Be My Guest – Thayir Vadai

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You all would have noticed that I am slowing down on my guest series from the beginning of the year. Yes, it has been intentional, I have already made it clear. Somehow, this year, I have been concentrating on doing my own posts and also coordinating for guest posts was taking a toll on me, so I had to take a decision to go a bit slow, though I am not going to let this series die off as such… 🙂

 

After two months of silence, today I have one of my favorite bloggers. I know I have introduced many of them this way, and this sweet lady’s blog has been one that I laid my eyes on more than four years ago, when I took genuine interest towards cooking. Why did I like her blog? I love good vegetarian food, and I simply suck at making them – period! Whenever we dine out, I always prefer my masala dosas and vadas and gobi manchurians over the non-vegetarian specialties. I sometimes feel that we can cook much better non-veg food at home, but mastering vegetarian food is a lot of practice. Palakkad Chamayal is one such blog that makes you feel that cooking authentic vegetarian food IS easy. Kaveri’s seven year old blog is a treasure of well known as well as close-to-being-forgotten authentic Palakkad cuisine. I really don’t know which all to share here, because I have literally stopped bookmarking from her blog and keep hopping on to get some ideas to cook. The only recipe I seem to have cooked from her blog is the Vengaya Sambaar, but I always fantacise about going back to her blog and cooking much more from it… 🙂

 

From the beginning, Kaveri has been very friendly. She first commented on my defunct personal blog, while I wrote about my first escapades at making fluffed up pooris and from then on, we have had a very warm relationship. And what has she bought along? Something that I totally love! Vadas are my favorite, though I am still not confident enough to make them at home, despite umpteen assurances that it is not difficult to make. I am still mustering my courage… 😀 Vadas soaked in yogurt is a favorite. If the northies have Dahi Bhalla, we have the Thayir Vada! Which came first, I have no clue. 😉 Anyway, let’s get on to the recipe… The plate of Thayir Vada looks really drool-worthy, no? 🙂

 

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A little about myself, I am Kaveri and blog at Palakkad Chamayal. I mainly share traditional recipes which have been handed down through generations but are slowly getting lost.

 

Today’s post is a guest post for a wonderful blogger friend Rafeeda. Rafeeda’s blog The Big Sweet Tooth is a treasure trove of recipes, from mouthwatering biriyanis to delicious bakes and puddings, you name it and you will find it on her space. I love the quotes she posts and her write ups. I feel an instant connect with whatever she writes. I am inspired by her dedication towards her blog. Inspite of being a busy working mother of 2 beautiful girls, she manages to post recipes almost every day on her space.

 

I am sharing one of my family’s favorite summer recipes – Thayir Vadai or Curd Vadai. It is a very simple dish to prepare and tastes great. A make ahead dish, perfect for those small get togethers or parties.

 

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What you’ll need:

 

Whole White Urad Dal – 1 cup

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Fresh Thick Curd – 2 cups

Boiled Cooled Milk – 1 cup

Salt to taste

To grind

Ginger – 1 inch piece

Green Chillies – 2 to 3

Coconut – ¼ cup

For Tempering

Oil – 1 tbsp

Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp

Curry Leaves – few

For garnishing

Coriander Leaves – 2 tbsp, finely chopped

Kara Boondhi – ¼ cup (optional)

 

Method

 

  • Wash and rinse the Urad Dal in 2 to 3 exchanges of water and soak it for an hour. Drain all the water.
  • Grind the Urad dal with minimum water into a smooth fluffy and light batter. Making use of a wet grinder gives best results for Vada. If using a Mixie, use ice cold water while grinding. Be careful while adding water, as addition of salt also makes the batter lose.
  • Fluff up the batter well with your hands. When you add a small blob of batter into a bowl of water, it should float on the water. This shows that your batter is light and fluffy.
  • Heat a Kadai with oil for deep frying.
  • In the meanwhile, grind green chillies, ginger and coconut.
  • Whisk the curd and milk and a cup of water together with salt and add the ground paste to it and mix well.
  • Temper the curd with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Mix it well and refrigerate it.
  • Once the oil is hot, shape the batter into vadas and slide into the oil, fry till golden. Drain on to a tissue paper.
  • In a bowl, take some hot but not boiling water add the drained vada to this, let it sit for a minute, remove from the water and squeeze it between two flat ladles to remove extra water, taking care not to break the vadas. Place the squeezed vadas on a flat and wide serving dish in a single layer.
  • Pour the prepared curd mixture on top of this. Garnish with coriander leaves and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
  • To serve, carefully transfer individual vadas to a plate, garnish with boondhi and serve immediately.

 

Note:

 

  1. If grinding the batter for vada in mixie, refrigerate the soaked dal for an hour. Also use ice cold water while grinding.
  2. Add salt to the dal, once the dal is crushed fairly. Don’t wait till the end to add salt as salt also releases water and loosens the batter.
  3. If the batter is too watery, the vadas will be flat and will absorb more oil. Also if the batter is too tight, the vadas will turn out hard, so the right amount of water is and grinding to right consistency is the key to get perfect vadas.
  4. If you feel the batter has become watery, add a tbsp or 2 of Atta, this result in crisp and fluffy vadas.
  5. Make sure curd is not sour, it is the key to tasty thayir vadas.

 

Thank you so much Rafeeda for this lovely opportunity.

 

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It is my pleasure having you on my little space, Kaveri. I have totally enjoyed looking at this delicious plate of vadas… Have a lovely weekend, my dear readers… 🙂

 

Join the Conversation

  1. Lovely guest post love the boondi floating thayir vadai Kaveri.
    Agree Rafee Kaveri is doing an awesome job by saving forgotten recipes sometimes she revives my nostalgic memories through food I am sure she has no idea how much I drool seeing it. 🙂

    1. Rafeeda AR Author says:

      Thank you so much Meena… Glad that you enjoyed the post as much as I did… 🙂

  2. Lovely guest post …Thayir vada is one of my favorites..looks yummy…Good job dearies!

    1. Rafeeda AR Author says:

      Thank you so much Ruxana…

  3. My fav! Making vadas is easy Raf! Even I used to be like you thinking it is near to impossible to get that hole in the center etc. Trust me my first perfect vada happened at my inlaws last year! and practice it often because the results is never consistent for me and today thanks to Kaveri for her tips, now I know what all could have gone wrong on my bad days! The testing of fluffy batter – I should remember it next time! 😛 Of course drooling…

    1. Rafeeda AR Author says:

      HD’s cousin’s wife told me the same thing, but I don’t know why I am not able to get myself to make it… 😕 I guess you must just bookmark this page then… Thanks a lot Fami…

  4. Lovely guest post,perfect and tempting snack

    1. Rafeeda AR Author says:

      Thanks a lot Suja…

  5. Unusual dish. Nice to meet you kaveri. I like your idea of saving tradional recipes

    1. Rafeeda AR Author says:

      This is quite usual back home dear, u can find it in the street side snack shops… Thanks a lot Nammi…

  6. This is awesome Rafeeda! Never have had these before but I can imagine how refreshing and filling these must be.. somewhat like dahi vadas.. but a bit different.

    1. Rafeeda AR Author says:

      Thank you so much Nupur…

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