14 comments for Punjabi Wadi (Dried Spicy Lentil Rounds) »
I love wadi…is there a recipe?
I tried your recipe for Gutti Vankaya Kura and it was just Yum, exactly how my neighbour used to make. But the paste was too tight for the stuffing and they didnt really cook well but my Monster in law loved it and is now asking for more.
Hope you had a good weekend. This is a totally unrelated post, but I hope you will have the time to dispense some advice.
I tried the moong dal aamti for lunch. When I cooked the soaked moong dal in a vessel, the water turned black. Also, there was some kind of residue lining the sides. Is that expected?
Over today morning’s (5th March, 2007) cup of tea and reading the Times Of India – Bangalore Edition, I came across a column called ‘MouseTrap’ by Peter Griffin. Today’s column was “Grab a second helping off the world wide web” which listed some favourite mouth watering food sites of the author. And no two guesses for one of the names in the list – it had to be YOURS! The others are – The CooksCottage, MyDhaba and Bawarchi.
I think this article is not on the web as yet and will be up soon, as all the past columns of this author are on: http://o3.indiatimes.com/mousetrap
But in case if you are curious to know what has been written about you, I’ll just copy the bit on you. Here it goes:
Home-cooked 2
Mahanandi – http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/
As I said, many. many food blogs around, and I’m going to have to repeat the subhead. Sue me. and I’m going to get really lazy and give you a review by the friend who recommended the site to me, Megha Murthy (no mean cook herself). She says ‘Mahanandi gives me a chance to revisit recipes that I would otherwise have to ask Mom about. Plus I like how warm and friendly Indira is and how that translates into making her recipes more approachable. She instantly gives you the “I can try this!” feeling. And of course, her pictures! Gawd! She can make one perspire for a raw dondakaaya!’
Congrats. You deserve very bit of the appreciation and praise for your truly wonderful labor of love ‘Mahanadi’. And congrats for winning the best Indi-food blog award. Hats off to you.
I just tried your version of Senaga Pappu Payasam and it tastes heavenly. Thanks for the recipe.
Freshma: Usually adding water little bit extra makes them to cook to tender. You have to use your own judgement about the water quantity.
MIL asked for it, then it must be good.:)
Hi Anupama: Black colored water, no that’s not normal. Residue, you mean like froth, yes that happens when you cook lentils of all types.
Hope you had a wonderful meal yesterday.
We are doing good, thanks Madhuli. Yes, I like wadis too. They are my new find here in Seattle.
Shilpi: Thanks very much for taking time to post the comment and excerpt from the article. I enjoyed reading about Mahanandi.
Hi Padmaja, thanks. I’m planning to prepare some recipes with wadis. I will definitely blog about them.
Hi G: Wadis and mangoris, I am unfamiliar with both these things. This is the first time I ever bought wadis. We usually do not make this type of dried stuff in Nandyala.
Hi Sapna: Thanks and glad to hear that you tried and liked the payasam recipe.
I really appreciate you writing about “Down with plagiarism”. Its in real bad taste that some well known protals are picking up good stuff from food blogs without their permission. Food bloggers really put in a lot of hard work into writing recipes and taking pictures and then posting them on their web site. Hail their effort. Much respect to you and all other food bloggers for this and yes, down with plagiarism.
Indira ji and Ms. G-Mangoris are softer much softer, like moong daal fresh fried pakodis (they make fantastic raita and curry with potatoes), while wadis/varris are with lots more spice and are shade dried, just like papads-wadis and papads are speciality of my home town Amritsar and also lots of places in Rajasthan, especially Bikaner.
One of my favorite recipe with wadis is mooli-wadi: grated moolis (from which water has been squeezed out totally) sauted with a bit of zeera, haldi, salt and red-chilli powder and to that you add broken wadis and cook on sim/low heat with the pan covered-add a bit of amchur or squirt of a lime and you are in for a scrumptuous dish. Wadis don’t totally become soft, unlike the soaked pakodis. For dry dishes like mooli-wadi, you don’t presoak them, while for aloo-wadi 9another Punjabi favorite), you add them right in the beginning, so they get considerably soft after cooking.
Hope you are having a nice day,
regards,
musical.
Indira replies:
Hi Musical, thanks for your supporting words about the protest event and also for publishing a post about it on your blog. I greatly appreciate the gesture.
Also many thanks for taking time to explain about wadi and mangories and for the mooli-wadi recipe. I love it and will definitely try it in future. I am actually planning to prepare a recipe with wadi, potato and brinjal today (alu-vangi wadi).
