Dahi bhalle or dahi wade or thaiyir vadai
Holi is one time for celebrating the different hues of life, then why not food. Well i remember from my childhood days when after a tiring day of holi the evenings were a treat as a holi special dinner. We used to visit my dad's best frens place and a few of my frens place which had a similar menu - puri, or pua, chole, sevaiyaan, dahi wade etc but all were lip smacking in their own way. So i thought of trying out my hand in dahi wade or dahi bhalle(as in punjab) or our very own thayir vadai from down south.
The best snacky item or a side dish i can think of in summers or for some lunch or dinner. Well thats because it was my mom's mandatory item in her menulist in all the specially hosted dinners by her. So here we go... my version of dahi bhalle..
Dahi bhalle is made of urad daal and dipped into fresh thick curd mixed with some spices, and a good garnishing. So lets kickstart.
By Swati Raman Garg
Serves: Makes 10 bhalles approximately
Preparation Time: 45 mins
Ingredients:
1. Urad Daal - 1 cup
2. 1/2 inch ginder grated
3. 2 green chilies finely chopped
4. Salt to taste
5. Oil for deep frying
6. Fresh Curd - 2 cups
7. Kala Namak (black salt)(to taste)
8. 1 tsp Jeera powder - roasted
9. Some water to soak the bhalle
10. Some milk to dilute the curd.
11. 1 tsp chaat masala(optional)
12. Coriander leaves finely chopped to garnish
Method:
1. Soak Urad daal overnight or atleast for 3-4 hrs in the water
2. Once the daal is totally fluffy drain out the water and leave just a little water.
3. Grind Urad by adding very little water, just a few sprinkles else it becomes watery.
4. When its almost done as paste at the last grind add the salt, chillies and ginger to the batter and grind for one last time. The batter should be thicker than the regular idli batter and finer too.
5. Take the curd into a bowl wherein you want to serve it, and add some milk to make it easy to remove the lumps, beat it well and make sure its still thick, we only need to make sure that its consistent now.
6. Add the kala namak, roasted jeera, and some chaat masala and make it as chatpata as your tastebuds like it to be.
7. The dahi is ready, just keep it in the freezer for 15 mins so that its chilled, believe me its the best when its chilled.
8. Heat the kadhai and add the oil in the kadai and let it heat
9. Moisten your hands as the batter is very sticky, moistening your hands can make the next step much easier.
10. Now with moist hands make dumplings of the batter and drop the bhalle for deep frying into the kadai. Make sure the bhalle are not very big as it increases in size when you fry them.
11. Fry till they are light golden brown, Drain the oil, maybe use a tissue and keep aside for 5 10 mins.
12. Soak in hot water for 2-3 minutes till they become soft. Squeez out water lightly.
13. Remove the curd from the freezer and dip the bhalle into it.
14. Garnish by adding roasted Cumin powder, Red chilly powder & cilantro.
15. Refrigerate for a while & serve chilled.
The tamil version of this i guess is to add a paste into the curd, grind some coconut, green chilly, and some ginger , now add this paste to the curd, its also yumm.
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