ஆமை வடை / Masal Vadai / Paruppu Vadai / Lentil Fritters

My family's all time favourite snack.Born in Madurai i never ever assumed anybody would even cook vadai at home.Because we get different varities of vadai from so many டீ கடைs (tea shop) all around round the clock....and who would care to put in all the efforts to make one variety of vadai at home ;-),luxury i know!But never realised till i got to live in Bonn , Germany after i got married.

Two dishes i learnt(dint cook but only took notes:)) before i flew to Germany from one of my good friends Vinodh,who is a better cook than i am was Dal and Masal Vadai.Dal being A's favourite and vadai being mine.....made sense to atleast have two recipes handy ;-)!

You should be wondering why this name to Masal Vadai.I assume Aamai vadai was named after the fact that the vadai itself looks like an "Aamai" (translated to 'Tortoise' in English) with hard shells around soft insides.

Whenever i make this vadai,one person i never forget to think of is my dad-in-law.I should say he is an ardent fan of this Vadai,especially when I make it.We interact more like friends than in laws.It is a pleasure to make him this vadai whenever he visits us.
Any usual recipe will use channa dal in a larger proportion.Here i add toor dal more for a healthier version.

Ingredients:

Toor dal / துவரம் பருப்பு  - 1 cup
Channa dal /கடலை பருப்பு  - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 medium
Green chillies - 3
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Coriander leaves - few chopped
Pudina leaves - one or two chopped
Raw rice - 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Fennel seeds - 2 tsps
Salt as required
Oil to fry

Preparation:

1.Soak Toor dal,Channa dal and Raw rice in ample amount of water for atleast 3 hours.
2.After 3 hours,grind the dal mixture coarsely without any water.(save a small handful of dal before grinding....gives a crunchiness to the vadai when fried).If you think you should add water depending on the mixer you are using...add very little water.
3.Once done,add chopped onions and the rest of the ingredients along with salt and mix well using your hand.

4.Add oil in a kadai while you mix the above.
5.As soon as the oil is hot enough,make small balls of the mixture and pat them little(i like my vadai small)
6.Drop them in oil one by one.You can fry 6-7 vadais in a batch depending on the size of the vadai and the kadai.

7.Turn the vadai around after like 2 minutes.Once the sizzling stops you know your vadai is done.Just see to it the colour of the vadai is brown like in the picture.

Notes:
1.If you are running out of time and dont have 3 hours to soak the dal,add hot water to the dal for an hour and you will get your job done(works most of the times for a lazy-cozy like me:))
2.Add salt to the ground dal just before you intend to fry.Because adding salt and leaving the mixture out for a long time makes the mixture watery.
3.Raw rice is added to make the vadai crispier.Instead my mother adds Split peas / பட்டாணி பருப்பு .This gives a different flavor all together.I would hghly recommend you to try this if you get the split peas at your place.
4.If you think you can handle the after effects of the snacks...go ahead and reverse the ratio of the dals ;-)


Nothing can compare to the taste of crispness of the vadai ,smell of fried dal and the hottness of green chillies now and then in the mouth  along with a sip of hot coffee on a rainy day:-)

Guten Appetit!
Happy Snack-ing!!!

Poondu Milagu Kuzhambu / பூண்டு மிளகு குழம்பு / Garlic in Pepper Gravy

Poondu Milagu Kuzhambu is one dish i wish to have right after a week of heavy meal because of its medicinal values.

Benefits of Garlic:

- help reduce heart disease
- lower blood pressure by dilating or expanding blood vessels
- helps prevent blood clots 
- reduce pain and other symptoms in people with rheumatoid arthritis
- an antibiotic killing a range of microbes, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites

Benefits of Pepper:
- treats constipation, diarrhea, earache, heart disease, hernia, indigestion, insect bites, insomnia, joint pain, lung disease, sunburn and toothaches. 

Garlic and pepper together simmered in tamarind has been found to 

- aid digestion 

- cleanse digestive system

- relieve abdominal bloating, nausea, vomiting, anemia 

- they also help lactating mothers in the production of breast milk.

As kids,I and my elder brother had most similar tastes when it comes to food or may be it was like i got inspired to try by looking at him relishing his food;-).Either ways thanks to him for making this wonder kuzhambu a part of my food palette:-).

Ingredients:

Garlic pods - 10

Curry leaves - 7

Tamarind - lemon sized

Jaggery - a pinch

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Fenugreek powder - 1/4 tsp

Gingely oil / Nallennai - 3 tbsp

Salt - as required

To grind into a fine paste:

Garlic pods - 3

Channa dal - 2 tbsp

Urud dal - 2 tbsp

Peppercorns - 2 1/2 tbsp

Coriander seeds - 2 tbsp

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Whole dried red chilly - 2

Raw rice - 1 tsp

Preparation:

1.Pour 1 tbsp oil in a kadai and roast the items below 'to grind' one after another for 2 minutes.

2.Grind the above mix with little water and make it into a fine paste.

3.Soak tamarind in hot water and keep the pulp aside.Let the pulp be thick as it reduces the time while thickening the gravy.

4.In the same kadai,pour 1 tbsp oil and add fenugreek powder.Make sure you don't burn them as it will give a bitter taste to the gravy.

5.Then add curry leaves followed by garlic pods.Let it fry for a minute till the garlic pods turns light golden brown.

6.Add the thick tamarind pulp and turmeric powder.Mix well till the raw smell of tamarind goes off.

7.Now mix in the ground paste.

Here, i like adding freshly coarsely ground pepper,may be 1 tsp,to give the freshness of the pepper to the gravy.

8.Add required salt and let the gravy thicken.

9.Finally add jaggery to counter the hot n sour taste.

9.When you see oil appear on the gravy your kuzhambu is ready to be served.

As this gravy is prepared as pathiya saapaadu(Non fatty diet food to cleanse the digestive organs), i dont prepare any side dishes.Just a microwaved appalam will do best!:)

You can store this gravy in the refrigerator.Stays good up till a week's time.

Healthy Lunching!!! :-)