Dahi Vada
Urad dal fritters soaked soft in warm water, squeezed dry and drowned in sweetened curd with two chutneys and a lot of cumin.
- Prep
- 30m
- Cook
- 25m
- Waiting
- 4h 30m
- Total
- 5h 25m
- Serves
- 5
- Effort
- Involved
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 1 1/2 cups | Soak the urad dal 4 hours, then grind thick with barely any water 4h 10m As little water as the grinder will tolerate. A wet batter fries flat and greasy. | Beat the batter hard until a spoonful floats in a glass of water 10m This is the test, and there is no substitute for it. Beating whips in the air that makes them light. | Fry at 170°C until pale gold and hollow-sounding 12m Wet your palm, flatten a spoonful of batter on it and slide it in. It should rise to the surface at once. | Soak the fried vadas in warm salted water for 20 minutes 25m Warm, not hot. This is what turns a crisp fritter into something that collapses on the tongue. | Squeeze the vadas gently, lay them in a dish and spoon the curd over, then the chutneys and spices 6m Assemble no more than an hour ahead. Longer and the vadas go slack. | |
| to cover | ||||||
| 3cm piece | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||
| 1 tsp | ||||||
| 1 1/2 tsp | ||||||
| for deep frying | ||||||
| 2 litres | ||||||
| 1 tsp | ||||||
| 3 cups | Whisk the curd smooth with sugar and salt 3m It should pour like thin cream. Thick curd sits on top instead of soaking in. | |||||
| 2 tbsp | ||||||
| 1/2 tsp | ||||||
| 2 tbsp | ||||||
| 6 tbsp | ||||||
| 3 tbsp | ||||||
| 2 tsp | ||||||
| 1 tsp | ||||||
| 1/2 tsp | ||||||
| a handful | ||||||
-
Soak the urad dal 4 hours, then grind thick with barely any water
4h 10m- urad dal 1 1/2 cups
- water to cover
As little water as the grinder will tolerate. A wet batter fries flat and greasy.
-
Beat the batter hard until a spoonful floats in a glass of water
10m- from 1 Soak the urad dal 4 hours, then grind thick with barely any water
- ginger 3cm piece
- green chilli 1
- cumin seeds 1 tsp
- salt 1 1/2 tsp
This is the test, and there is no substitute for it. Beating whips in the air that makes them light.
-
Fry at 170°C until pale gold and hollow-sounding
12m- from 2 Beat the batter hard until a spoonful floats in a glass of water
- neutral oil for deep frying
Wet your palm, flatten a spoonful of batter on it and slide it in. It should rise to the surface at once.
-
Soak the fried vadas in warm salted water for 20 minutes
25m- from 3 Fry at 170°C until pale gold and hollow-sounding
- warm water 2 litres
- salt 1 tsp
Warm, not hot. This is what turns a crisp fritter into something that collapses on the tongue.
-
Whisk the curd smooth with sugar and salt
3m- thick yoghurt 3 cups
- caster sugar 2 tbsp
- salt 1/2 tsp
- milk (optional) 2 tbsp
It should pour like thin cream. Thick curd sits on top instead of soaking in.
-
Squeeze the vadas gently, lay them in a dish and spoon the curd over, then the chutneys and spices
6m- from 4 Soak the fried vadas in warm salted water for 20 minutes
- from 5 Whisk the curd smooth with sugar and salt
- tamarind and date chutney 6 tbsp
- green chutney 3 tbsp
- roasted cumin 2 tsp
- chaat masala 1 tsp
- Kashmiri chilli powder 1/2 tsp
- coriander leaves a handful
Assemble no more than an hour ahead. Longer and the vadas go slack.
The float test, and why it matters
Urad dal batter can hold a surprising amount of air. Its proteins and gums form stable films around bubbles much as egg white does, and beating for ten minutes builds a foam you can see thicken and pale. A spoonful that floats has enough air trapped in it to fry into an open, spongy crumb; one that sinks will give you a dense fritter that never softens properly in the soak. The warm-water bath afterwards works by hydrating that open structure — cold water does it far more slowly and never as evenly.
Notes
- Grind thick and beat long. Those two things decide the dish.
- Squeeze the soaked vadas between flat palms, not in a fist, or they tear.
- They can be fried and frozen. Soak them straight from frozen in hot water and they behave the same.