Sowbaghya Wet Grinders

1. Oomapodi
besan 1 cup
salt to taste
oomam (ajwain) - 1 1/2 tsp
turmeric - 1 pinch
oil for frying
Mix all the ingredients to make a soft dough. Transfer it to the achchhu and fry in batches

2. Boondi:
Besan - 1 cup
salt to taste
chilli pwd - 2 tsp
turmeric - a pinch
hing - a pinch
Soda-bi-carb - a pinch
Make a batter using water with the above ingredients. You can use a boondi karandi (a big flat ladel with holes) or a plate/colander if you dont have one. th eholes should be about 2-3 mm in diameter. Hold it over the hot oil and pour a spoonful of batter on it. Now spread the batter on the karandi as if making a dosa and the drops that fall down should fry up into nice round boondis. For checking the consistancy, test fry with little batter first. If the boondis turn out pear shaped, then more water needs to be added and if they are too big and stuck together, you may need to add more besan. Trial and error is the way to go

3. Maida biscuit:
I am not sure if it has any other name, but that’s what we call this at our place. This is the best part of mixture in my opinion
Maida - 1 cup
rice pwd - 2 tbsp
salt - to taste
Oil for frying
Make a soft dough with the roti dough consistency and roll it out to the thickness of a thin roti. You do not have to be precise about the shape here. Use a knife or a pizza cutter and cut out diamond shapes. Deep fry the biscuits and make sure they are crisp before removing them from the oil
Deep fry (4) 2 cups of Poha, (5)1/2 cup of curry leaves and (6) 1 cup peanuts. Crumble the oomapodi and add together items 1 through 6. Heat up 1 tbsp oil. Mix salt, chilli pwd and hing on a plate and pour the hot oil over it. Now, add this to the mixture and season it uniformly.
Thattai: I was not around whan MIL made these, but got the recipe from her.

Rice pwd – 1 cup
Udad pwd – 1 tbsp
Chilli pwd – 2 tsp
Til – 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter – ¼ cup
Mix the Rice and Udad pwd. Add softened butter and mix it well with you hands till you get a crumbly mix. Add the chilli pwd, til and salt and make a soft dough with water. Heat up the oil for frying and make small flat discs with the dough. The best way to do it is to use a thick plastic sheet or cloth. Deep fry in batches of 5-6 and store in an airtight container.

LINK

Vadai is a popular South Indian snack. The secret behind making this Vadai lies in grinding the Paruppu / Dhal to a very fluffy consistency in a wet grinder. The mixer will not do justice to this recipe.
My amma taught me to grind the batter by sprinkling water few times during the process of grinding and few other tips…although I sincerely followed her lessons, I could not make good vadai`s until I got this recipe from our friend`s Uncle at Dimbum, Tamilnadu. His secret was adding the rice powder for crispiness . He made them for breakfast when we visited our friend’s vacation home in Dimbum. The batter was ground using the Attukkallu, therefore, it was crisper on the outside soft and fluffy inside.
I finally found a secret to make excellent Vadais after wondering for long time about how only Udipi hotels made them to so much perfection. I have sincerely tried to pass the recipe to you with the only variation being the wet grinder since we have come too far to go back to the Attukkallu.

LINK