Parippu Vada / Lentil Fritters

It is getting colder and colder in this part of the world. These are the times when you feel like having some of those comfort snacks like Parippu Vada (Lentil Fritters), Ulli Vada (Onion Fritters), etc with a cup of steaming hot tea. I still remember those old days when we used to wait for the lady who used to bring parippu vada most every evening to sell at our place. We used to wait for her, so we can have the tea with the vadas. Now that I do not have the luxury of sitting and waiting for the lady who sells Parippu vada, I had to dig into my bookmarked recipe from Mishmash to make the vadas myself.  

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Makes 20-22 vadas

Toor Dal	- 1 cup
Small Onions/Shallots	- 3/4 cup (chopped)
Ginger	- 1/8 cup (thinly chopped)
Green Chilly	- 1/8 cup (thinly chopped)
Curry Leaves	- 2 twigs (chopped)
Salt	- to taste
Oil	- as needed to deep fry

1. Soak the dal for at least an hour.
2. In a grinder, quickly grind the dal into a very coarse paste and transfer to a bowl.
3. Add in the chopped small onions, ginger, green chilly, curry leaves and salt to the dal and mix well.
4. Check to see if you can make a small gooseberry size ball out of the dough and flatten it slightly with your palm. If you think the dough is not sticking together, it could be because the dough is too course. If this is the case, take half of the dough and mix it again in the grinder to a slightly less coarse texture. Mix this with the rest of the dough to create cohesiveness for the dough to stick together.
5. Heat oil in a deep frying pan in medium flame. Test if the oil is hot by dropping a tiny bit of the dough and see if it comes to the top with oil bubbling around.
6. When the oil is hot, start making the balls out of the dough, flattening it with your palms and fry it in the oil.
7. Fry in a medium flame so that the inside is cooked well while the outside is crispy.

Serve your Parippu Vadas with a steaming hot cup of tea or coffee. What could be better than this on a cold and freezing wintry evening. Thanks Shn for sharing the recipe!