Ulundhu vadai is a very popular breakfast dish in Tamil Nadu.Ullundu vadai is made of the skinned black bean or urad dal (white lentils), soaked, ground to a smooth fluffy paste adding some Indian spices and then deep fried in hot oil.
- Soak ulundhu for about 3 to 5 hours. Drain the water completely and grind till the ulundhu is just about broken in small pieces
(ma avu should NOT be too fine) the ulundhu in the blender /food processor with very little water as possible, to do this grind half cup of ulundhu at time or else the blender will be on fire. Mix chillies, ginger, salt and the vegetables(optionalthe ulundhu. You can
just onion or both onion and cabbage.
- Add the oil to heated wok (vaANali) and heat the oil on medium-high heat for about 3 to 5minutes. Wet the palm of one of your hands. Put the maAvu on the wet palm and shape it like doughnut and drop it slowly into the oil and fry till goldenbrown. If the shape doesnt matter to you, then take the maAvu and drop into the oil using atable-spoon(slightly oil the spoon before taking the maAvu so it wont stick to th spoon). You can add 2 or 3 at a time depending on how much oil you have in the vaANali.
- Variations: To the same maAvu, add about 1tsp. whole black pepper (crushed), 1/2 cup of chopped fresh coconut, 1/2quot; ginger grated and salt (omit chillies,onion and cabbage). Drop the maAvu into the oil in round shapes, to make Madras Bonda and fry till golden brown.