is always so much to learn and vice versa. Education and Educating is a never ending learning process.


** I have always ground urad dal in wet grinder coz. that is the way I learned from my Mom. I had a huge standing 3 in one electric grinder for about 8 yrs. It grated coconut, ground masalas and churned buttermilk. But then due to its bulky, I could not continue with it after suffering from a setback of backache. I went in for a table top wet grinder of 2 kgs size. I used this for about 10 yrs. But then calamity struck again and I took a back step coz. of a weak back. I started getting back and neck issues which continued for years. I went in for a smaller wet grinder of 1 kg as it would be easier to grind on the same as it weighed less. But still the persistent pains made me not want to do vadas as grinding them had to be done carefully. Usha~akka who too had back pain woes, came to my rescue and gave me the tip of using chilled water while grinding in mixer grinder and Voila, I followed that tip today and Its too good. God Bless her, she solved a huge problem of mine as my hubby loves Vadas / Biscuit Ambado. And now preparing them will be breeze work for me.


** Here is to how I went about using the mixer grinder to the best advantage of getting well ground Vada / Biscuit Ambado Batter ....

** I soaked 2 cups of split urad dal without skin off course for 3-4 hours in the evening. Then I drained off the water, put the urad dal into a air tight box with enough fresh water. Say about ½ inch above the level of the urad dal and kept it in the fridge overnight, so that I could grind it the next day. I was all excited to undergo this experiment session and was very eager to know how the vada would turn out. But to my dismay, the next morning there was a pressing issue which had to be attended and I had to go out on a business commitment and could not think of preparing the same as I was short of time. I reached back home late and was dead tired and could not even think of preparing the vadas. So I just let it lie there in the fridge. And the next day, again I could not do it coz. of severe back pain. So in all the urad dal was there in the fridge for a little bit more than 48 hours. But I did check on the dal to see if it had gone bad, smelled or was sour. Well nothing, it was happily getting chilled in the fridge.


** Well by now I was disturbed and dropped the idea of preparing the Vada’s, thinking that now it was a bit too late and the vadas would not turn out well. I had to use the dal, as by now all of you who read my blog are aware that I am dead against wastage of food, so thought of just grinding the same and preparing Idly instead of my favorite Vadas. I removed the dal from the fridge and drained off the excess water into a bowl. Retaining that chilled water for grinding, I put the dal in the mixer grinder and added ½ cup of chilled drained water and let the mixer grinder run. When I opened, in between to check in I was surprised to see fluffy thick batter just like the one I needed for Vadas. My desire to prepare Vada’s surfaced again and I further ground the dal for another few minutes without adding any water. I kept stopping and grinding and the mixer was happily doing it for me to my surprise.


** The batter was done within a matter of 7-8 minutes, I removed it into a bowl and checked the consistency, perfect, it could not have been done better. And the best part was I was neither tired nor overworked. The batter should be soft and white like butter for preparing Vadas and that is exactly what I got. The addition of chilled water did the trick. As the batter was not getting heated when being ground and that way it was not loosing its thickness and getting thinned out. Sigh, how I wish I had known about it before. So many years, I toiled at grinding with so much strain for nothing. But better late than never. So I am sharing this wonderful tip with all of you so that you do not get disheartened and prepare these vadas at home to enjoy with your family and friends. 


** The rest of the method of preparing the vadas / ambados and deep frying them is the same as I had previously written, so I will not go into writing the same or should I say repeating the same again. Sharing the link to the remaining procedure where there are steps by step pictures of preparing these vadas beautifully. Having said this, also remember that if you are unable for some reason to still not able to do the hole centered vadas prepare them in the round lemon sized ball way and enjoy, they taste the same. I am giving links below, for all of you who are interested to check on the recipes. For those, who are already well versed with the preparation of Vada’s but clinch at the thought of the tedious process. Do follow this simple trick and you will get vadas / biscuit ambados that are crispy outside and fluffy and soft inside. 


** For step by step method of deep frying technique of the Vadas, Please follow this particular link ….

And 

** For method of deep frying technique of Biscuit Ambado, Please follow this particular link ….

** Given below are several links of different types of Vada’s prepared by me over a period of three years, there are many more to come as and when I prepare. I will keep editing them here too. In the following links the tip of grinding with chilled water is not given as I myself came to know of it recently. But follow the method of using chilled water while grinding and keeping the urad dal overnight in fridge for them and I am sure you will get fantastic results. 

















































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** An Appeal : Do let me know by leaving a comment or by sending a email to me how this tip and trick of grinding with chilled water worked for you. Do not hesitate in trying it out as I myself have tried this trick and got successful results. So go ahead and soak urad dal now, what are you waiting for. Just enjoy them hot dunked either in sambar or dalitoy or with chutney. 

** An earnest Request : There are many more recipes of similar type in the blog. For all my Recipes, use the search option or the label section in the Blog. If you are still not able to find it please leave a message in comment section or mail me the same. You can also go to my page (add on the left side of blog) and leave a message and I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible … Thank you. I have also started a food group by the name "KONKANI DELICACIES" the link of which is posted on the left side of the blog page. Do join us in our culinary journey.

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