Tea kadai masal vadai, Masal vadai recipe

Tea kadai masala vadai, crispy vadai made using channa dal, a popular snack of South India, recipe with video. We can call this as a typical Tamilnadu style street food. I have posted many varieties of channa dal vadai but this tea kadai vadai is a popular one. What's special in this, it is made using Channa dal. Actually they use pattani paruppu, a slightly bigger version of channa dal is used to make this Masal vadai. But i don't get that here in Singapore so made with channa dal. Masal vadai, carrys a lot childhood memories. My mom used to work in a village hospital and rarely she takes us there during our summer holidays. As it is a remote place we don't get anything but the hospital staff, who lives in the nearby residence, used to make vadai and sells this there. He brings the freshly made vadai from his home,it in a steel thookuvali and sells to everyone there. So whenever we go there, he brings for us in a separate box and we used to eat tthose vadais, as if we haven't seen vadais in our life. His name is Mustafa and we call it Mustafa vadai.
   Later when i grew up, when i was doing my Masters, we had a tea kadai nearby our college. Our class boys used to buy vadai from there during the lunch time. They buy for us too but whenever we ask them to take us there, they will refuse as it will be too crowded with many boys. Finally one day when we had some extra class on a Saturday all the girls pestered our class boys and they took us to the tea kadai and we happily enjoyed the tea and masal vadai. I think i spoke a lot, this masal vadai kindled many memories.
  When a reader request came for this recipe of Tea kadai masal vadai, i immediately asked my nephew, who is  a foodie to send me some pictures of tea kadai vadai. He sent to me the next day which he bought from the nearest tea stall. I asked him few doubts on the taste and with his inputs made this vadai. It tasted quite similar to the one which i have tasted during my childhood days, from mustafa masal vadai.
   Also today being Varsha's birthday, this is a very apt post, as she is a great fan of Masal vadai.
   Also check out my

• Keerai vadai
• Arisi vadai

Tea kadai masal vadai recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian|  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time:  10 mins + 2 hrs soaking  |  Cook time: 30 mins |  serves: 13 vadais | Author: Jeyashri 
Tea kadai masala vadai, crispy vadai made using channa dal, a popular snack of South India.

    Channa dal  1 cup
    Red chili  4
    Green chili  1
    Onion   2
    Fennel seeds | sombu  1 tsp
    Garlic  2 cloves
    Ginger  a small piece
    Curry leaves  few
    Salt to taste
    Oil  for deep frying

Method:

• Wash and soak the channa dal for 2 hours.
• Take out a handful of soaked channa dal and keep it aside. 
• Drain the water completely from the channa dal.
• Pulse the dal in the mixie. Let this be a coarse paste.
• Do not grind and make into a fine paste.
• Also do not add any water while grinding. Even it is thick do not worry, after adding onions it will loosen up.
• Chop the onions finely. Take the skin of garlic. Actually you can cut the ginger and garlic roughly so that it will get pulsed, else some big chunks will be there. 
• I didn't do that, so left with big chunks.
• Pulse the finely chopped onions, garlic, ginger, red chili and green chili once or twice in a mixie. Use the pulse button, in some mixies it is the reverse side we need to turn.
• Add this to the ground channa dal. 
• Add in the whole channa dal which we kept aside after soaking.
• This will give a nice look and crunchiness to the vadai. 
• Add salt just before making the vadai. 
• Mix well evenly.
• Heat oil and once it becomes hot, bring the flame to medium.
• Take a big lemon sized portion of the vadai batter and flatten it with your hands. 
• Add it to the oil. Do not overcrowd the pan. Add 3-4 vadas at a time, depending on the size of the pan.
• Leave it undisturbed for a minute.
• Then flip it over gently.
• Cook on both sides till golden brown.
• Take out from oil and drain excess oil in a kitchen towel.
• Repeat this for the remaining vadai maavu. 
• The vadais stayed crispy even after 4-5 hours. So it is perfect for picnics too. 

                                         Video of how to make Tea kadai masal vadai

                  

                        

Notes:

1. Always add salt and the onion mixture just before making the vadais, else it will ooze out water.
2. If you feel it is slightly loose add 1 tblsp of rice flour, do not add more than that. 
3. Tea kadai masal vadai tastes best with Curd rice too. 

Method with step by step pictures:

• Wash and soak the channa dal for 2 hours.
• Take out a handful of soaked channa dal and keep it aside. 
• Drain the water completely from the channa dal.

• Pulse the dal in the mixie. Let this be a coarse paste.
• Do not grind and make into a fine paste.
• Also do not add any water while grinding. Even it is thick do not worry, after adding onions it will loosen up.

• Chop the onions finely. Take the skin of garlic. Actually you can cut the ginger and garlic roughly so that it will get pulsed, else some big chunks will be there. 
• I didn't do that, so left with big chunks.
• Pulse the finely chopped onions, garlic, ginger, red chili and green chili once or twice in a mixie. Use the pulse button, in some mixies it is the reverse side we need to turn.

• Add this to the ground channa dal. 
• Add in the whole channa dal which we kept aside after soaking.
• This will give a nice look and crunchiness to the vadai. 

• Add salt just before making the vadai. 
• Mix well evenly.
• Heat oil and once it becomes hot, bring the flame to medium.
• Take a big lemon sized portion of the vadai batter and flatten it with your hands. 

• Add it to the oil. Do not overcrowd the pan. Add 3-4 vadas at a time, depending on the size of the pan.
• Leave it undisturbed for a minute.
• Then flip it over gently.
• Cook on both sides till golden brown.

• Take out from oil and drain excess oil in a kitchen towel.
• Repeat this for the remaining vadai maavu. 

• The vadais stayed crispy even after 4-5 hours. So it is perfect for picnics too. 

Notes:

1. Always add salt and the onion mixture just before making the vadais, else it will ooze out water.
2. If you feel it is slightly loose add 1 tblsp of rice flour Pottukadalai flour, do not add more than that. 
3. Tea kadai masal vadai tastes best with Curd rice too.