Adai - A Delicious South Indian Tiffin, IDli, Vada & Dosa

Since childhood I had tagged along with my mom to many places. I would help her voluntarily with the kitchen work. I would never shy away from slogging whenever there was need to get work done.

My early memories of tiffin were of grinding at the stone, rice, urad dal into a thick consistency. Mom would soak it all and ask me to grind them and keep it ready for the evening tifiin. If there was an item missing I was expected to rush to the Mozamjahi Market to fetch and include the same too. These were my first lessons in cooking from my mom from a tender age. The instructions were strictly followed and with time I would know how to grind for each of those batter-based tiffins like Idli, Vada, Dosa and Adai.

For Idli and Dosa the urad dal and rice would be soaked separately for a few hours in 1:4 proportion where for every one measure of urad there would be four of rice soaked.
If we kids wanted vada another tiffin then one more measure of urad dal would be soaked and ground to a fluffy paste and immediately deep fried into vadas.

Vada:
Urad would be ground separately first until it was fluffy, buttery and the paste filled half the vessel. This soaked lentil, when constantly ground with little water, would fluff up to 10 times its volume! Very airy and very soft batter would be so good for making vadas.

Vada is made of urad dal and a bit of salt and asoefotida. a little is taken on a wet hand and flattened into a roundel and a deep hole punched in the middle with a finger and then deep fried in hot oil. Its a staple tiffin all over Southern India and best when eaten when just out from the hot oil pan. The best accompaniment is thin sambar and fresh coconut chutney.

Idli and Dosa:
When urad is ground, next the rice is ground and mixed into the urad paste and let to rest for one whole night so that it ferments overnight. Idlis are steamed which is said to be the best nutrition-wise and best for breakfast. Again sambar, fresh coconut chutney and idli powder is best as accompaniment for this all time favourite of the South Indians. In fact Idli is the nickname given to all Indians hailing from South India!!

The same batter can be used to spread delicious and crisp dosas. Idli is steamed whereas dosa is spread on a hot plate and a little oil is added to the sides and on top so that it cooks to a nice crispy paper-thin circles. The same accompaniments are popular for the dosa too. For dosa many like an additional mate in the form of potato masala curry. And then there are many types of dosa with fillings too.

Idlis, Vada and Dosa all belong to one group.
Adai is a bit heavier with many lentils plus rice and other spices to pep up the taste. Its protein rich tiffin and even if we have one or two it is filling. Too much of it could upset the stomach, so many mothers restrict the numbers to each member of the family.

Adai:
Now for the most popular recipe of the Adai which I used to grind for my mom since the time I was very young.

Rice 2 cups
Tuvar dal 1/4 cup
Pesar dal 1/4 cup
Bengal gram dal 1/4 cup
Urad dal 1/4 cup
Red chillies 15 numbers
Curry leaves a generous handful
Asofoetida a generous 2 Teaspoons
Salt to taste. Rock salt best for Adai.

All these are picked for stones or impurities. Then washed and soaked for at least an hour in 3 cups of water. When you pinch bengal gram dal it should break. This is a test to see whether the dals and rice have soaked in water.

All the above ingredients are ground together in thick, course paste.
If this batter is fermented for at least 8 hours one need not worry about digestion problems. Fermented batter would make a lot of difference to the taste also.
Some add finely chopped onions just before shallow frying the adai.
Adai batter is spread on a hot plate just as you would a dosa. Though it takes a little bit more time to cook on both sides and a generous dose of oil should turn adai into a crispy tiffin.
Best accompaniments are avial (a medlay of all vegetables stewed in its own juices, salt, coconut milk, cummin seeds, curry leaves and coconut oil), jaggery, butter, jackfruit jam, ginger chutney.
Since it contains all the dals plus the carb in the rice it makes for an ideal meal by itself and is very filling too.

Through the years I have experimented with different proportions, different ingredients like onions, ginger, fresh corriander, drumstick leaves, omam or ajwain, jeera, methi, green and red chillies, etc to give my adais a special taste each time.
My sons would love these tiffins and I enjoyed looking at them eat with relish.

Cheers!
Mahalakshmi