Note from Mamta: These are very spicy, dry dumplings, used in many Indian dishes. They should be made in summer months as they need hot sun to dry quickly. If you live in a cold country, a conservatory or a window sill is ideal for this purpose. They are made in bulk. Once dry, they can be stored in jars/boxes for use through the year. I keep mine in a plastic bag, in the freezer, to retain the freshness. Bari can also be spelled as Vadian/Vadi or Warian/Wari or Wadian/Wadi.
Before cooking, you need to break them gently, by wrapping them in a kitchen towel and hitting them gently with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer. Then fry the pieces for a few seconds in 1 tsp. oil. They are now ready to be added to any dish of your choice. I often use them without frying.
Adding 5-6 baries to a Potato curry or Khitchri or Khichri,’ lifts’ them up. They can also be added to various vegetable curries, meat dishes, rice pulaos etc., to give these dishes a distinctive spicy flavour. They can be soaked in water, mashed and used as stuffing for parathas, Kachori and Kasta Kachories. Makes approximately 700 gm.
Ingredients
• 500 gm. urad/urd/urid or black gram dal, skinless
• 375 gm. petha or ash gourd. If this is not available, use same amount of cauliflower flowerets, but petha is best because of it’s fibre content.
• 125 gm. ginger
• 175 gm. green chillies or more
• 125 gm. cleaned coriander leaves, washed and drained
• 50-60 gm. black cardamom seeds, coarsely ground
• 60 gm. whole Panch Pooran
• 200 gm. coarsely ground red chillies
• 100 gm. coarsely ground black pepper
• 60 gm. fennel or sonf seeds, coarsely ground
• 25 gm. cloves, coarsely ground or pounded
• 25 gm. whole cumin seeds
• 10 gm cumin powder
• 25 gm. black cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. mace powder
• 1/4 of nutmeg, freshly grated
• 15 gm. asafetida or hing powder
• 15 gm. cinnamon powder
Buy ingredients from a recommended supplier, Spices of India. For more information, see here.
Instructions
1. Coarsely grind urad dal in a coffee grinder.
2. Soak in enough water to cover 1/2 inch above the dal and leave for a couple of hours. It will absorb water and become like a thick batter.
3. Make a shallow well in the centre, by lifting out 1/2 a cup of the mix. Add asafoetida powder in the well and cover with the 1/2 cup of mix you had removed to make the well.
4. Leave overnight in a warm place, to let it rise a little.
5. Clean, wash and chop petha or cauliflower, grate and squeeze all water out. Keep aside.
6. Grind ginger, green chillies and coriander leaves, all together, in a food processor.
7. Measure all spices into the bowl with the dal.
8. Mix all ingredients with the dal and beat vigorously. You may need to add a little water if it is too stiff. It needs to be of a stiff, dropping consistency. If you put a blob of this mix in a jug or glass of water, it should float to the surface due to trapped air. This trapped air is responsible for making the baries light.
9. Spread a clean cloth on a clean surface, like a tray in the sun. This amount needs 2 trays. You can use trays lightly greased with oil.
10. Place(drop) small blobs of about 1 inch diameter, like pakoras, onto the cloth.
11. Leave them in the hot sun, until bone dry (very dry). Store in airtight containers or plastic bags. Freezer is good, if you have a large one.
Best Regards,
Comment by Lalit Bhatia — March 16, 2007 @ 9:01 am
I love wadi…is there a recipe?
I tried your recipe for Gutti Vankaya Kura and it was just Yum, exactly how my neighbour used to make. But the paste was too tight for the stuffing and they didnt really cook well but my Monster in law loved it and is now asking for more.
Comment by freshma — March 4, 2007 @ 2:55 pm
Hi Indira,
Hope you had a good weekend. This is a totally unrelated post, but I hope you will have the time to dispense some advice.
I tried the moong dal aamti for lunch. When I cooked the soaked moong dal in a vessel, the water turned black. Also, there was some kind of residue lining the sides. Is that expected?
Thanks,
Anu
Comment by Anupama — March 4, 2007 @ 4:52 pm
hi Indira..hope u and vijay are well now.I love these Wadis.My colleague who is a punjab gets these often in her lunch box.great photo!
