Vadai, Gluten Free Savoury Lentil Snack

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Vadai, Gluten Free Savoury Lentil Snack

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https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

This is my version of the Indian savoury snack Vadai, known by at least three other names, Vada, Vade and Wada. It's my version as amongst other changes, I have neither the skill or patience to shape it into its typical doughnut shape. That has never deterred me from serving them with coconut chutney and mint chutney or a side of fresh whole green chillies. 

Apart from its shape, what makes my vadais different? Other recipes use a water base batter. I use prawn/shrimp stock. This gives the vadai a different taste layer, enhancing its flavour and making them less 'beany' tasting.

For me, the best way to serve this is as pre-dinner nibbles. The presentation and wholesome taste of these vadais will impress your guests enough that they know a delightful meal will soon follow. The danger will be that they eat too many of them and fill up before that!

You can prepare your main course unhurried as these will keep your guests occupied and full enough till you are ready to stroll out with it. Moreover, you will have time in between to mingle and powder your nose. I love these kinds of recipes!
VADAI, GLUTEN FREE SAVOURY SNACK       

Prep:	30 minutes
Cook:	15 minutes
Inactive:	6 hours up to overnight to soak lentils/urud dal
Level:	Intermediate
Serves:	6 to 8 as pre-dinner nibbles
Oil Temperature:	340F (170C)
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Prawn stock can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. Batter can be frozen up 6 weeks.

Ingredients

For prawn stock 

If you do not want to make a prawn stock, read up on the alternatives found under ingredients list for batter.

15 medium sized (11 and 1/2 oz) (328 g) prawns with shells and heads

1 Tablespoon oil

4 garlic smashed

2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt

For batter

1 cup and 2 Tablespoons (9 oz)  (250 g) urud dal also known as black gram/lentils. Sometimes labelled as 'white gram/lentils'.

These can be purchased from Indian grocers. The lentils you want to buy are actually off white in colour. The black husks have been removed revealing the inner off white colour of the lentils. You will also find on the grocer's shelves, black gram lentils with husks still attached so they are black in colour. Remember to buy the off whites ones. 

Soak the lentils at least 6 hours. I tend to soak them overnight.

3/4 cup prawn stock OR any of the following alternatives:

• 3/4 cup of water and 1/2 of a prawn stock cube/1 teaspoon prawn granules

Prawn stock cubes/granules can be purchased from Filipino grocers. 

• 3/4 cup of bottled clam juice 

Bottled clam juice can be found at better stocked supermarkets.

• 3/4 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of clam/seafood granules

Korean grocers carry clam/seafood granules on their store shelves. 

• 3/4 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of dashi granules

Dashi granules are like the bouillon cube of Japanese cuisine. Made from a base of bonito (fish) and I am sure other flavour enhancers. Found in most supermarkets and at Japanese grocery shops.

Almost 1 cup (4 and 1/2 oz) (130 g) finely diced purple onions

Use purple onions and not yellow as purple onions are more often than not the onion of choice to be used in Indian cooking.

1/3 cup (1 oz) (28 g) loosely packed finely cut coriander/parsley

2 long sprigs curry leaves, about 2  and 1/2 Tablespoons finely cut

2 large green chillies, remove seeds and finely diced

1 Tablespoon rice flour

This helps give the fritters a crispy edge.

3/4 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon dashi granules OR 1/2 teaspoon prawn/clam/seafood graules granules OR 1/3 of a prawn stock cube (pulverise this with a knife before using)

I prefer using dashi granules as it does add the umami flavour that I am after into the vadai. 

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

This helps soften the lentils.

pinch of asafoetida

Refer to photograph attached under 'Directions' below to find out what it looks like.

Asafoetida is the resin derived from the herbaceous ferula family. You can buy this greyish brownish coloured powdered spice at your Indian grocer. I use this for its anti-flatulence properties. It is an ingredient used as far as I am aware, primarily in Indian cooking. Its use has not transcended borders as much as other spices associated with Indian cooking. Perhaps because it smells dangerously sulphuric. The smell might just shock you enough to send you reeling back a few steps. I keep the plastic container where it comes stored in when I buy it, in a plastic bag and then in a glass jar. That is how pungent it smells.

Add too much of it in your food and it overwhelms the dish. I am very conservative with the amount I add. I cannot accurately tell you the flavour it imparts as it is a totally different spice. All I know is if I add it to my lentil/bean dishes, my tummy feels a whole lot better. If I really have to describe the taste it imparts, I would say it is a mix of onion, fennel and garlic. 

