No party that my mother threw would be complete without this dish. Spicy delicious lentil fritters in a spicy yogurt sauce. There are many different versions from different parts of India. This one is from the south. But north, south, east or west…I love this dish in all it’s avatars!

This recipe however is from my childhood bestie Jiju! This is her signature dish too and she totally knocks it out the park.

Ingredients
Whole, Skinned Urad dal 2 cups
Ginger 1″ piece
Green Chillis 3

Tempering
Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
Jeera (cumin seeds) 1/4 tsp
Dry red chillis 3-4
Urad dal 1/4 tsp
Chana dal 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida A big pinch
Kadi patta (Curry leaves) a couple of sprigs

Garnish
Chilli powder
Jeera powder

Method
Soak around 2 cups of whole, skinned urad dal overnight.

Grind it in the idli-dosa blender.

Do not add too much water.

The batter needs to be thick, but light and fluffy.

Best to just leave it in the blender for 30-40 minutes. Go for a walk, read a book, catch a rerun…whatever gets you away from that blender!

Add an inch of crushed ginger and 3 crushed green chillies to the batter along with salt and a pinch of baking soda.

No need to ferment. You do have to fry the pakoras/fritters immediately.

Soak the fried fritters in salted water.

Squeeze them gently, lay them in the serving bowl overlapping slightly.

Pour thick beaten, salted yogurt all over the fritters.

Heat a teeny bit of oil for the tadka/tempering.

Add mustard seeds and let it splutter, follow with the remaining ingredients…jeera/cumin seeds, chopped dry red chillies, curry leaves/kadi patta, urad and Chana dal and hung/asafoetida.

Once you pour the tempering over the yogurt soaked fritters, sprinkle chili powder and roasted crushed jeera/cumin powder.

Chill before serving!

Note: For the garnish, roast cumin seeds till almost black and crush lightly. Gives a wonderful finishing touch to the dish!