Vengaya Vadhagam

Vengaya Vadagam has a long story behind it at my home. When we were in our school days, every summer cousins and aunts would assemble at my uncle s house and gear up for the Vathal season of the year. We would under my Grandmom s leadership make all kinds of Vathals and Vadagams. The best of them was Vengaya Vadagam as it had a long process to make and tasted out of the world. I still remember paati sitting in the middle of the hall and instructing everybody to make this, to get that.. When I made this vadagam this year, I was remembering her every minute. There are many things which I got to learn from my grandmom, like how to play Pazhanguli, how to tie flowers, how to make athirasam, how to make vadagam, etc. I will proudly say that Im her only granddaughter who knows all this, and learnt it from her.I miss her so much . Wish she is still there with me life will surely be different than what it is. I miss you Paati

Going on to today's Vadagam.

The ingredients are

Big Onions - 1 kg 

Urad Dal - 1/4 kg

Garlic - 1 cup

Red Chili powder - 4 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1 tbsp

Mustard Seeds - 2 tbsp

Curry leaves - 2 cups finely chopped

Fenugreek Powder - 1 tbsp

Salt as per taste

Method :

Peel the onions and cut them into small pieces

Soak the urad dal and pulse it into a coarse paste

Pulse the garlic pods into small pieces

Take the onions, garlic and urad dal in a bowl add red chili powder, fenugreek powder, turmeric powder and salt

Add the mustard seeds and chopped curry leaves

Mix well to form a nice moist paste. It should be in the consistency of pakoda

I use an aluminum tray lined with plastic sheets to lay small quantities of the mixture to be dried under the sun

A completely filled tray

A close up view of the vadagam

This is how the vadagam will look after sun drying for two days

A bowl full of sun dried Vengaya Vadagam

Vengaya Vadagam after being deep fried

Check what my fellow bloggers are cooking for the Day 3 of the marathon