Omit if you cannot bring yourself to buy or use it.

I do use it in my recipe for Coconut Chutney.

For frying

Enough neutral tasting oil (for instance, not olive oil but sunflower, safflower or rice bran) to come up to about 2" (5 cm) deep in your frying pot.

To serve

One, a combination or all of the following:

• Fresh green chillies
• Coconut Chutney
• Mint Chutney
• Tomato Salsa or Sauce not ketchup please. Not authentic at all but neither is my recipe. I open a bottle of Prego Marinara Sauce.  I used to make a rather nice Tomato Chutney but I have not made it in years so the recipe is quite fuzzy in my head. I have to do a bit of recipe work to replicate the taste before I can recreate the chutney and post that. In the meantime, Prego will do for me.

Directions

For Prawn Stock

Wash prawns. Remove shells and heads. Set aside. Save the prawn meat for another use as we will not need it.

In a pot, lightly brown garlic in oil. Add prawn shells and heads and fry until it turns orange and smells fragrant. I fry them at least 5 to 8 minutes on medium-high heat until it looks as if it is coming close to being burnt. Frying it thus enhances the flavour of the prawns. Watch the garlic though.

Add water and salt. Boil down until you have 1 cup of stock even though the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of stock. Always better to have some extra.

Use a potato masher to mash up prawn shells and heads in the pot. Drain and set stock aside.

For Batter

Drain and rinse the urud dal well. Drain well so that you can add as much prawn stock as possible.

Grind urud dal with prawn stock until you have a smooth and thick batter similar to hummus. Thin down further with more stock if required. I doubt you will need to. The batter has to be thick.

Remove urud dal from mixer into a large bowl and mix in all other ingredients.

Asafoetida is in the glass dish at the bottom right.
On its right, in the same dish are dashi granules.

The batter has a thick but somewhat loose consistency.

Place the batter into a heavy duty plastic freezer bag. At this point you can freeze the batter as is.

If you are frying them straight away, heat 2" (5 cm) of oil in your frying pot to 340F (170C).

Snip off 3/8" (1 cm) off the corner of the freezer bag. Pipe a circle and a half of batter (6' to 8" long) (15 to 20 cm long ) directly into the hot oil. There is really no right shape. Some end up looking like wriggles. It is fine.

These vadais are served with green chillies. The way to eat
them is to take a bite of vadai and then a bite of chilli. The
savouriness of the vadai and the sweetness of the onions
within goes well with the fresh tasting crisp green chillies.
Be careful though as some chillies can be spicy hot!
I usually stick to eating the bottom half of the
chilli and then give up. It gets way too spicy for me
from that point up.

Turn them after they start to colour on one side. They usually cook in about 2 to 5 minutes.  Do not overcrowd your pot or the temperature will drop and the vadai will be oily and soggy.

Drain before serving with your choice of whole fresh green chillies, mint chutney, coconut chutney or Prego Marinara Sauce. They are all good!

Tips

• Freeze them to use as a quick snack

I recommend making a double batch of these and freezing them in a few plastic freezer bags. They are so convenient. They thaw and fry up quickly. You can serve them as snacks when you have unexpected guests. It doesn't matter if you have no chutney to serve with it. Green chillies and bottled tomato salsa or sauce will suffice. If you have neither, than just serve with a cup of tea.

• Serve them for tea with a cup of Chai/Masala Tea or a refreshing pineappleade.

These are just right to serve for tea with a cuppa. I have a recipe for Chai Tea also known as Masala Tea. The recipe is filed under Ham With Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches. 

If you want something nondairy to go with vadais then try my pineappleade. It can be served hot or cold. Either way, it is always refreshing. The recipe is also filed under Ham With Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches. Just look at the pictures. I need a pineappleade now and maybe just one vadai. Someone make them for me!

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                           

The recipe for Coconut Chutney! Don't limit yourself to serving this chutney with just vadais. They are good with pakoras and tortilla chips straight out from a bag!

Sweet Milk Scones

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've edited this post, neaten it up and it is now more organised and easier to follow my recipe from there. This link will take your directly to the recipe: 
Sweet Milk Scones

Link to my newest and old recipes:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

These are featherweight scones with a light crumb. Nothing like those heavy hockey pucks one often encounters.

