Oscar Party At My House...When You Gotta Vada, I Gotta Recipe.

 Sunday night was the Fourth of July, Superbowl, Christmas and all the other holidays rolled into one, in other words... it was Oscar night at our house.

Okay, it was Oscar night at everybody else's house too, but it's a really really big night around here. Food...

 Fun, Siberian Huskies...

 Pictures and prizes...

 Terri Roberson won our Oscar ballot again this year... the woman is psychic!) and was presented with a lovely bottle of Tangerine Fig Balsamic Cuisine Sauce for use with cheese, desserts or just a long kinky weekend with Charley Sheen...
And this year for some reason... Pirate costumes.

   Our friend Chip couldn't make it to a Pirate-themed birthday party the night before, so he figured he'd just wear his costume the next night to our house. Hey, I just cook the food around here, I don't ask questions. Of course there were tiaras.
 Can't have an Oscar party without workin' the jools!

   Last nights' Oscar party was an Indian vegetarian affair, (yeah, there was one shrimp dish... nobody's perfect) and one of the featured dishes was my new favorite favorite food... vadas or vadai depending on how you spell 'em. They're vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, delicious and yeah, deep fried, but like... so what???? They're round and have a hole in the center and give off a definite donut vibe. But  they're savory, I mean SAVORY!!! Wow.
   There are also a lot of different varities of vadai made of various combos of lentils and vegetables and spices as I've discovered. I orginally made them as one of the dishes for my January 24 x 24 dinner party for Foodbuzz and I'm going to keep making them because I freakin' love them! They're for sure penciled in on the menu for my birthday party this month, and because they can be made ahead and then kept warm in the oven until you're ready for them, they are perfect, ideal, and tasty party-ready finger food. They're also easy. All you need are a bag of lentils, water, some vegetables and a food processor.

 This one is called Cabbage Vadai, because it contains cabbage, onion, peas, and cilantro.

Cabbage Vadai

Here's what to do:
 In a large bowl mix:
 1 cup of urad dal with 2 cups of water. Let it soak for 2 hours, then drain it well.

 Put the soaked dal in a blender or food processor along with:
  4 green chilies
 Salt to taste and grind it all up until it turns into a thick batter.
 Put the batter in a bowl.
 Now toss 1/2 cup of chopped cabbage into the food processor and grind up along with:
  1 large onion
  1 bunch of cilantro

 Mix the onion cabbage and cilantro mixture together with the ground dal and add in:
 2 Tbs of peas.

That's it. All that's left is the cooking.

Cooking The Vada:
    In a large skillet or kadhai, heat enough vegetable oil for deep-frying. Of course if you have a Fry Baby you're all set, but I haven't gone there... yet.
  When the oil is nice and hot, put a small amount of water in a bowl. This is used to keep the fingers moist while shaping the vada.
  Scoop a bit of dough out and shape it into a ball and poke a finger through it to make a hole. The vada should resemble a small donut. Slip the vada dough into the hot hot hot oil (carefully) and let it crisp up and brown to deliciousness.
Before:

 After:

 If your oil is hot enough, it shouldn't take long. Lift them out and let them drain on a plate covered with paper towels, then pop them into a 200 degree oven to keep them warm until you are ready to feed them to your guests.

   Serve them with a chutney or raita of your choice.
  These babys disappeared fast. The recipe I've given you makes about 15 or 20 and I doubled it for last night's do. We had 10 people and there were no left overs. Terri made some insanely fabulous cookies, a recipe which I'll be sharing with you soon. One featuring amazing Indian spices!! I ate 4 of them.

  Patsy, had some dog cookies and lots of pats and hugs, but was still disappointed that no Huskies were awarded any golden statues this year. In her universe, Eight Below would be nominated every year.

  The International Indian Film Academy Awards are going  to be held in June and there's got to be a way to watch that. I did get to see an excellent film that India submitted as their entry in the Best Foreign Film category this year. It's called Peepli Live. It didn't make the final 5 (many great films didn't) but it's terrific!

 If you've got Netflix, it's available there, you can even stream it. Here's a peek.

 Coming up next, more vegetarian delights for Meatless Monday and beyond, you can follow me on my Twitter page @kathygori

The Ultimate Superbowl Snack, Savory Little Donuts, Gluten Free!

 

   The first time I ever saw vadai I thought, "Wow donuts! Who knew Indian food included donuts?! I am so there." It turned out that my inner Homer Simpson was wrong. Those weren't donuts I was salivating over, they were vadai, savory little gluten-free donuts made of ground dal and spices. Served with a variety of chutneys and raitas, they're the perfect, bite-sized finger food made for a crowd.
   This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. People will be putting out their chicken drummettes, and Buffalo wings, dip and chips, guacamole and nachos, all the usual suspects. For a really different snack, how about a vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and absolutely delicious healthy treat?  Okay, so it's fried. So nobody's perfect. Anyway you don't want to frighten the menfolk away by offering them something they think is too healthy.
   Vadai are a specialty of the South Indian kitchen, and there are almost as many ways of making them as there are cooks with imaginations. The basic ingredients are dal, soaked and ground. Sometimes as a variation, potato is used. There maybe a combination of other spices and vegetables chopped and added, and there is always a tasty chutney, raita or even salsa could be served as a side dipper. Remember these are finger foods... perfect for parties and game days.
   For my Foodbuzz 24 x24 dinner I served masala vadai, basically a spiced vadai seasoned with onion and cilantro. One batch of batter made a whole pile of vadai. The batter makes up fast in a food processor and then can be kept in the fridge until you're ready to fry. Easy peasy.

Vadai

Here's what to do:
 In a large bowl filled with 9 cups of water soak for 1 hour:
 1 cup of toor dal
 1 cup of urad dal
 1 cup of chana dal

  When it's done soaking, drain off the excess water and put the dal into a food processor or blender with 12 dried red chilies.

Blend it into a thick batter, then toss in:
1 cup of finally chopped onion...

...a bunch of chopped cilantro

...a few curry leaves
 a 2 inch piece of chopped fresh ginger
6 finely chopped fresh green chilies

Salt to taste
Mix it all together well.

Stick it into the fridge until ready to use.

Cooking the Vadai:
   I don't do a lot of frying, okay like almost never, so I don't own a deep fryer. Those of you who do are in luck with this one. I fried my vadai in a kadai, but any deep skillet will do.
   Fill the skillet with vegetable oil and get it nice and hot. You want the oil very hot so the vadai fry up quickly and crisp.
  While the oil in heating, fill a small bowl with water, cover a plate with a paper towel and place a cookie sheet in the oven and heat it to 200 degrees.
  Once the oil is hot (be careful!) take a large spoonful of the batter, dampen one hand with a bit of cold water so the dough doesn't stick, and shape the dough into a round little patty. You can fry these but I prefer to give them the donut shape because... well, they're just cuter that way. Poke a hole through the dough with one finger, shape the little donut and then gently slip the vadai into the hot oil.

 Turn the vadai in the oil so that they get brown and crispy on both sides, then lift them out of the oil and place them on the paper towels to drain.

 The vadai can be kept warm on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven until they're ready to be served.

  Use your favorite chutney or raita as a dipping sauce and watch them fly off the plate.

  Here are a couple of ideas if you want to make your own chutney: Apple Chutney, Mango Chutney or a cooling Coconut Raita like this one I found online and prepared for my dinner last Saturday night.
   I had so much fun making vadai and they were so popular, that I'm going to be featuring them at my annual Oscar Watching Party, my birthday party and probably any other excuse for a celebration that's going to come my way. There certainly are enough vadai recipes out there to take me a long way.