Dahi bhalla

No Punjabi "party" is ever complete without dahi bhalla, so when I knew we were hosting a dinner party, one of the first things I did was to set milk so I would have sufficient curds for it.
Personally, I prefer the Tamilian "tair vadai" to the Punjabi "dahi bhalla", but this time I made it the way my mother in law used to.

1 measure urad dal, soaked for about 4 hours
1 green chilli
1 inch piece of ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

2 cups curds
salt, sugar, jeera powder, red chilli powder to taste


Soak the urad dal for 2- 8 hours. Chop the green chilli and ginger. With minimal water, grind the soaked urad dal, the green chilli and ginger till till fine (the way to test if the dal is done is to drop a bit in water- if it starts floating right away, it is done).
Add salt and baking soda, and mix well so air bubbles froth into the mixture.
Heat the cooking oil till medium hot (if it is too hot, the vadas will not cook on the inside, if not hot enough, all it will do is guzzle oil), then taking a spoon, drop blobs into the oil. Stir around till evenly browned, then drain out onto a kitchen towel.
Put the hot vadas in the dahi, and let it soak. After the dahi has soaked in well, pour the rest of the dahi over the vadas. (If you are serving dahi-vadas, keep some more of the dahi aside)

Garnish with imli chutney, coriander leaves, chilli powder, zeera powder and dhania powder.