I was tired of being deceived by tall, lovely looking scones sitting on polished pedestals and under glass domes. Surely, someone must have taken a ruler and measured the height of every cut dough before it was allowed in the oven. 

With that even varnish of glossy egg wash, it was the ideal picture of a perfect scone. The problem was that was where the perfection ended. One bite and the scone felt sticky on the teeth and upon going down the throat it felt as if it could possibly get lodged in there.

Determined not to waste my calorie quota on those, I scoured through my cookbooks. I finally tested a recipe that was all that I wanted a scone to be. It baked out light, tasted light, did not stick to my teeth and it went beautifully down my throat. It did not matter that they were not tall. It was my perfect scone. The extra bonus? It reheated very well the next day. 

Who came up with the recipe? The editors of Cook's Illustrated. In their test kitchen, they had tested and analysed ingredients and recipes. Thereafter, they compiled the best of them into 'The Best Recipes'.

Try their scone recipe and you might never be tempted to buy another store bought scone again.

SWEET MILK SCONES                                                               
Recipe adapted from 'Cook's Illustrated, The Best Recipes'.

Prep:	20 minutes
Cook:	10 to 12 minutes
Inactive:	None
Level:	Moderately easy
Makes:	8 to 9, 2 and 1/2" (6.5 cm) scones
Oven Temperature:	450F (225C) Gas Mark 8
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes, but I will only double and not more. It would be difficult to incorporate all the ingredients without over working the dough.
Make ahead?	I would not make this ahead if I can help it. However, I have popped the cut scones on its tray, covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator up to half an hour before I was ready to bake. In fact, if your oven is not ready for the scones, do keep the unbaked scones in the refrigerator. You want them to be cold when they hit the oven. It does make a difference to achieving light scones. Any uneaten scones can be covered loosely with aluminium foil and reheated in the oven at 450F (225C) for 10 to 15 minutes or until warmed through.

Ingredients

2 cups (9 oz) (250 g) all-purpose/plain flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
4 Tablespoons (2 oz) (60 g) unsalted butter
Cut into 1/2" pieces and well chilled.
3/4 cup (185 ml) milk
Keep chilled plus keep about 2 Tablespoons extra aside should you need it to help bring the dough together.

Directions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450F (225C).

Mixing by hand

Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl. With fingertips, pastry cutter or 2 knives, work butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk. 

Using a pastry/bench scraper (a flexible silicon one works best for me) or a spatula, work quickly to incorporate the dry ingredients into the milk.

I use my silicon pastry scraper and flick the flour from the circumference over the pool of milk. Next, I dig my scraper deep into the bottom of the bowl and then lift and drop mixture over itself until dry and wet ingredients are just incorporated. Do not stir.

If the mixture looks too dry and it does not seem to be coming together, distribute 1 to 2 Tablespoons of milk now. 

It is better to work with a slightly more moist than a dry dough.  From my experience, a slightly sticky dough promises lighter scones. 

The mixture will feel slightly sticky. As far as you can manage, flour fingers and/or your pastry/bench scraper lightly instead of adding flour directly to the mixture.

The mixture will look scraggly and lumpy. Take a look at the second photograph below. 

Transfer the scraggly mixture onto your lightly floured work surface.

Use your pastry scraper to gently gather mixture into a rough ball. If the dough is too sticky to handle, a dusting of flour will help move things along.

Mixing using  food processor

Into a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pour in all dry ingredients. Pulse twice to mix dry ingredients. Remove cover and distribute butter. Cover and pulse butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps. It should take just 4 or 5, 3-seconds pluses.

This is where I will remove the coarse meal mixture and work the milk in by hand as per the instructions above.  I have never been able to work the milk in successfully with the food processor. I end up with tough scones.  I am including Cook's Illustrated's instructions to work milk in with the food processor.  I wish you better luck.

Pour milk in through feed tube and pulse until dough starts to gather into a rough ball. Do not over process. 

Turn dough onto a floured work surface.

Mixture should looks somewhat
like this with a few slightly larger lumps of butter.

Scraggly looking mixture after milk has been worked in
and before it is shaped into a rough dough ball.

Rolled to 1/2" thickness. It is fine if the surface of dough looks cracked.
Being able to see the tiny knobs of butter is a good thing.

These cut out dough are looking the way they should.
Flakes of butter in them are still visible.
It will not bake out tall with smooth tops but it will taste very light.

