Masala vada

Methi garelu or nethi garelu are very famous breakfast in south India... Dahi vada/perugu vada are most famous evening snacks for north Indians. As a whole methi vada is very favorite food for Indians. I love all kinds of vada made out of this dough!!! This masala vada goes good with dahi/curd/yogurt. You can also have them  with out chutney/yogurt.

Ingredinets
Ingredients:
Split Urad dal-2cups(when measured iwth 160ml cup)
Coconut- shreaded-2ts (optional)
salt to taste
Pepper powder-1/2ts
Mint leaves/pudina-1/4cup
cilantro/coriander leaves-20springs chopped
green chili-2 finely chopped
onion-1/4cup finely chopped
oil for deep fry
baking soda(pinch-optional)

Method

• Soak  Urad dhal for at least 6 hrs.
• Drain the water and grind it in a blender to a smooth batter
• Use very little water in the course of blending.
• More water will ruin the vadai shape & texture
• At the end, add all the above mentioned ingredients and mix well with slow speed to aerate your batter.
• TIP: To find if the batter is well aerated, just drop little batter in a bowl of water. If it sinks, batter needs to be aerated. If it floats, it is well aerated.
• Aeration will yield fluffy soft vadas.
• Heat a pan of oil - keep it in medium flame
• To check if the oil is hot enough, drop a small pea sized batter in the hot oil - if it sizzles and rises to the top immediately, oil is good to go
• Wet your hands in cold water, gently scoop the batter with your bare fingers, and roll up into a ball and gently make a hole using your thumb, drop it into the oil  .
• Always remember to fry them under medium flame, high flame will burn vadas out side leaving raw inner part.
• In couple of minutes, flip the vada upside down and let it fry until both sides turn golden brown
• Drop the vadas minimum 3 in a batch and using a perforated laddle scoop them all onto a paper towel to absorb the excess oil
• Serve hot with chutney
• To keep the vadas crisp for few hours, you may either preheat the oven to 250 degrees - turn it off and keep the vadas in or just keep cover the hot oil pan (after frying) with plate and place the vadas over the plate and cover up with another plate.