Crispy, brown and tasty – that’s what Kerala’s parippu vada (fritters made with lentils) are known for. Made with a handful of ingredients, this savoury goes best with ‘chaya’ (tea) at 4pm. Made with lentils, shallots, onion, ginger, chillies, and curry leaves, this snack follows an easy recipe, which is also why it is exclusively popular in tea stalls or chayakadas, even though its available at restaurants as well.
Other than the chaya and parippu vada combination, this fried snack is also best paired with apple bananas, which are also natively known as poovan pazham.
Now that you’ve gotten an idea of this recipe, here’s how you can make it at home:
Ingredients
- 300 gms split peas, Bengal gram split or pigeon peas
- 50 gms shallots
- 50 gms onion
- 1 inch long ginger
- 3 green chilli
- 2 dry red chilli
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- Salt to taste
- ½ tsp asafoetida (hing)
- 100 ml cooking oil
Method:
Step 1: Wash and clean the pulses and lentils thoroughly. Soak the mix in water for about three hours, and then drain.
Note: Make sure the mix is completely dry before adding it into the blender.
Step 2: Without adding water, grind the mix in the blender. But before you do this step, keep two tablespoons of the mix aside.
Step 3: Finely chop the shallots, onion ginger, green chilli and dry red chilli together.
Step 4: Add the chopped ingredients and two tablespoons of mix set aside into the blended mix, combine well.
Step 5: Also add the asafoetida and salt to taste to the mix.
Step 6: Moisten your palm with some water and take a small amount of batter, flatten it and shape it into a small and round patty.
Step 7: Take a pan with a thick base, add oil. Once heated, reduce the flame to medium, and check the oil temperature by dropping tiny dollops of the batter in the oil. If it rises to the surface of the oil quickly, you are good to go.
Step 8: Carefully slide the patties one-by-one, and deep fry them in batches, till both sides turn golden brown.
Step 9: Once fried, allow it to cool before serving it fresh with a cup of tea or a banana.
