Vada Sambhar

Ingredients 

For Vada:

Black Gram / Split Urad Dal – 1 cup
Coconut, finely chopped – 1/4 cupGreen Chillis – 5
Curry Leaves – 15Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

For Sambhar:

Split Pigeon Peas / Toor Dal – 1/2 cup
Tomatoes – 2
Onions – 2
Tamarind Extract – 2 tsps
Sambhar Powder – 1 tbsp ( I used readymade MTR powder)
Turmeric Powder – 1/4 tsp
Jaggery, powdered – 2 tsps
Coconut, shredded – 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

For Seasoning Sambhar:

Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds – 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida powder – 1/4 tsp
Curry Leaves – 8
Dry Red Chilli – 2
Oil – 2 tsps

For Garnishing:

Fine Sev – 1/2 cup (optional)
Coriander Leaves, chopped – 1/2 cup (optional)

Preparing Sambhar:

1. Pressure cook toor dal until soft.
2. Cut onions and tomatoes.
3. Cook onion and tomato pieces in 4 cups of water.
4. Add salt, jaggery powder, turmeric powder, tamarind extract and sambhar powder.
5. Now add cooked toor dal.
6. Let it boil for 15 to 20 minutes, on medium flame, until the quantity reduces to 3/4rth and the sambhar thickens.
7. Now add shredded coconut and boil for 2 minutes.
8. For seasoning, heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, dry red chilli pieces and curry leaves.
9. When mustard seeds start spluttering, add asafoetida powder. Mix well and add this to cooked sambhar.
10. The sambhar is now ready.
11. Take a large bowl, add 1 cup of the prepared sambhar and 2 cups of boiling water. Keep aside to soak the vadas.

Preparing Vada:

1. Wash urad dal thoroughly and soak in water for 2-3 hours.
2. Shred green chillis and curry leaves.
3. Drain all the water from soaked urad dal.
4. Blend urad dal and salt into smooth fluffy batter using very little water. The consistency of this batter must be such that if you drop a small amount of batter in a cup of water, the batter must float or if you scoop out some batter with your fingers, it must hold shape.
5. Transfer the batter onto a mixing bowl.
6. Add chopped coconut, shredded green chillis and curry leaves. Mix until well combined.
7. Heat oil in a pan.
8. Wet your both your palms and using one palm scoop out ping-pong sized portion of the batter from the edge where the batter is in contact with the mixing bowl.
9. Place the scooped batter on the other palm and flatten slightly to round shape and make a hole in the centre to resemble a doughnut.
10. Slide this carefully into hot oil.
11. Set the flame to medium and fry until crisp and golden brown.
12. Immediately drop them in the bowl containing sambhar+boiling water mixture. Let it soak for 2-3 minutes.

1. Pour hot sambhar into serving bowls.
2. Remove vadas, one-by-one, from sambhar+boiling water mixture and dunk 1 or 2 hot vadas in each bowl containing sambhar, depending on the size of the bowl and quantity of sambhar.
3. Serve hot garnished with fine sev and coriander leaves.