Stone Ground Dal Vadas

In Bangalore choosing a rented house in your budget means compromising on luxuries you are used to in Mumbai. It means you get a bathroom with a huge rough granite stone right in the middle as a perk! The broker tells you, "These days you will not get a washing stone in new style bathroom Madam!" As if I was dying to have it.

Then I look at the kitchen. I have seen it in many kitchens but did not have one in my past rented houses. Two to be exact. My first house had a modern kitchen. The last one was a Madrasi kitchen but I did not complain. This one is a Kongati Kitchen (Don't kill me, I'm depressed with what I got) with a grinding stone in the middle of a kitchen platform that is so small that it barely holds the gas stove, oven and mixie.

I don't want to be spending a bomb on my rent so I settled for this house. I refuse to call it home. It is difficult for anyone one who has not lived in a rented place to understand this. I just cannot forget that I am in the south !

Yet when I saw this grinding stone I knew instantly I was going to use it atleast sometimes even if it made the kitchen look uncool. Now now we got to make good of whatever is available rigth! So I decided to make Stone Ground Dal Vadas. I had used a flat stone grinder called paata in my village but it is the first time I used this type of a grinder and found it easy to handle.


Ingredients

1 cup chana dal / split chickpea
2 green chilies
a handful of curry leaves
salt to taste
oil to fry

Soak the chana dal for 2-4 hrs. Drain water. Grind in the stone grinder without water OR in a wet grinder attachment of a mixie along with green chilies. Keep the texture coarse. Mix in the curry leaves and salt. Shape into small balls. Flatten them between the palms. Fry till golden in hot oil.

Serve with any type of chutney. I made Mint Cilantro Chutney to go with it.