Vada Sambar.

Vada Sambar.

For Vada: Urad Dal 2 cups Ginger 1 inch, chopped Green chillies 2 Black pepper corns 1 tsp Curry Leaves 10-12, Coconut cut into small pieces ½ cup (Optional), Salt to taste Oil for deep frying 

Wash and soak urad dal for an hour and grind it to a fine paste. Add only a little bit of water while grinding (just sprinkle). Remove in a bowl add in salt, finely chopped green chilli, finely chopped ginger and crushed pepper, curry leaves cut to bits, coconuts bits to the batter and make mix well. The batter should be light and thick to get soft vada. 

Heat oil in a Kadai. Keep ready a bowl with water near to your batter pan. Dip your right hand first into water and take a lemon size batter and gently make a hole in center (As in dough nuts) using your right hand thumb. Leave the vada into oil slowly. Repeat this vada making for the remaining batter. Each time dip your hand in water to make perfect shape of vada. This is necessary as when you remove the batter with wet hands the batter does not stick to your hands and also slips into the oil easily. At a time you can put 3 to 5 vadas depending upon you’re the size of your pan. Turn to other side and fry the vada on both sides till it becomes golden brown in colour. Remove and keep it on a paper towel which absorbs the excess oill. Vadas are ready to be served with Chutney or Sambar.

For Sambar: Tuvar dal 1 cup Tamarind 1 lemon size Vegetables (carrot, beans, brinjal, Drumsticks etc.) 2 cup Onions ½ cup Tomato 1 no, chopped to chunks, Sambar masala powder 2 tblsp Hing Powder 1 tsp, Salt to taste Curry leaves 8-10 Mustard 1 tsp Oil 3 tsp, ½ cup finely chopped coriander leaves for garnishing.

Cook the Vegetables with minimum water and keep aside. Add water to tamarind and remove a thick pulp, strain and keep it ready.

Wash and pressure cook the tuvar dal by adding 3 cups of water to 4 whistles. Cool and remove from the cooker into a vessel and churn well to get an even dal texture. Add in the cooked vegetables, tamarind paste, salt to taste and the tomato chopped to 8 pieces. Bring to a boil. 

Heat oil in a small pan, when hot add 1 tsp rai (sasam), when they splutter add curry leaves and hing powder, add in the sambar masala powder and mix well, add a few drops of water if you find the masala burning. Add this to the dal with vegetables and the chopped onions, mix well, add water if necessary to bring to required consistency and bring to a boil, then simmer the sambar for 5-10 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with Vada.

For the Chutney Recipe please Refer #Chutney.