Dahi bhalla

Dahi bhalla or dahi vada is different to South Indian variety thayir vada. Both are very refreshing. 

Best thing about the north Indian version is that we need not make the doughnut shape!!

There is a secret to making soft dahi vadas. Muscle power. How? Read on.

Ingredients:

Urad dal / Uzhundu - 1 cup

Green chilly - 2

Ginger - 2 inch

Salt

Curd - 1/2 lt

Oil for deep frying

Garnish:

Extra curd

Date tamarind chutney / sweet chutney

Green chutney

Coriander leaf

Green chilli

Pomegranate seeds

Boondi

Jeera powder

Chilly Powder

Method:

Soak the dal in water for 3 hours.

Grind into a fine paste with salt, green chilli and ginger. Use very less water.

Now comes the fun part. We experiment to see if our vada will be nice and fluffy.

Drop a little batter in cold water. It sinks.

If it sinks, it means the vada will not be fluffy.

So... We beat the mixture to incorporate air.

Beat and beat until..

Yippee.. The batter floats!

Muscle power!!

And look. The batter has nearly doubled in volume.

Now we have to fry the vada.

Start heating the oil.

Keep a glass of water nearby with a spoon immersed.

When the oil heats up, deep fry spoon full of batter. Immerse the spoon in water after each spoonful so that the batter slides off easily.

Fry on a medium flame. Otherwise the outside will brown and the insides will not cook.

Deep fry the rest of the batter.

Look inside the vada. Holes! Great!

Now get water boiling.

If you feel your vada needs a bit more salt, add salt in the water.

Now immerse the vadas in the water.

Push them in and cover with aluminium foil pushed down.

Leave it like that for 45 minutes, so that it absorbs a lot of water.

Then drain.

Look.. The colour has changed and it is bigger.

Now comes the fun part. Squeezing the water. Squeeze carefully. The vadas are fragile. Follow this technique.

Arrange all squeezed vadas on your serving dish.

This is curd vada. 

Whisk the curd, pour dollops of it over the vada.

Keep covered and store in fridge until serving time. Your work is done.

Then decorate.

Excellent. Soft. Melt in the mouth. Cool, Refreshing.