Medu vadai a most popular tiffin or snack dish ordered inevitably with idli , dosa or pongal . South Indina restauranst have know to seve combo dishes such as medu vadai, Idli and Pongal with a sweet . Many such combinations are worked out always including ba single vadai . Almost all festival neivediyam also has vadai in the Prasadam offered to deities allthough dal vadais are most popular for neivediyam , it is also common to see udad dal vadai also being included in the prasadam for the deities along with few other dishes .

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of udad dal (split black lentils) cleaned,washed and soaked in water for upto 11/2 to 2 hrs max. ( measure less if you think 3 cups is a large qty...also here you can choose any measuring cup like a steel cup or tumbler will also do

• 4 medium sized green chillies. Decide on the quantity you desire.

• 2 tsp whole pepper corns. You can also add pepper powder if you dont have peppercorns. Powder should be added after the dal is ground to batter.

• salt to taste

• 1 tsp of asafoetida/hing powder

• sprigs of curry leaves. Sufficient oil to fry the vadas.

• Method:

  Drain the water from the soaked dal completely and grind with green chillies,salt,peppercorns,salt,asafoetida powder in a blender or mixie. It will be a very thick batter and don't be tempted to add water while grinding.
  

  Water should be added only if difficult to grind and in table spoonfuls making sure not to make the batter soft and soggy.
  

  Take out the batter and add the sprigs of curry leaves and mix it well with a big spoon to give soft ,light vadas.
  

You can use either banana leaf or a zip loc bag to shape the vadas. If you dont have banana leaf,take a clean ziploc bag and smear oil on one side. Keep a small bowl of water nearby.

Make your hand little wet and take a small ball of the thick batter and place it on the greased ziploc bag surface and flatten it slightly and make a dent in the middle with the finger.

If you fingers are getting sticky with the batter then lightly dip in the water and quickly shape the vadas. At a time shape enough vadas that you will fry immediately. Dont let the raw batter of shaped vadas sit on the counter.

Meanwhile keep a kadai/tawa with oil for deep frying.

As soon as the oil is hot enough , ease out the shaped vadas and gently slide into the oil taking care not to make a splash. Drop all the shaped vadas and deep fry til done.

You can check whether the oil is hot enough by dropping a small bit of the batter. It should come up immediately with a sizzle. Fry the vadas on a medium flame as it takes time to cook inside .Flip carefully on other side.

Medu vadas are really easy to prepare. You need to keep some small points while preparing.

• As soon as the batter is ground , dont let it ferment or sit on the counter for long.

• The crispiness is achieved by getting the right consistency of batter ground.

• Another way of making vadas ,the procedure which I usually follow doing away with the ziploc bag etc is to wet the hand and take a small ball of batter and with the right hand thumb, make a dent in the center to shape the hole and drop immediately in the hot oil.

• For beginners , shaping the vadas on the greased plastic cover is the easiest.

This type of vada is eaten as it is as it is a part of the festival lunch, otherwise you can prepare the chutney and sambar.

Usually when we prepare the medu vada for festival and pooja, after the pooja and lunch , we set aside some vadas for making delicious dahi vadas and sambar vadas, the recipe which I will share shortly.