Cornmeal Fritters / Cornmeal Vada

Mom-in-law brought cornmeal from her sister when she returned from native last month. We used to prepare many recipes using cornmeal since many of us from my native harvest it in the fields and we get it plentiful. We mix it with dosa batter to make dosa or  make upma most of the time. Occasionally we prepare pakoda  or vada using it. We use both fine and coarse corn meal for making the recipes but the one which my MIL brought was the later. Couple of times I made dosa and today I prepared vada using it. The preparation is so simple and I thought it is a perfect recipe to share now for this monsoon.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Serves: 4-5

Ingredients:

Corn meal / Maize / Makkachola Maavu / Makki Atta – 2 cups

Rice flour – 1/4 cup

Onion – 1 no, medium size, finely chopped

Green chillies – 3 nos, finely chopped

Curry leaves – 2 strings, finely chopped

Coriander leaves – 3-5 strings, finely chopped

Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon

Salt – to taste

Asafoetida – a big pinch

Water – as required to make a dough

Oil – for deep frying

Method:

1) Take cornmeal in a mixing bowl.

2) Add onion, green chillies, curry leaves, coriander leaves, cumin seeds, salt and asafoetida. Mix well.

3) Add rice flour. Mix well. Now, Add water slowly to the corn meal mixture and make a dough. It should not be too tight or soggy.

4) When you are able to make a ball from the dough, stop adding water. Taste and adjust the salt.

5) Heat oil in a frying pan / kadai. When it hot and not smoking, pinch a gooseberry sized dough and shape it into a vada (like small patties). Put them carefully into the oil.

6) Fry till it turns golden brown and the outer part becomes crisp. Repeat the steps till the dough is over.

7) Serve hot.

Notes:

1) I used coarse yellow corn meal and hence added rice flour for easy binding and also to get crispy outer part.

2) If the dough is not binding well, you can add more rice flour or fine corn meal till you get perfect dough to make vada.

3) Cornmeal is also referred as corn flour in some places. Yellow coloured one is used in this recipe. It is different from the cornstarch (white coloured one) which we use for thickening the soups and making custard.