Moong Vada Re-invented

Story: My two wonderful nieces are visiting us from Mumbai and so we are in a summer vacation mood at home.. so much so that I din't even write my weekly blog post..

Just last week my nieces were asking how I used spend my summer vacations at my brother's place.. and they asked - you must have spent a lot of time cooking for your brother.. Then I told them the truth - My cooking vocabulary was limited to making Chai and instant noodles.. My brother knew way more cooking than I did. He used to cook delicious meals and I would help with the dishes. - My nieces just would not believe me!! Of course very conveniently I took that as a complement :)

I think if you want to learn how to cook - being open to new ideas of mixing ingredients and asking "what's in it" almost every time you like something goes a looong way!

That's exactly how I got this recipe for moong vada.. I had eaten moong vadas that need lots of spices and an elaborate preparation.. but these vada's I had at Amit's place were amazingly simple to make... so the "what's in it" conversation followed and here it is..

Source: Amit's Mom (Thank you Aunty!)

Time: 3o minutes (+ 3 hrs of soaking moong daal)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of Whole Moong
  
• Water for soaking the moong
• 2 green chilies
• 1/4 tsp hing or asafoetida
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• salt to taste
  
• Oil for deep frying
  

Recipe:

Take hot water in a bowl and soak whole moong in it 3 hours. Keep the bowl covered.

Remove water from the soaked moong and grind it with chilies, hing and cumin seeds into a rough paste. Add minimal water to this mixture and make sure it does not form a smooth paste.
Add salt to taste.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry several vadas at a time. One vada is of the size of a pakoda - little over a tea spoon of batter.

That's it! - Enjoy as-is or with tamarind-date or green chutney.