Milagu Vadai | Anjaneyar Kovil Vadai | Festival recipes

Last week we saw some kids Party Ideas / Finger foods. This week is Festival specials for Blogging Marathon. When I last checked, my blog lacks heavily in that department, and although we celebrate all festivals, clicking dishes / eats made for that festival becomes difficult as we have pooja (worship) too on the festival days. 

On Pongal for instance, we have Oats Chakkarai Pongal, or for Navratri, we have Sundal (steamed legume salads). 

Intending to remedy this, I chose Festival specials theme and the first of this is Milagu Vadai. Very coincidentally, yesterday was Hanuman Jayanthi (or the birthday celebrations of Lord Hanuman, who has been venerated throughout the latter part of the Ramayan – an Indian epic as a super powerful Monkey God). 

The Hindu Panethon has many such Gods in their repertoire, and this Milagu Vadai (deep fried fritter made with lots of black pepper and split black gram) is a special offering to Lord Hanuman. We all loved it, and thanks to this recipe, we now can enjoy making it at home too !

Its really too addictive, and after the Naivedyam (offering) to the Lord, it was us humans who munched upon these. Occassional deep frying in the name of God does seem ok, doesn’t it ? J

Recipe source : Here

Prep time : 1 hour, Frying time : 15 mins ; Makes : 15

Type  : Naivedyam / Prasadam (offering to God)

Milagu Vadai / Anjaneyar Kovil Vadai

(South Indian deep fried fritter with black split gram and black pepper)

Ingredients:

·       Black Urad dal (split black gram – I used it without the husk) – ½ cup

·       Rice flour – 1 TBSP

·       Moong Dal (split yellow gram) – ½ tsp (optional)

·       Salt – to taste (about ¾ tsp)

·       Milagu / Black pepper corns – 1 TBSP

·       Jeera / Cumin – ½ tsp

·       Oil – to deep fry – 2/3 cup

How to make:

1. Soak Urad dal in warm water for 30-40 mins.
2. Soak the Moong dal separately in another small bowl for 15/20 mins . Drain.
3. Grind the drained Urad to a slightly coarse consistency (unlike you would grind smooth for Idli batter). Add the soaked and drained Moong dal and mix well.
4. Powder the pepper and cumin coarsely.
5. Add this to the ground Urad dal. Add in the rice flour and salt. Now add a TBSP of hot oil and mix well. The batter should be fairly thick and not loose.
6. Meanwhile heat the oil on medium in a deep kadai / frying pan.
7. Pinch out a portion and with the help of a greased hands,flatten out to a thin vada on a thin plastic sheet.
8. Make a hole in the centre for even frying.
9. Once the oil is hot, fry a batch of these vadais without over crowding the pan on medium heat.
10. Flip them gently once one side is done. When the hissing sound of the oil stops and the vadais turn golden brown, gently take them out and drain on paper towels.
11. Finish the rest of the batter.
12. Offer to God as Naivedyam / Prasad and store in an airtight container.
13. Stores well for 1 day on countertop.
14. If there are any leftovers, goes amazingly well with rice and rasam / sambhar the next day J