Assembling

Have ready the following:

• Rolling pin
• Small knife
• 2 and 1/2" (6.5 cm) round cutter
• Small dish at least 3" (7.5 cm)in diameter with enough flour in it for you to dip your round cutter.
• 1/4 cup of flour
• Flour sifter or a sieve, to sift the 1/4 cup of flour as needed
• Lined and buttered baking sheet. I use a Silpat and do away with lining and buttering

Working quickly and with a light hand, roll dough into 1/2" (1.25 cm) thickness. Dust if necessary to avoid the rolling pin sticking. More often than not, to avoid overworking the dough, I end up not rolling but using the rolling pin to lightly 'tap' the dough level.

Dip round cutter in flour and with one swift movement cut through dough. Try not to jiggle the cutter. Remember, you are trying not to over work the dough. Lift cut dough out of rolled out dough with the round cutter. Drop cut dough onto baking sheet. Minimise handling the dough with your hands. The knife is there to help you cut or loosen dough.

Dip cutter into flour as often as required and continue to cut out round dough. Leave as little gaps as possible when cutting dough rounds.  Gather scraps gently together with the pastry scraper. You should have enough dough to cut one more 2 and 1/2" round.  Gather remaining scraps into a rough 2" (5 cm) ball, frame it with the round cutter. Press dough outwards to form another 2 and 1/2" round. Place this last piece of cut dough on the centre of baking sheet. Why? It is probably the smallest of all your punched out dough and will bake too quickly if placed along the perimeters of the baking sheet.

Bake straight away for 10 - 12 minutes. The tops should be golden brown and the bottoms very slightly browned. 

If you are not ready to bake, cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Do not leave uncooked scones on your work surface.

Serve with good clotted cream, whipped double/thickened cream and strawberry jam. Sometimes I serve them with sliced or whole fresh strawberries as well.

Tips

• Chill all your dry ingredients either overnight or half an hour before you need it. Keeping everything chilled helps to prevent the butter from melting as you work it into the dough. It makes for lighter scones too.

• Work your dough as little as possible. The more you fiddle with it, the heavier your scones will turn out. You do not need a perfect looking dough ball.

• Please do not add an egg wash. It makes the scone smell and taste eggy. The scones are pretty as they are. Leave them alone. Besides, you will have leftover eggs which you would then have to decide what to do with.

• If you do not want to cut dough into rounds, you have the following 2 options:
  
  
  • Roll dough into a 1/2" (1.25 cm) thick flat round. Transfer onto baking sheet. Cut into 6 or 8 wedges. Do not separate the wedges. Bake as is. You can break them apart when they come out of the oven. You must adjust baking time though. They should be done in 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Roll dough into a 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) thick rectangle. Cut into 2" (5 cm) squares. Transfer onto baking sheet. Do not separate the squares. Bakes as is. You can break them apart when they come out of the oven. You must adjust baking time though. They should be done in 15 to 20 minutes.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                
In my most recent post under Devil Curry, Curry Debal, I had carried on about my love for Cornish Clotted Cream with scones and how I had carted them home from London and had been eating spoonfuls of it. That spawned my idea of posting a spread of food to serve for English Afternoon Tea. 

At my own not too long ago English Afternoon Tea party, I had served:

• A classic Victoria Sponge Cake sandwich with buttercream icing and strawberry jam
• Egg and Cress Tea Sandwiches
• Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter Tea Sandwiches
• Roast Beef with Beetroot Tea  Sandwiches
• Crisp Cucumber Tea Sandwiches
• Ham with Honey Butter Tea Sandwiches
• Checkerboard Cookies 
• and scones of course

We do not have a particularly sweet tooth (except for Checkerboard Cookies) and would much rather have more savoury items for our afternoon tea. You could always bake more sweet items or just buy macaroons which will look pretty on any plate.

It is so difficult to choose a favourite. 
Egg and Cress Tea Sandwich, the top left corner sandwich,
is creamy but made light with the fresh tasting bite of watercress.
I also like the Crisp Cucumber Tea Sandwich to the right.
It stays crisp through the next day. I like the
Checkerboard Cookies which require some effort, actually
a lot of effort but they are so good it is worth the effort.
Oh, I just like them all!

Which recipe should I post next? Hmm, the recipe for Checkerboard Cookies? Maybe Egg and Cress Tea Sandwiches? The Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter Tea Sandwiches are also delicious. It is so hard to decide. So, just stay tuned!