Parippu Vadai from a Diverse Kitchen

Aparna’s blog, A Diverse Kitchen, has been a constant source of inspiration. For me, its the best example of a food blog which successfully combines traditional and western recipes. If you have to decide the ‘category’ of this blog by going through the recipe index, its a tough job. The main reason being the wide variety of recipes you will find here. The blog totally lives up to the name and is indeed very diverse. It is the chosen blog for this month’s T & T event  being hosted by Srivalli at Cooking 4 all seasons.

I made these Parippu Vadai from Aparna’s blog and couldnt have found a simpler traditional palakkad iyer recipe, which goes a long way. They can be an accompaniment to the main meal or treated as snacks. Whats more, since they do not have any onions or garlic in them, they can be included in the Naivedya Thali too. I followed the exact recipe but I am giving it here anyway for easy reference.

 

Parippu Vadai (Spicy Lentil fritters)

Ingredients

• 1 cup Chana Dal (split Bengal Gram)
• 2 tblsp Toor dal (
• a pinch of Hing (Asafoetida)
• 6-7 Curry Leaves
• 1-2 Dried red chillies (depending on how spicy you want it & how hot the chillies are)
• Salt
• Oil for deep frying

Method:

Soak both the dals together for about an hour.

Once ready, grind together all the ingredients except the oil into a thick coarse paste using as little water as possible. The ideal would be to use no water at all. Aparna suggests reserving some dal before grinding and then adding it later on to the paste.

Heat the oil in a kadai. Now shape the vada using your fingers – flatten the mixture using your thumb & fingers and gently slide them into the hot oil. Fry them at a medium low flame until they are crisp and start to brown.

Drain them on a kitchen towel and serve hot.

My Notes: The Vadas were crispy and really tasty. I was wondering how they will taste with only red chillies and no other spices. But that was enough and the Hing adds its own flavour.