Comment by madhuli — March 4, 2007 @ 7:20 pm
Hi Indira,
Over today morning’s (5th March, 2007) cup of tea and reading the Times Of India – Bangalore Edition, I came across a column called ‘MouseTrap’ by Peter Griffin. Today’s column was “Grab a second helping off the world wide web” which listed some favourite mouth watering food sites of the author. And no two guesses for one of the names in the list – it had to be YOURS! The others are – The CooksCottage, MyDhaba and Bawarchi.
I think this article is not on the web as yet and will be up soon, as all the past columns of this author are on:
http://o3.indiatimes.com/mousetrap
But in case if you are curious to know what has been written about you, I’ll just copy the bit on you. Here it goes:
Home-cooked 2
Mahanandi – http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/
As I said, many. many food blogs around, and I’m going to have to repeat the subhead. Sue me. and I’m going to get really lazy and give you a review by the friend who recommended the site to me, Megha Murthy (no mean cook herself). She says ‘Mahanandi gives me a chance to revisit recipes that I would otherwise have to ask Mom about. Plus I like how warm and friendly Indira is and how that translates into making her recipes more approachable. She instantly gives you the “I can try this!” feeling. And of course, her pictures! Gawd! She can make one perspire for a raw dondakaaya!’
And here’s my bit – Way to go, Indira! 🙂
Comment by Shilpi — March 4, 2007 @ 9:01 pm
woh!!! thats a nice compliment indira!!! really u are great and thank you shilpi for letting us all know about it!!!
Comment by Padmaja — March 5, 2007 @ 4:37 am
Indira,
Can you give some recipes using the Punjabi wadis? I tried to make it like our vankaya-minapa vadiyalu koora, but it was missing something.
thanks
Padmaja
Comment by Padmaja — March 5, 2007 @ 6:14 am
Hi,
Punjabi wadi’s are pretty similar to Mangori and I love them in a simple yogurt sauce.
But dont wadis need more cooking time than Mangori?
g
Comment by g — March 5, 2007 @ 7:57 am
Dear Indira,
Congrats. You deserve very bit of the appreciation and praise for your truly wonderful labor of love ‘Mahanadi’. And congrats for winning the best Indi-food blog award. Hats off to you.
I just tried your version of Senaga Pappu Payasam and it tastes heavenly. Thanks for the recipe.
Sapna
Comment by Sapna — March 5, 2007 @ 9:16 am
Freshma: Usually adding water little bit extra makes them to cook to tender. You have to use your own judgement about the water quantity.
MIL asked for it, then it must be good.:)
Hi Anupama: Black colored water, no that’s not normal. Residue, you mean like froth, yes that happens when you cook lentils of all types.
Hope you had a wonderful meal yesterday.
We are doing good, thanks Madhuli. Yes, I like wadis too. They are my new find here in Seattle.
Shilpi: Thanks very much for taking time to post the comment and excerpt from the article. I enjoyed reading about Mahanandi.
Hi Padmaja, thanks. I’m planning to prepare some recipes with wadis. I will definitely blog about them.
Hi G: Wadis and mangoris, I am unfamiliar with both these things. This is the first time I ever bought wadis. We usually do not make this type of dried stuff in Nandyala.
Hi Sapna: Thanks and glad to hear that you tried and liked the payasam recipe.
Comment by Indira — March 5, 2007 @ 9:19 am
Hi Indira ji,
I really appreciate you writing about “Down with plagiarism”. Its in real bad taste that some well known protals are picking up good stuff from food blogs without their permission. Food bloggers really put in a lot of hard work into writing recipes and taking pictures and then posting them on their web site. Hail their effort. Much respect to you and all other food bloggers for this and yes, down with plagiarism.
Indira ji and Ms. G-Mangoris are softer much softer, like moong daal fresh fried pakodis (they make fantastic raita and curry with potatoes), while wadis/varris are with lots more spice and are shade dried, just like papads-wadis and papads are speciality of my home town Amritsar and also lots of places in Rajasthan, especially Bikaner.
One of my favorite recipe with wadis is mooli-wadi: grated moolis (from which water has been squeezed out totally) sauted with a bit of zeera, haldi, salt and red-chilli powder and to that you add broken wadis and cook on sim/low heat with the pan covered-add a bit of amchur or squirt of a lime and you are in for a scrumptuous dish. Wadis don’t totally become soft, unlike the soaked pakodis. For dry dishes like mooli-wadi, you don’t presoak them, while for aloo-wadi 9another Punjabi favorite), you add them right in the beginning, so they get considerably soft after cooking.
Hope you are having a nice day,
regards,
musical.
