Maddur Vade/ Semolina rice onion fritters from Maddur District

Maddur Vade is specialty snack available in Maddur district of Karnataka State, India. It is a fritter made of semolina, rice and All-purpose flour with onion, chilies and so on. It is a snack that you can enjoy during a train journey between Bangalore and Mysore.  However, I never got a chance to take that route so far, but maybe in future if get chance I am going to take it. 

In India, majority of people do long distance travel to various places by train. Train service is one of the well equipped affordable transportation. Longest train journey I have undertaken is took when I had to visit New Delhi, by Kerala Express.  It takes about approximately about 72 hours. Train usually leaves Trivandrum on time, but somehow does get delayed by the time it reaches New Delhi. When you reach every station, you can hear vendors   calling chaya kappi/ Tea, coffee and selling goodies. I don’t know how they sell quite a lot in a few minutes that the trains usually halt. There are also a few stations, you can get some  special goodies, for example in  Kollam  it is parippu vada,  at Eranakulam  it is  meals  packet consisting of rice and curries, at Trichur it is  banana chips and in Palakad it will be Halwa and Pazham pori and when train reaches neighboring  state Tamil Nadu, you can get  good Idly ( steamed rice cakes) with sambhar and coffee, like list goes on. Just like this in Maddur station they sell this Vada even got name after its place. 

When I searched Google for a recipe it came up with tons. I knew by experience that some exact proportion of ingredients is required to make vada tasty and crispy.  When I looked into the ingredients list I found out that it has semolina, rice and all purpose flour.  Semolina and rice will take care of crispiness where as the all purpose flour acts as binder and onion give tastiness. Addition of coconut and peanut gives crunchiness, spicy part is taken care by green chilies and curry and coriander leaves will enhance the flavor. 

I know deep fried goodies are not good for your health, but still you if are carving for some what you will do, just go and make it? Yes I did that. One evening for tea, I made this snack, my little one and hubby told me they taste good. Since we don’t know the authentic taste, I can’t vouch for that, but still it taste really good and crispy. I am a fan of crispy fritters than soft ones. One advantage is that you can put it all together in less than 30 minutes without any soaking, grinding and so on.  If you want crispy snack go for it, here is the recipe.

One Year ago: Asparagus Stir fry

Two Year ago: Russian Rye bread
Print recipe from here

What you need

Semolina/Rava: ½ cup

Rice flour: ½ cup

All purpose flour: ¼ cup

Cumin seeds: ½ teaspoon

Green chili: 1 no ( chopped finely)

Curry leaves: 2 tablespoon (chopped  finely)

Cilantro/ Coriander leaves: 2 tablespoon (Chopped finely)

Onion: ¼ cup chopped finely

Asafetodia: 1/8 teaspoon

Coconut: 2 tablespoon (I used desiccated coconut)

Peanut: ¼ cup (un-roasted, if you want you can crush it in food processor, I used whole)

Ghee/ Clarified butter: 1 tablespoon

Salt: ½ teaspoon

Water:  ½ cup

Canola oil: 4 cups

How I made

In a medium pan add semolina, rice flour and all purpose flour add salt and mix well; to this add cumin seeds and ghee. 

Then add rest of the ingredients and gradually add water to form stiff dough. 

In thick bottomed pan heat canola oil on a medium flame until it reach 375 F. You can also check the temperature of oil by dropping a small piece of dough into the oil. If it rises immediately then oil is ready for frying. 

Divide the dough into 15 equal size balls.  Take a Ziploc and place on ball of dough in the center and press it with your hand or wrist to thin circle of about 1/8 cm thickness. 

Carefully drop the vade into hot oil. Fry in medium low flame until it becomes golden brown in color. It takes about 3 minutes. You can fry two –three vade at a time. 

Once they are golden brown color remove them from hot oil using a slotted spoon and transfer to kitchen tissue to remove excess oil. 

Enjoy the hot vade with chutney and Tea. (I enjoyed without any chutney)

Preparation time:  45 minutes

Yield: 15

Verdict: Crispy Yummy

Will you make it again: Yes.

 I am linking this to  Hearth and Soul blog hop #97 hosted here.