Tamil & the South · Starter
Medhu Vadai
- Advanced
- 40 min
- roughly 1 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with aromatics blooming from the first bite, real fire that builds and stays, with a clean, bright snap.
Ingredients
- 250 g whole skinless urad dal (ulundhu)
- 60 ml ice water, and not a drop more
- 20 g ginger, chopped fine
- 2 green chillies, chopped fine
- 10 black peppercorns, crushed
- 1 sprig curry leaves, torn
- 8 g salt
- 1 litre groundnut or gingelly oil, for frying
The skills inside
Deep fryingSalted water & the float testSoaking dried goods back to lifeShaping by handThe wobble & the skewer: testing a bake
Allergen screen
Found: peanuts
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Soak the urad dal 3 hours until a grain crushes clean, then drain it bone dry in a colander for 10 minutes. 180 min
- Grind it, feeding the ice water in 15 ml at a time, until the batter is white, fluffy and stiff enough to stand in a peak, and a pea of it dropped into water rises to the surface within seconds.
- Bring the oil to 170 to 175C (340 to 350F) first, and only then fold the ginger, chilli, pepper, curry leaves and salt through the batter by hand.
- Wet your palm, flatten a lime sized ball on it, punch a hole through the middle with a wet thumb, and slide the ring off your fingers into the oil.
- Fry, turning once, for 5 to 6 minutes until the hissing dies down and they are an even deep gold; a finished vadai feels light and sounds hollow when tapped with the slotted spoon. 6 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Soaking dried goods back to life 69 recipes
- Fully submerged with room to swell: the level is well above everything at the start and still above it at the end.
- Given the full time, and judged by what is in the bowl rather than by the hours on the clock.
- Tested at the CENTRE of the largest piece, cut or pressed. Anything with a hard dry core will still have one after cooking, because the outside softens first and stops the water getting further in.
- The soaking water was dealt with on purpose: kept because it holds flavour, or thrown away because it holds what should not be eaten, but never simply left undecided.
- Drained before it is used, so the dish does not silently gain all the water that came with it.
Where it goes wrong Too little water, or too little time. The pieces swell until they are packed tight against each other and the ones in the middle never fully take up water; they will not soften later in the dish either, so the finished plate has hard pieces scattered through it.
Shaping by hand 85 recipes
- The pieces match: weighed, or judged against each other rather than by dividing the mass by eye, so that no piece is half again the size of its neighbour.
- Surfaces are smooth and unbroken with no cracks, tears, or dry patches, and the seams are sealed and sitting underneath.
- The shape is defined and it holds while the tray waits: it has not slumped, spread, or relaxed back out of its form.
- Nothing is trapped that should not be: no air pocket where filling should be, no filling breaking through the surface, and no excess flour greying the outside.
- They finish together in the heat: no piece done while another is still raw, which is the only test that the first mark was met.
Where it goes wrong The dough was worked past its point or shaped without a rest, so it fought back: the pieces spring out of shape on the tray and bake tight, uneven, and torn along the surface.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
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