Medu Vada

South Indian black gram doughnuts, crisp outside and airy within, studded with pepper and curry leaf

Origin: Tamil Nadu & South India

From the journey of Curry Leaf.

The medu vada is a doughnut made of ground lentils, and the whole difficulty of it is in the batter. Split black gram, urad dal, is soaked and then ground with almost no water into a thick, sticky, brilliant-white paste. Ground properly and beaten well, that paste traps air, and the air is what makes the vada light. Medu means soft in Kannada, and it names the interior: a well-made vada is crisp and dark at the surface and almost fluffy inside. A badly made one is dense and greasy, and the fault is always the batter, never the frying. The test is simple and Indian cooks use it universally. A small ball of batter dropped into a bowl of water should float. If it sinks, it has not been beaten enough or has too much water in it, and no amount of care at the fryer will save it. Into the beaten batter go coarsely cracked black pepper, cumin, chopped ginger, green chilli, and a generous handful of chopped curry leaves. The leaf here is not tempered but folded in raw, and it fries inside the vada, which gives a different and more diffuse flavour than a tempering would. Shaping is the other skill. The batter is patted flat on a wet palm and a hole pushed through with a wet thumb, and the ring slid off into the oil. The hole is not decorative: it increases the surface area and lets the centre cook before the outside darkens. It is breakfast, it is a snack, and dropped into sambar it becomes sambar vada.

Ingredients

Batter

  • 250 g split black gram (urad dal), skinless
  • 60 ml cold water, approximately, for grinding
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 1.5 tsp black peppercorns, coarsely cracked
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 piece fresh ginger, 3 cm, very finely chopped
  • 2 whole green chillies, very finely chopped
  • 3 sprigs fresh curry leaves, finely chopped
  • 0.25 tsp asafoetida
  • 1 whole small onion, very finely chopped, optional

Frying

  • 800 ml neutral oil, for deep frying

Method

  1. Rinse the urad dal in several changes of water and soak in plenty of cold water for four hours.
  2. Drain thoroughly and grind to a very thick, smooth, white paste, adding the cold water a tablespoon at a time and only when the grinder stalls.
  3. Scrape the batter into a bowl and beat it hard with your hand or a whisk for four or five minutes until it lightens visibly in colour.
  4. Test it: drop a small ball into a bowl of water. It should float within a second or two.
  5. Fold in the salt, cracked pepper, cumin, ginger, chilli, chopped curry leaves, asafoetida, and onion if using.
  6. Heat the oil to about 170°C. Wet your palm, take a lump of batter, pat it into a 7 cm disc, and push a hole through the middle with a wet thumb.
  7. Slide the ring off your palm into the oil, fitting three or four in the pan without crowding.
  8. Fry for four to five minutes, turning once, until deep golden and crisp all over.
  9. Drain on a rack and serve hot with coconut chutney and sambar.

Notes

Skinless split black gram (urad dal) is the only pulse that works. Its particular proteins are what trap the air, and no other lentil substitutes. A wet grinder gives the best batter; a powerful blender works if you grind in batches and scrape down constantly. Keep everything cold. The float test is not optional folklore. Trust it, and beat longer if it fails. The batter can be made a few hours ahead and refrigerated but do not let it ferment; unlike idli batter, vada batter should be fresh and unsoured. Serve with coconut chutney and sambar, or drop the fried vadas into hot sambar for ten minutes to make sambar vada.

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