I remember during my childhood days, my father would buy this thavala vadai whenever he goes to the Town. We stayed 8 km away from the main city and he goes to the main Madurai town during the first week of the month. There used to be a very famous bajji, bonda and vadai shop, a small brahmin mess. My dad buys thavala vadai from there for my grandmother and many other snacks for us too. My grandmother is a very great fan of thavala vadai and getti chutney. She eagerly looks forward to that evening and I could still recall the happiness on her face when she opens the parcel.Somehow, I have never seen amma or paati making this at home. But I have the recipe written in my mom’s handwritten cookbook, which I looted from her during my India trip last year. I promised her that I will return her book soon, but still keeping that with me !!! This is a no onion no garlic recipe so you can make this for Navaratri and other festivals too. You can also check
Madurai special Vellai appamArisi vadaiMilagu vadaiThavala dosaiThavala adai
Thavala vadai recipe
Wash and soak the rice, toor dal, chana dal and urad dal. Soak the rice and dals separately.Soak the moong dal in a separate bowl. Soak for 2 hours.Add the red chilis also while soaking, this helps in easy grinding of chilis.
After 2 hours, drain the water and grind the rice along with toor dal, chana dal and urad dal mixture and red chilis. Add the ginger also to this.We are not grinding moong dal along with this.
Once the rice and other 3 dal mixtures are grind into a rava consistency, drain the water from moong dal and add into the mixie.Do not add any water, add 1 tbsp if needed.Pulse this once or twice.This will give nice crunchiness to the thavala vadai.Thavala vadai batter is ready now.
Just before making, add salt, coconut bits, torn curry leaves, ghee.We are going to temper mustard seeds in 1 tsp oil and add them to the batter.Add 1 tbsp curd to this batter.Mix everything well.
Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.Take out a lemon-sized portion of the batter and flatten it.Put this gently into the oil.Add in batches.
Deep fry in medium flame till both sides get nicely golden brown.Do not fry in high flame, else the inside will not get cooked.Once the oil sound subsides take it out and drain in the kitchen towel.
Repeat this for the rest of the batter.Serve it with coconut chutney.
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