Indira replies:
Hi Musical, thanks for your supporting words about the protest event and also for publishing a post about it on your blog. I greatly appreciate the gesture.
Also many thanks for taking time to explain about wadi and mangories and for the mooli-wadi recipe. I love it and will definitely try it in future. I am actually planning to prepare a recipe with wadi, potato and brinjal today (alu-vangi wadi).
Comment by musical — March 5, 2007 @ 10:45 am
Hi Indiraji,
Would appreciate if you can provide recipe for authentic spicy Punjabi Vadis..
Many thanks…have a nice day!
Regards
Lalit
Comment by Lalit Bhatia — March 7, 2007 @ 8:02 am
Indira,
Where can we find the recipe for the wadi? I can’t find a link to it, except the one for the photo.
Thanks,
Mekhala
Comment by Mekhala — March 12, 2007 @ 6:51 am
Alright, I realised they are store bought and you didn’t make them from scratch. I’ll look for them at my local Indian grocery store. Thanks, Mekhala
Comment by Mekhala — March 12, 2007 @ 7:45 am
Courtesy: http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=12908
Lentil Dumplings, Dry, How to make?
Bari or Badi or Barian
Note from Mamta: These are very spicy, dry dumplings, used in many Indian dishes. They should be made in summer months as they need hot sun to dry quickly. If you live in a cold country, a conservatory or a window sill is ideal for this purpose. They are made in bulk. Once dry, they can be stored in jars/boxes for use through the year. I keep mine in a plastic bag, in the freezer, to retain the freshness. Bari can also be spelled as Vadian/Vadi or Warian/Wari or Wadian/Wadi.
Before cooking, you need to break them gently, by wrapping them in a kitchen towel and hitting them gently with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer. Then fry the pieces for a few seconds in 1 tsp. oil. They are now ready to be added to any dish of your choice. I often use them without frying.
Adding 5-6 baries to a Potato curry or Khitchri or Khichri,’ lifts’ them up. They can also be added to various vegetable curries, meat dishes, rice pulaos etc., to give these dishes a distinctive spicy flavour. They can be soaked in water, mashed and used as stuffing for parathas, Kachori and Kasta Kachories. Makes approximately 700 gm.
Ingredients
• 500 gm. urad/urd/urid or black gram dal, skinless
• 375 gm. petha or ash gourd. If this is not available, use same amount of cauliflower flowerets, but petha is best because of it’s fibre content.
• 125 gm. ginger
• 175 gm. green chillies or more
• 125 gm. cleaned coriander leaves, washed and drained
• 50-60 gm. black cardamom seeds, coarsely ground
• 60 gm. whole Panch Pooran
• 200 gm. coarsely ground red chillies
• 100 gm. coarsely ground black pepper
• 60 gm. fennel or sonf seeds, coarsely ground
• 25 gm. cloves, coarsely ground or pounded
• 25 gm. whole cumin seeds
• 10 gm cumin powder
• 25 gm. black cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. mace powder
• 1/4 of nutmeg, freshly grated
• 15 gm. asafetida or hing powder
• 15 gm. cinnamon powder
Buy ingredients from a recommended supplier, Spices of India. For more information, see here.
Instructions
1. Coarsely grind urad dal in a coffee grinder.
2. Soak in enough water to cover 1/2 inch above the dal and leave for a couple of hours. It will absorb water and become like a thick batter.
3. Make a shallow well in the centre, by lifting out 1/2 a cup of the mix. Add asafoetida powder in the well and cover with the 1/2 cup of mix you had removed to make the well.
4. Leave overnight in a warm place, to let it rise a little.
5. Clean, wash and chop petha or cauliflower, grate and squeeze all water out. Keep aside.
6. Grind ginger, green chillies and coriander leaves, all together, in a food processor.
7. Measure all spices into the bowl with the dal.
8. Mix all ingredients with the dal and beat vigorously. You may need to add a little water if it is too stiff. It needs to be of a stiff, dropping consistency. If you put a blob of this mix in a jug or glass of water, it should float to the surface due to trapped air. This trapped air is responsible for making the baries light.
9. Spread a clean cloth on a clean surface, like a tray in the sun. This amount needs 2 trays. You can use trays lightly greased with oil.
10. Place(drop) small blobs of about 1 inch diameter, like pakoras, onto the cloth.
11. Leave them in the hot sun, until bone dry (very dry). Store in airtight containers or plastic bags. Freezer is good, if you have a large one.
Best Regards,
Comment by Lalit Bhatia — March 16, 2007 @ 9:01 am