Vadacurry

Vadacurry is a special south indian dish , a great combo with idly and dosa. I prepare it on special occasions or when we have guests at home, or if we just want to eat something special 😀

Vadacurry is ideally made with masala vadai crumbled in an onion tomato base. Its main ingredient is chana dal or kadala parupu, ground to a semi fine texture and either steam cooked or roasted on a dosa tava and then added to the gravy. I learnt this recipe from my ” Sandhya maami” who is really a great cook , I wish to learn more recipes from her.

My hubby likes this vada curry and often requests to prepare it. But it is a time consuming recipe and I am lazy to do it , This time I wanted to post it here so made it with ful enthu. 🙂

Here goes the recipe of Vadacurry

Recipe Cuisine: South Indian | Recipe Category: Side dish
Prep Time: 1 hour 10 mins | Cook time: 30 mins | Total time: 1 hour 40 mins | Serves: 4 to 5

Ingredients:

• Chana dal – 1 cup
• Finely chopped onion – 2 cups
• Tomato – 1 small
• Garlic – 7 pods
• turmeric powder – 2 tsp
• red chilly powder – 2 tsp
• oil – quarter cup
• salt – to taste
• coriander leaves – to garnish

To grind :

• Ginger – 1 inch
• Garlic – 7 pods
• Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
• cinnamon – 2 inches
• cloves – 5 to 7

Method:

1.Soak chana dal for 1 hour.

2. Grind chana dal with little salt and garlic to a semi fine paste.

3. Place them on idly plates and steam cook for 10 minutes.

4. After they cool down, you can crumble it and set aside.

5. Grind the ingredients listed under ‘to grind’  to a fine paste.

6.In a pan, heat oil and add the ground paste.

7. Saute till the raw smell goes off, then add onions with some salt and fry them in low to medium flame till they become soft and reduce in quantity .

8. Add the chopped tomato and saute it along with the onions till they come together and form a mass.

9. Add turmeric powder and red chilly powder. Mix it well.

10. Then add the crumbled chana dal and mix it well.

10. Boil 2 and half cups of water in a separate pan and add it to the chana dal and onion mixture.

11. Let it boil for some time, check and add salt if needed.

12. Once the desired consistency is reached, you can switch off.

13. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve with idly or dosa.

Vadacurry is ready to be enjoyed with soft and fluffy idlies!!!

Notes:

• Instead of steaming the chana dal and garlic paste, you can also cook it on a dosa tava . Apply few teaspoons of oil  on a pan and flatten the chana dal paste over it. Cook it for 5 minutes on each side. After cooling it can be crumbled.
• An easy way to crumble it is, break it into pieces and pulse it in a mixer jar. It will crumble into very small pieces and evenly too.
• Adding boiling water in step 10 is a very important step. If we add cold water, it will change the taste of the vadacurry completely.
• You may also add green chillies along with onion.
• This is quite spicy. You may reduce red chilly powder quantity as per your taste buds.
• Excuse me for the difference in colour, the final picture I clicked in natural light and the others were clicked under the kitchen light, so the difference in colour. 😀