Savoury Vadai

Divali /Deepavali - The Festival of Light , falls on 5th of November which is just around the corner, barely 10 days from now.  It will be a public holiday for Malaysia - a country with many different cultures and many of my Indian colleagues are getting ready to celebrate this festival and we always look forward to the Diwali delicacies during this celebration. A festival with the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify good over evil .

I would like to wish all my  readers , friends and colleagues celebrating Divali or known as Deepavali over here in Malaysia  " Happy Deepavali " .  I know I am a bit early in wishing all of you this but I am in the mood to start the celebration early with you :)

To celebrate together with my Indian friends I made some Vadai  for our snack . Vadai ( pronounced as Va - dey )  is a traditional South Indian food usually served as a morning food . It is made from dal lentils , soak and grind into a wet paste and subsequently mixed with sea salt,  chopped onions, red chillies , curry leaves and fennel seeds. You can either shaped it like a dough nut or just make a ball and deep fried in hot oil. The end result should not be oily if it is prepared correctly , for the steam build up within the vadai pushes all the oil away from within the vadai.

Vadai are preferably eaten freshly fried while it is still hot and crunchy and eaten together with coconut chutney and sambar .  I love South Indian food and Daddy and I would indulge in South Indian food very often for our Saturday lunch. Anyway back to this Vadai,  my colleague bought the ready to mix dal lentil paste from an Indian shop in Buntong  for me and all I have to do is to add onions, fennel seeds, chilli and curry leaves and salt . Deep fried them and tada.... a plate of  aromatic vadai served for our snacks. Crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside with every bite so flavorful that we can't stop snacking .

the ready to mix dal lentils paste has made

it easy for me ...all I have to do is add the five

ingredients..curry leaves, chilli, onions 

and fennel seeds and salt. This dough is a bit

too soft for me to shape into dough nut so

I use two spoons to shape them into round balls

and slowly drop them into the hot oil

if prepared correctly it should not be oily

and mine was well prepared :p

not oily, it turned out crispy on the outside

and soft fluffy and flavorful on the inside...yummyumm

every bite is full of flavor from the fennel seeds and curry leaves

I am already feeling the Diwali festival while snacking on these vadai :)

especially homemade ones!

You can make your own dal lentil paste

Soak dal lentil for an hour or more

then grind into fine paste with a food processor.

Enjoy !

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