Breakfast · 50 min · indian

Medu Vada

Urad dal does the heavy lifting here, with rice flour rounding it out. An Indian breakfast that takes 50 minutes, start to finish.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups Urad dal
• 2 tbsp Rice flour
• 2 Green chilies
• 1 tsp Fresh ginger
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1 tsp Black peppercorns
• 6 Curry leaves
• 4 cups Oil

Steps

1. Soak the urad dal 4 hours, then grind with barely any water to a thick, fluffy batter — it should hold stiff peaks like meringue. Under-grinding is the main cause of dense vadas.
2. Whip the batter by hand 3 minutes; the trapped air is what makes the centers hollow and crisp.
3. Fold in rice flour, chopped chilies, ginger, cumin, crushed pepper, and curry leaves with salt.
4. Heat the oil to 350°F. Wet your hands, shape a lemon-sized ball, flatten it, and poke a hole through the center with a wet thumb — the hole is not decoration, it fries the middle crisp.
5. Slide in 4 to 5 vadas at a time; fry 4 minutes, turning, until deep golden all over.
6. Drain on a rack, not paper — paper traps steam and softens the crust.
7. Serve immediately with coconut chutney and sambar for dunking; vadas wait for no one.

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