Monday, October 25, 2010

Pappu Vadalu, Gaarelu, Fried Lentil Dumplings....another version!


There are so many version of vadalu or gaarelu in Indian, especially in South India.
Here is another version made with two different types of pappulu / lentils. The lentils I used here are split, skin on pesara pappu / mung bean / moong daal and minapa pappu / Urad daal, this too split with skin on.
This is a recipe which I got from a friend. She had made it for a party and my husband wanted me to make these again for my son's birthday party. Well I made it...made 60-70 pieces of them. They did come out good and everyone enjoyed.
We, Andraites make vadas for festivals, lunch breakfast or dinner. They are yummy to be eaten with chutney or with chicken curry. So why not make them for a celebration.

The good part is, since these are made with skin on daal, you get some fiber in them. When these are fried, they tend to be darker in color than the regular minapa gaarelu, which I have blogged before. And since its only daal, lots and lots of protein.
Only down part is it being deep fried, aren't all yummy dishes deep fried!!!
Well you can use less oil and make them in the appe pan, if you want!
In the regular vadalu, we only add onions, ginger, green chillies, and coriander if required. We can make them plain too.
But in this I added green chillies, ginger, cinamon stick, cloves into the batter to be grinded and into the ground batter, added onions and coriander.
So the taste is more of masala vada taste.

The batter has to be ground thick so as to perfect shapes can be made out of them, mine was a little thin, so thats why as you can see in the picture, different shapes!! If you think the batter is thin, you can always add a small amount of rice flour to make it thick again. Adding too much will make it hard, so don't put too much.
Putting the hole is the center is purely optional.

Another thing to remember is to put aside atleast 1/4 to 1/3 amount of the soaked daal aside, not to be ground. This is to be added to the batter later on. This gives a good crispy texture to the vadas.
I made a big batch so I soaked lot of daal, but always remember ratio is 1:1 for urad daal to moong daal.


Ingredients:

1 cup split, skin on urad daal, minapa pappu
1 cup split, skin on moong daal, mung bean, pesara pappu

To be ground with the daal:

1 inch piece of ginger
3-4 green chillies
1 inch piece of cinamon stick
3-4 cloves

To be added to the batter after grinding:

1 small onion, chopped to small pieces
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
5-6 curry leaves, chopped (optional)

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Soak both the daals overnight.
Remove about 1/4 of both the daals and keep aside.
Grind the rest along with ginger, chillies, cinamon stick, cloves and salt. Grind to a thick batter.
After grinding, add the rest of the ingredients. Check for salt now.
Heat oil in a deep kadai.
On a plastic sheet, like a ziplock bag, wet lightly with water. Take some batter and make a round shape on the sheet with a hole in it, patting it down with water to make the shape. Don't use too much water, as it might make the batter runny. Remove slowly from the sheet and drop into the oil, very carefully!!!
If the vadas start turning color very quick, lower the heat, as you want the vada to cook before it turns color.
Fry till they are golden and remove onto a paper nakin.
Serve hot with chutneys like idli chutney, coconut chutney, coriander-mint chutney, Tomato chutney or red bell pepper chutney, like I did. These even go good with chicken curry, one of the favorites of Andra cuisine!!!
Enjoy!!!

14 comments:

  1. I made this the same way over the weekend. It was super yummy.

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  2. Feel like grabbing some, droolworthy crispy vadas..

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  3. give it to me...the holes are so perfect...i am bad at the holes in a vada...lovel recipe.
    Biny.

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  4. OMG this vada looks yummooooo..

    http://vegetarianmedley.blogspot.com/

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  5. Ahh..Smitha...u are so so so making me drool over this..Perfect n awesome vadas!

    US Masala

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  6. Looks totally delicious. A cross between a medhu vadai and paruppu vadai and the color thats what makes me want to grab some.

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  7. looks so delicious..perfect for this weather..

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  8. How i wish i could grab few of them, they look absloutley super yumm.

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  9. it luks definitely yummy!!Thanks fr sharing.will try and came bac!!!

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