garelu recipe (medu vada recipe)

Ingredients (american measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml)

• 2 cups urad dal/skinned split black gram
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp black peppercorns, whole or crushed (optional)
• 1 or 2 sprig curry leaves, chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped (optional)
• 1 or 2 green chili, chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped ginger
• ½ cup chopped coconut pieces (optional)
• few sprigs of coriander leaves, chopped (optional)
• salt to taste
• oil for deep frying
• some water if needed to make the batter

Instructions

1. soak the urad dal for 4 hours or overnight.
2. grind the soaked dal to a smooth batter with little water if required.
3. if the batter becomes watery, then the instant relief would be to add some semolina or urad dal flour to it. otherwise also you could add some semolina to the batter.
4. add the spices, herbs, onions and salt.
5. heat oil.
6. make the vadas as described above.
7. gently slid the vadas in to the oil.
8. the oil should be not very hot, but mediumly hot.
9. you want the vadas to be cooked from inside.
10. very hot oil will quickly brown the vadas from outside but they will remain uncooked from inside... so slow and steady wins the race here :-)
11. fry all the medu vadas this way till they become evenly browned and crisp.
12. drain medu vadas on kitchen tissue to remove excess oil.
13. serve the medu vadas, hot or warm with sambar and coconut chutney.