Dal Dahi Vada Chat

This recipe is not something new as I said earlier, A new wine in an old bottle, A slight twist to our authentic Urad Dal vada recipe, A twist which our customers loved, so  has come to e-book, as my judges, critics showed a thumbs up sign, It all started with something I promised my kids I would prepare it when they came back from college, Now, what was it , It is something everybody loves , Gobi Manchurian, my kids love it as everybody who has tasted it do, It is a fusion of Indo-chinese cooking, but,  decided to make something else, ( Just like I twist my reicpes!!).   When Kalyani announced this month's Magic mingle - Urad dal and Lemon, I have been thinking, and I came up with this, I was a bit worried to post, as one of the posts I made with Haldiram's samosa and turned it into a chat, one of the readers thought that it was ridiculous to make chat like that, Personally I feel their is no such specific recipe that you have to make chat only with these, right ?.  In Bangalore we have so many chat center's and you would be surprised to know the different kind of chats people make, eat and enjoy.  Thinking in that line I thought why not when you like Vada, Dahi in your chat why not turn it into a chat., to make slightly healthier I added some more Dals to it, But, it totally your choice to make it the way you want to give it a twist.., I will give you some variations in the end.
Coming to my recipe.. what and how I made it. read through...

URAD DAL VADA CHAT

INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE VADAS
1 Cup Urad Dal
2 tbsp Channa dal
1 tbsp Moong dal
2 tbsp cup Horse Gram / Kollu
1 tbsp Poha / Avalakki /thick flattened Rice flakes
1/4 cup +2 tbsp water
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 capsicum / Pepper
3 to 4 Green chillies
1 tsp coarsely crushed Pepper
1'' Fresh Ginger
salt as required ( 1 and 1/2 tsp)
A pinch of Asafoetida
A pinch of Baking soda

FOR THE CHAT
2 Carrots finely grated
2 Onions chopped fine

1 tsp Chilli powder
1 tbsp Lemon juice
2 to 4 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Chat masala powder

FOR GARNISHING
Fine Sev and spiced Mixture ( I have used murmura mixture) as required
Sweet Chutney
Green Chutney

FOR DAHI MASALA
1 Cup of fresh thick Yogurt / Dahi / soy yogurt
1/w tsp sugar
1/2 tsp Chat masala
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp Chilli powder ( as required)

METHOD:

FOR MAKING VADAS
Soak Urad dal, channa dal, moong dal and Horse gram for 3 hours.  Wash and soak poha saperately.
Chop Capsicum / green pepper, Green chillies, curry leaves and crushed Black Pepper.
Grind all the soaked Ingredients above with ginger and poha in it. use very little water, by sprinkling or tbsp water now and then, and grinding it into a smooth paste,
Important point: Do not add too much water, this will make the batter obsorb more oil and vadas will be very oily and kind of losses its texture, Once it is completely grinded well, you will notice that batter when picked will not stick to your hands, it will fluffy.

Once the batter is ready add all the other Ingredients mix well and fry them in hot oil, make small round balls with a small hole in the middle and fry them. Heat the oil, hold your palm on top of the oil ( not very close ), when you feel the heat that means your oil is hot, keep the flame to medium add a drop of the batter to check if it is hot, within a few seconds if the batter springs on to the top that means your oil is perfect. Now fry the batter as vadas, once they are golden red in colour, take them out of the oil and drain them on a kitchen paper.

METHOD TO MAKE THE CHAT
Grate carrots, chop onion, and all the other Ingredients under chat mix well and keep aside, do not add salt.
Once the vadas are ready add salt and lemon juice to the chat otherwise it will start giving out water, so add it in the end mix well just before serving.

METHOD TO MAKE DAHI MASALA
Take 1 or 2 cups of Plain Yogurt / Dahi in a bowl to this add little salt ( not too much as vada, chat mixture all have salt in it ), then add required quantity to chat masala, chilli powder, sugar accordingly as required to the quantity of Yogurt you are using. Above I have give for the quantity of one cup mix well and use.

ASSEMBLING DAL DAHI VADA CHAT
Cut the vadas horizontally into half, place them on a plate, sprinkle the chat mixture on top of it, then add the sev or some spicy mixture on top of it, add sweet chutney, green chutney as required to the Dal vada, you can enjoy the chat as it is or you can add Dahi Masala to it and enjoy the chat.

We all loved the chat with Dahi / Yogurt Masala, it was very tasty.  So, I decided to call this Dal Dahi Vada Chat.
This was my chat as I just ate one (a little bit one was mine!!) , cut the vadas horizontally into half, sprinkle the chat on top of it as shown in the pictures, then pour Dahi Masala on top of it. Enjoy...

This Chat goes to Magic Mingle of Kalyani's this month she gave us Urad dal and Lemon juice., tune in I have some more recipes on this combo..

VARIATION: You can just make this with only Urad dal,  You can omit capsicum/peppers from this above recipe, Make it VEGAN by not using Yogurt in this recipe or you can use soy yogurt.