Since Tuesday was Deepavali and we wanted so much to be in it – and because we are too shy to self‐invite ourselves to open houses,
We kind of went a little sad, too sad that we had a pretend Deepavali at our house, main masak-masak (using the agak‐agak method) and made our very first trial batch of –
VADAI!
Or based on my Google‐ing skills – they are also known as Masala Vada in the southern part of India.
But we are Malaysians, so I am going with Vadai ‘cause that’s what my Mak (and Mamak) taught me.
It started with us thinking what kind of Indian food we should cook to have our own stint of Deepavali here at our place,
And I Google‐d – snacks during Deepavali and after scrolling, I landed on Vadai. Something familiar to the tummy, usually a snack I grabbed at the Mamak while waiting for the mains to arrive.
But, familiar to the tummy doesn’t mean it’s gonna be familiar to the fingers to make.
When I told Dad I’m making vadai today, he was like, huh, beli kat kedai lagi murah and sedap.
So there, Dad, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
And so, we went to the store to acquire all ingredients, and these are the instructions of how to transform them to pretty fritters of Vadai ‐
So.. you know.. sometimes.. we plan.. but things don’t really go how we planned..
Haha, bet you were hoping we screwed up badly, and we know somewhere in there you think we ended up with Va‐deads instead of Vadais.
Nahhh, we managed to come up with legit looking and tasting Vadais, k! And the house smells like that backlane in Penang we really like going to – the one heading towards Restoran Kapitan, oh righttttt
–
Lebuh Chulia.
Ok now teringat that yummy claypot Biryani of Kapitan’s *drools*
So here goes, our Vadais looking not dead at all!
But let’s be honest here of course we are not Masterchefs (‘cause if we are we would ditch this and making money out of Restoran SembangSembang instead)
– so of course‐lah there’s some glitch in our first try of making Vadais.
1. In the recipe we referred to.. there is no mention of actually blending the kacang dhal, we ended up with kacangs that just won’t stick together. Haha, so we were like – kita blend la eh macam pelik je ni. So, we blended the mixture and oh yayy, it looked OK when the kacangs started to stick together in balls.
2. Also.. there is no mention of putting in oil, and mid‐way of cooking, we Youtube‐d a video of a chef in India who put oil in his Vadai, so we copied him and tadaaa the Vadais made sense then.
3. And lastly, our Vadais didn’t end up flat like they should have been – we made balls instead, haha, basically because we were afraid the fritters would pecah‐pecah if we flatten them.
All in all, this won’t be our last time making Vadais – because the ingredients are easy to get and we think.. with lil’ bit more practice, we will be Master Vadais!
Verdict:
Difficulty to make = 7/10 (Berlagak, right)
Taste = 8/10 (More like, masuk bakul angkat sendiri)
Smell of the house = Very Kedai Mamak like, we like!
But please guys, come next year, please, invite us to any Deepavali open house so we won’t be this dreadful again.
We be bringing our Vadais!
See you next year!
Recipe reference ‐
daridapur.com/resepi‐kuih‐vadaiindianhealthyrecipes.com/masala‐vada‐recipe‐chana‐dal‐vada