Ulundu Adai

Ulundu adai can be called the king of adai! Traditionaly adai is made with a mixture of toor dal (pigeon pea), muzhu (whole) ulundu (black lentil) and par boiled rice. The wonderful aroma which comes when this adai is roasted in the griddle is from the generous amount of curry leaves and asafoetida that goes in during the grinding process and the ginely oil used for roasting the adai. I add cumin seeds as it is very healthy and also gives some extra taste to the adai.

My mom makes one of the best adais I have had ... always very cripsy and red in color.

Adai is an oil guzzler.Experienced housewives, use their bare hands to spread the batter on the hot tava. Once you make the batter, you can store in the refridgerator and use it for a week. With fresh batter you can always make crisp adai. The refridgerated batter will yield adai that are very soft but tastes good because it has fermented well.

I am sending this recipe for MyLegumeLoveAffair-14 hosted by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook.

Here is the recipe from my mom's kitchen.

Ingredients:
Boiled rice - 1 cup (Idli sooji can also be used. The proportion is same)
Muzhu ulundu/black lentil/white lentil- 1/2 cup
Togari bele/Toor dal/Pigeon pea - 2/3 cup
Red chilli - 4-5
Pepper corns (optional) - 5
Cumin seed (optional) - 2 tspAsafoetida - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 15-20 leavessalt
Gingely oil - for shallow frying
Note: Traditionaly ginegely oil is used as it imparts a wonderful aroma to the adai. But any other refined oil can also be used for roasting.

Method:
Soak the rice black lentil and pigeon pea overnight.
Grind them coarsely along with red chilli, curry leaves, asafoetida and salt. The ground batter should be of thick consistency.


Heat the griddle or a flat pant. Pour a ladle full of the batter and flatten the adai with hand in a circular motion dipping the hand often in cold water to avoid burning of the hand.
You can spread it using the back of the ladle, but since the batter is thick in consistency, this would make the adai thick.
Optionally you can add some water to the batter to make it thin in consistency and use the back of the ladle to flatten the adai.


Make a small hole in the centre with spoon and pour oil generously (1 tbsp). Drizzle oil on the sides as well.


Let it brown, flip over. Pour another helping of oil, for this side to be fried. When both sides are evenly fried, to a golden brown colour, the adai can be removed from the tava.
Before the next round, take a piece of moist cloth or Vazhai Pindi (banana stem), and clean the tava of the left overs.
Your next adai will also come out as good as the previous one.
The adai can be served with butter.
Personally I love to have adai with orange peel pulikachal (recipe coming soon).

Preparation time: About 10-20 mins (grinding), 5 mins (To roast the adai)
Serves: 4 people