Anjeneyar Vada or Crispy whole urad Vada or Thirupathi vada

Whole skinned urad dal vada is very famous in many temples like Thirupathi and many Hanuman temples in South India. When we were living in Nairobi I learnt this recipe from a cook who was making vada at Thirupathi temple. These vada’s are deep fried in ghee and is very crispy. We can store them for few weeks in an airtight container. Today instead of ghee I used oil for deep frying. Let’s see how to make this.

Preparation time approx  45 minutes.
Soaking time 8 to 9 hours

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole back urad dal (with skin)
• 1 1/2 cup rice flour
• 3 tbsp pepper corns
• 2 tbsp jeera
• 1/2 tsp hing
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp ghee
• Oil or ghee to fry.

Method:

Soak the black  whole urad dal over night or 8 to 9 hours.
Powder the jeera and pepper coarsely. Keep aside.

In a mixer jar, add urad dal without adding water. Just run the mixer for a few seconds. Urad dal should get crushed. Do not make it into a smooth paste. If you are finding it difficult to grind just sprinkle one or two  spoon of water before grinding.

Take out the urad dal batter and put in a big plate or a deep vessel.
Add rice flour little by little. Add pepper jeera powder, salt , 2 tbsp ghee and hing.
Mix everything.

Make dough.

Add rice flour till you feel dough is soft and not watery. Do not add full rice flour.

Take a big plastic paper or aluminum foil. Sprinkle little oil on it and spread it .
Make small balls from the dough and arrange the small balls on the plastic sheet- like shown in the below picture.

Take another small piece of plastic sheet apply oil on one side.
Put the oiled plastic sheet on the round balls .
Press with the back side of katori to make a circle.

You will get evenly round shaped vadas.
Make hole in the center.  .

Now, heat ghee or oil.
When it is hot add 6 or 7 vadas. (as much as oil and pan can hold)
When it is half cooked take it out from oil and keep aside.

Please note: this step is very important. If you are missing this step  vadas will be soggy.
Take out half cooked vadas and keep.

After half frying all vadas (as shown in the picture above) deep fry the half cooked vadas batches by batches. Now, it will become brown in color.

Take out the vadas and store in an airtight container.