Sambar Vada

Ingredients: For Vada: Urid Dal - 3 cups Salt - to taste Ginger - 1 inch, chopped Onion - 1/2 cup, chopped Green chillies - 2 no Black pepper corns - 3 teaspoon Oil - for deep frying For Sambar: Toor dal - 3/4 cup Tamarind - 1 lemon size Vegetables (carrot, beans and potato) - 1 cup (optional) Shallots / Red Onions - 1/2 cup Tomato - 1 no, chopped Sambar masala - 2 tablespoon Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon Salt - to taste Curry leaves - 1 string Mustard and urid dal - 1/2 teaspoon Oil - 3 teaspoon For Serving: Onion - 1/2 cup, very finely chopped Tomato - 1/2 cup, very finely chopped Coriander leaves - 10 strings, chopped Sev - 1/2 tablespoon (optional)

Method: For Vada: Wash and soak urid dal for an hour and grind it to a fine paste. Add only < 2 handful of water to make a perfect batter. Towards the end of the grinding, add salt, onion, coriander leaves, green chilli, ginger and pepper to the batter and make fine paste. Make sure the batter is only light thick to get soft vada. Heat oil in a Kadai/Frying pan. Take another 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. Put this vada into oil slowly.Repeat this vada making step for the remaining batter. Each time dip your hand into the water to make perfect shape of vada. At a time you can put 3 to 5 vadas depending upon your pan and vada size. Turn to other side to fry the upper part of the vada. Fry till it becomes golden brown in colour. When vada is fried well, remove it from oil and transfer it to a plate/bowl with the paper towel which absorbs the excess oil and allow it to cool. Take warm water in wide bowl and put vada on it and keep it aside for 10 minutes. Vadas are ready. For Sambar: Pressure cook the toor dal. Once cooked, mash using potato masher as much as possible. Keep aside. Soak tamarind in warm water for 15 minutes and extract juice from it. Keep aside. Take a pan and heat oil. When it is hot add mustard and urid dal. Allow mustard seeds to splutter. Add curry leaves followed by chopped onions and saute till onions are translucent. Add tomato and cook till they completely mashes. If you are using veggies, add now and sprinkle little water to cook them. Continue cooking till vegetables become soft. Add salt, sambar masala and turmeric powder. Cook for 2 more minutes. Add tamarind juice, mashed toor dal and two cups of water. Boil it till it reaches the sambar consistency. Sprinkle a big pinch of asafoetida and mix well. Remove from stove and allow it to cool for a while. Transfer to a wide bowl. For Serving: From warm water bowl, take vadas and squeeze out the water absorbed by very gently pressing them in between your palms. 2) Put the vadas into sambar bowl for 2 minutes. While serving garnish with onion, tomato, coriander leaves and sev.

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