Dahi vada

Fried lentil balls dropped into water first, and only then into thick yoghurt.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

• 250 g urad dal, split and skinned
• a 3 cm piece of ginger, grated
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, for the batter
• oil for deep frying
• 800 g thick yoghurt
• 1 teaspoon salt, for the yoghurt
• 2 teaspoons ground roasted cumin
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 3 tablespoons tamarind chutney
• a handful of coriander leaves

Method

1. THE HOT FRIED VADAS GO INTO WATER FIRST, AND ONLY THEN INTO THE YOGHURT. Its article's preparation is four sentences and that is the one that matters: THE HOT DEEP-FRIED VADAS ARE FIRST PUT IN WATER AND THEN TRANSFERRED TO THICK BEATEN YOGURT. THE VADAS ARE SOAKED FOR A PERIOD OF TIME BEFORE SERVING. The water bath is not rinsing. It is what turns a crisp fritter into the soft, saturated thing the dish is -- and it washes out the oil, which is why the yoghurt stays clean rather than slicked.
2. STRAIGHT INTO THE YOGHURT, THEY WOULD SIT THERE CRISP AND OILY. The vada has to be swollen with water before it will take up anything else. Twenty minutes in warm water, then squeezed gently between your palms.
3. THE DAL IS SOAKED OVERNIGHT, WHICH THE ARTICLE ALSO SPECIFIES. WASHED URAD LENTILS ARE SOAKED OVERNIGHT AND GROUND INTO A BATTER FOR THE VADA, THEN COOKED IN HOT OIL. Overnight, not two hours: underhydrated urad will not whip.
4. GRIND IT THICK, WITH AS LITTLE WATER AS IT WILL TAKE, AND THEN BEAT AIR INTO IT. Five minutes of beating by hand in one direction. The test is a drop of batter in a glass of water: it should float. A batter that sinks gives heavy vadas that never soften properly.
5. GINGER, CHILLI AND SALT IN AT THE END. Salt added before the beating slackens the batter.
6. FRY THEM AT A MEDIUM HEAT UNTIL PALE GOLD, NOT BROWN. Wet your fingers, drop rough balls in, five or six minutes. They are going to be soaked, so colour is no use to them; a dark crust stays chewy.
7. BEAT THE YOGHURT SMOOTH WITH SALT AND THIN IT A LITTLE. Its article's word is THICK BEATEN YOGURT. It should coat the vadas and not pour off them.
8. SIT THE SQUEEZED VADAS IN THE YOGHURT AND LEAVE THEM AT LEAST AN HOUR, COLD. Roasted cumin, chilli powder, tamarind chutney and coriander over the top at the table. Its article notes a recipe for it appears as kshiravata in the Manasollasa, a 12th-century Sanskrit encyclopedia, and that it is made at Holi.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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