A Calorie Conscious splurge-Mor Kulambu n vadai

The approaching festival of lights make us think of our dear home. The pomp and show associated with this festival is a class apart. Food and varieties of them...... But these days it is "The Calorie conscious Me" that puts the best foot forward. This year my motto for Diwali would be"Eat healthy, Eat heart healthy". Now my friends in the community are really going to throw daggers at me, for,we have a pot luck for Diwali and everyone's waiting to let their hair down. There are many blogger friends who are coming out with less oil microwave recipes and healthier versions of our traditional recipes. Taste is a little compromise there, but not too bad for a good health tag. I tried a non fried vada for my mor kulambu and it was great. I had a friend who tasted and certified it good in terms of compromise in taste. I made the vadas in the paniyaram pan with out any oil . I conceived this idea when my friend gave me her delicious vada and my husband being a vada lover did not want to have it because he was keeping a check on his calories and strictly followed every rule. I devised this,  thinking taste would not be all that great but it did turn out great. In a spur of  action we do everything and also convince ourselves that it turned out well. I did not want it to be one of those for me. So i sent it across to my neibhour and friend who found it quite tasty. Her comments gave me all the encouragement to make this particular post happen. One other best childhood friend who would  love this post would be my friend sujatha. I fondly think of her as i write this.

Method for vada

Soak 1 cup of urad dhal with 1 tablespoon of rice. Grind it and add chopped onions, cilantro, salt, ginger and green chillies. Heat the paniyaram pan, just season it with some oil and with a teaspoon add small dumplings of the vada batter and cook as you cook  a paniyaram. Have a bowl of buttermilk(made out of 1 cup thick curds)beside you so that you can drop off the vada in the buttermilk directly. Get done with how many ever vadas you want,and keep it aside.

Ingredients for grinding - mor kulambu

1 teaspoon jeera
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
4 green chilles
1"ginger
1 teaspoon chutney dhal
1 teaspoon rawrice
1 teaspoon thurdhal
1 tablespoon coconut

Method

Grind the above ingredients with little water in to a coarse paste. Get a skillet heated up and add the paste and little water along with a pinch of turmeric. When the raw smell goes(takes about 3 minutes ). Add a cup of thick curds. Now add the buttermilk with vada and mix it well and add the salt.Switch off the stove. Take care that it does not boil. Now season with some coconut oil, jeera, hing and curry leaves.