Vadakari/Vada Kari/Vadai Curry

Here is the tasty, crispy, aromatic vadakari. It is a popular side dish of Tamil Nadu. Bengal gram is soaked and prepared like masala vadai. It is then crushed and mixed in a spicy curry. The spices used slightly differ from home to home.

It suits well with Idli, Dosa, Poori or with any snacks. We love to have this with Idiyappam. As the preparation time is little more (comparing to chutneys), this dish can be prepared on a holiday or when you have enough time.

This dish is known with slight variations as Vadakari/Vada Kari/Vadai Curry.

Ingredients

• Bengal gram – 1 cup
• Onion – 2 no
• Tomato – 3 no
• Green chilli – 3 no
• Red chilli – 3 no
• Fennel seeds – ½ tea spoon
• Ginger small piece – 1 no
• Garlic – 5 cloves
• Red chilli powder – ½ tea spoon
• Turmeric powder – ¼ tea spoon
• Garam masala powder –½ tea spoon
• Coconut milk – ½ cup (optional)
• Mint and coriander leaves – few strings
• Salt – as per taste
• Oil – for deep frying and seasoning
• For seasoning
  • Cinnamon sticks – 2 no
  • Cloves – 5 no
  • Fennel seeds – ½ tea spoon
  • Mustard – ½ tea spoon
  • Curry leaves – few

Method

• Preparation of Vada: Soak Bengal gram for 2 hours; grind it with salt, fennel seed, red chilli and turmeric powder to a coarse paste.

• Deep fry as small vadas.

• Crush them into few pieces; now crispy masala vadai is ready for mixing in spicy curry.

• Preparation of spicy curry: Chop onion, green chilli, ginger and garlic finely; chop tomato, mint and coriander leaves; extract half cup of coconut milk and keep (here is How to Extract Coconut Milk (Thengai Paal) ?)

• Heat a pan with oil and do the seasoning; add chopped onion, garlic, green chilli and fry well till onion is transparent.

• Add chopped tomato and fry till soft; add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, salt and fry for few seconds.

• Add mint leaves, coriander leaves and fry till oil separates from it.

• Add two cups of water and let it boil for few minutes.

• Vada Kari: Now add crushed vadas and boil for few seconds only.

• Lastly add coconut milk, mix gently, keep for few seconds and remove.

• Now tasty Vadakari/Vada Kari/Vadai Curry is ready. Serve hot.

• Here it is served with Idiyappam.

Tips

• Vadas will absorb some water from vadakari. Quantity of water to be added, can be varied accordingly.
• Adding coconut milk is optional. It makes the dish creamy and rich in taste.