Rinse 1 cup urad dal well to remove the starchy coating. Rinse it atleast 2 times then drain water.
Soak in water for 2 hours.
Keep it undisturbed for 2 hours.
Can you see how well it is soaked.
After 2 hours rinse it again and drain water completely.
To a mixer jar - add the drained urad dal.
Chill 1 cup water and keep it ready. We may not end up using it fully. Adding chill water for grinding avoids mixer jar from getting heated up. Alternatively you can use icecubes too. You can use regular water itself if you are grinding the batter in grinder.
Add 3-4 tablespoon first to it. Start grinding add little by little later while grinding.
Add chill water little by little to grind it to a thick smooth fluffy batter. Make sure to add very little water to grind else you will end up in a runny batter.
Now transfer the batter to a big wide mixing bowl so that it is easy to mix.
Fluff it well for 2 mins. You can use your hand or use a spatula or even whisk. Beat it well for 1-2 mins not more than that.
Now add a pinch of batter to a bowl containing water. It should float like butter then the batter is perfect.
Now to the batter add 1/2 cup finely chopped onion, 2 small green chillies finely chopped, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1 tablespoon curry leaves, salt to taste and a pinch of hing.
Mix it well until evenly distributed.
First dip your fingers and palm in water this is to avoid batter from sticking while shaping the vada.
Shaping the vada : First grease a strainer or perforated laddle with oil. Take a portion of batter add it at the back of the strainer slightly flatten it and make a dent in the middle as shown. Flip and Tap it hot oil or you can even dip in preheated oil.
I always prefer this method it may look difficult initially with practise you will surely excel it. First take a portion of the batter.
Slightly flatten it and make a dent in the middle as shown.Tip : Shape the vadai at the tip of your fingers so that it easily flips inside the oil.
Heat oil - first add a pinch of batter the batter should come up immediately but oil should not be smoking hot.
Now oil is ready - shape and add the vadas. Add in batches, I usually add 3-5 vadas in a batch depends on the size of the kadai too.
Let it cook for few seconds do not disturb.
It starts coming up one by one.
Once it comes up and looks golden at the sides, turn over using a laddle or the murukku kambi as we call it.
Fry until golden brown on both the sides.
Once golden brown and crisp its ready to remove.
Remove the crispy vadas.
Repeat to finish the batter.
See how crispy it looks. You can hear the sound in the video.
Enjoy crispy medu vadas!!