Masala vada

Ingredients: Chana dal(Bengal gram dal): 2 cups Onion: 1 no big Ginger: 1 inch piece (Finely chopped) Garlic: 5/6 flakes (Finely chopped) Curry leaves: few Coriander leaves : few Salt: as required Red chillies: 3 nos. Oil: for deep frying. Method of preparation 1.Rinse the chana dal for 1 or 2 times thoroughly and soak chana dal for 4-5 hrs in fresh water.After soaking save few chana dal .This can be added later before making vadas. 2. Clean and finely chop the onion.Take a mixer grinder place the ginger, garlic , red chillies and take the chana dal without any water. But don’t discard the water because this water can be used for wetting hands while making vadas later. 3.Grind the ingredients to a coarse paste. To this add already saved chana dal. This imparts additional taste to the vadas. 4. Add chopped onion,curry leaves and finely chopped coriander leaves and required amount of salt. 5.Heat a kadai and pour generous amount of oil for deep frying.Check the temperature of oil for frying just dropping tiny ball with vada batter.If attains required temperature the ball will come up or floats. 6.Wet both the hands with dal water and take small sized ball with batter to make round vada.Slowly and carefully drop vadas into the oil. 7.Fry them for 2 minutes and turn both sides with perforated spoon till they get golden brown colour. 8. Once they are fried transfer them onto a plate with kitchen paper towel to absorb any excess oil. 9. Now place them in a plate and can be served hot with tomato ketch up or can be consumed directly also tastes good. Tips: The addition of few soaked chana dal without grinding imparts taste and crunchiness while eating vadas. Don’t add any water while grinding vada batter.Any addition of water changes the consistency and also drinks more oil during deep frying. If you want more crunchy vadas add 1 tbsp rice flour to the grounded batter and make vadas.Here I didn’t use rice flour.