Milagu Vadai
VegA coarse urad dal batter studded with cracked pepper and cumin, shaped by hand and deep-fried -- the vadai traditionally strung into garlands for temple offerings.
- Prep time
- 15 min
- Cook time
- 20 min
- Total time
- 35 min
- Servings
- 6
- Difficulty
- Medium
CategoriesVadai Recipes
Ingredients
- 1 cup White urad dal
- 1 Tablespoon Black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon Cumin
- as needed Salt
- Oil (as needed, for frying)
Instructions
- Wash the urad dal and soak for 15 minutes.
- Drain the water and grind into a thick, coarse batter, sprinkling in only a little water (grind in a stone grinder if possible; if using a mixer, mix in fine salt after grinding). Mix in the coarsely ground pepper and cumin powder, along with 3 tablespoons of hot oil, by hand.
- Roll into small balls and flatten thin on a damp cloth.
- Make a hole in the center. Drop in as many as the oil in the pan can hold and fry.
- Once half-cooked, remove them from the oil.
- Quickly fry the rest of the batter too.
- Finally, fry all the vadais once more together until golden, and serve.
- Alternative method: (1) grinding a little semolina in with the batter makes the vadai turn out nice and crisp. (2) The same vadai can be made using whole black urad dal instead -- grind in just the pepper, without cumin. (3) Soaking and grinding in 1 tablespoon of raw rice with the urad dal also makes the vadai crisp.
- Note: vadais made this way are the kind traditionally used to string a vadai garland for Lord Hanuman.