Dahi bade/ Dahi bhalle/ Dahi vada - fried and steamed version

Mom's tip : The secret to soft and melt in the mouth bhallas or vadas lies in beating the vada batter till light and airy. The consistency of the batter is extremely important and will decide how soft the vadas will turn out. And you should use the beaten batter immediately to prepare the vadas.

Recently made this yummy dahi vadas and enjoyed it. DH just looooved it!  Do try it out, you can make the steamed version to reduce the calorie intake, It does not have the same texture but the taste and softness is the same!!

Ingredients

For preparing Vadas:
1 cup urad dal without skin, washed, soaked for 3 hours
2 tbsps Yellow moong dal, soaked along with uad daal
Salt to taste
oil for deep frying
To prepare dahi bhalla chaat:
Fresh curd - 2 cups, thick yogurt (it should not be sour)
Water - 1 1/2 to 2 cups
Powdered sugar - 1/2 heaped tbsps
Red chilli powder - 1 heaped tbsp
Roasted cumin powder - 1 heaped tbsp
Sweet tamarind and dates chutney - 3/4 cup
Sev for garnish
Fresh coriander leaves for garnish
Bhujia sev

Method

Preparing the batter:
Rinse and soak urad dal and moong daal overnight or for 5-6 hours, rinse well and grind it in mixer or grinder into smooth fluffy mixture. Use 2-3 tbsp of water only if required, which you will required if you are using mixer to grind.
Grind the dal until the batter becomes light and fluffy. Sprinkle water if the mixer making lot of noise.
Take out the batter in a wide bowl and start beating it with hand for 2-3 minutes, it will make the batter more light and fluffy, after beating continuously you can see the colour of batter will be white instead of pale white or yellow.
To test if the batter is ready to make vada in a bowl of water drop a small bowl of vada if it’s floats on top of water then it’s ready to use. If the batter ball sinks a bit inside water then you have to beat it with hand for a minute more. Repeat the test until the batter ball floats on top of water. If you skip this step the bhalla or bada will not be soft.
Add asafoetida and salt and mix well.

Fried Version:
Heat oil in a wok for deep frying. Take a dollop of dal batter (i used a serving spoon for this) and carefully drop it in hot oil, drop 5-6 vada at a time in wok so it doesn't stick with each other.
Make sure you use enough oil for the full vada to be in oil, if upper part of the vada/bhalla doesn't cook in oil then when you turn them it will stick together. Don’t worry about the shape very much, it doesn't has to perfect round, once we soak the vada in curd it will get shaped.
Fry until golden brown in medium flame, turn over and fry until another side gets golden brown too.

Steamed Version:
Keep the steamer ready ( I used Idli maker), add Baking Soda(i missd adding the baking soda :( ) to the mixture and steam it for 10 minutes.

Soak the vadas:
Meanwhile in a wide pan heat 4-5 cups water. Add fried and steamed vadas in this water and let them soak for min of 10 -20 mins. You can soak for 1 to 2 hours too (soaking makes vada soft and absorb curd), take them out of water and squeeze water out carefully to retain the shape, try not to break vada.

For Assembly
In a wide bowl whisk together curd, salt with a pinh of sugar. Arrange th esqueezed vadas ina erving dish, pour the curd mix ovr this. Sprinkle red chilli powder, cumin powder, drizzle sweet tamarind and dates chutney and green chutney (i did not use green chutney, you can add as per you taste) in small dots all over vada. Garnish with coriander leaves and bhujia sev.

Keep refrigerated and serve chilled :)

Linking it to Harini's Event , Only summer foods and drinks event by shailaja and pari's giveaway.

http://www.fullscoops.net/2014/06/event-announcement-favorite-recipes.html?m=1

http://www.simplysensationalfood.com/2014/06/announcing-event-lets-cook-for-fathers.html