Dahi Bhalla / Dahi Bada

Dahi Bada is a popular snack in India and it is also a side dish for party, wedding party and any festivals.

It is basically, fried dumplings of urad/moong flour deeped in yoghurt with tangy tamarind chutney.

The hot deep fried vadas are first put in water and then transferred to thick beaten yogurt. For best results, the vadas are soaked for at least a couple of hours before serving. To add more flavor, they may be topped with coriander or mint leaves, chili powder, crushed black pepper, chaat masala, cumin, shredded coconut, green chilis or boondi. Sweeter curd is preferred in some places in India, especially in Maharashtra and Gujarat, although the garnishing remains the same. A combination of coriander and tamarind chutneys are often used as garnishments in addition to those mentioned above.

Dahi Vada is also knows with different names in different places in India as dahi bhalla in Punjabi, thayir vadai in Tamil,  thairu vada in Malayalam, perugu vada in Telugu, mosaru vade in Kannada, dahi bara in Odia and doi bora in Bengali.

It has a history also. A recipe for dahi wada (as kshiravata) is mentioned in Manasollasa, a 12th century Sanskrit encyclopedia compiled by Someshvara III, who ruled from present-day Karnataka.

Now lets see the recipe:

Ingredients:

Urad dal/moong dal - 1 cup

Youghurt - 2 cups (use chilled youghurt)

Chat Masala - 2 tbs

Black Salt - 1 tbs

Roasted cumin powder - 1 tbs

Roasted red chilli powder - 1tbs

Tamarind chutney - 4 tbs (will post the recipe shortly)

Salt - as per taste

Oil for deep fry

Recipe:

1. Soak urad dal in water for 4-5 hours and then grind it in fine paste with thick consistency.

2. Heat sufficient amount of oil in wok/kadhai.

3. Take some water in a bowl and add salt and little chat masala and 2 tbs youghurt and mix well.

4. Now make round dumplings and deep fry them. 

5. Once they are golden brown, take out from oil and put it in water-curd mixture. Similarly, do for more dumplings/vada.

6. Let them soaked in water - curd mixture for 1-2 hours, it will become soft.

7. Now take a serving bowl and put one Vada in it (gently as it will break due to softness). Put some curd on top of it and sprinkle chat masala, black salt, roasted cumin-red chilli powder and 1-2 tbs of tamarind chutney and serve it chill.

Enjoy the chatpata and chilled dahi vada with your loved ones and i will be back with another recipe shortly.

Till then bye bye yummy mummies!!

[Description reference - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahi_vada]