lentil donut/masala vadai

Ingredients

For the batter:
2 1/2 cups channa dal (soaked in slightly salted water for a good 4-5 hours)
1 teaspoon saunf (fennel seeds)
1/4 inch ginger
3 cloves of garlic
A generous pinch of black pepper powder

For the flavouring mix:
1/4 inch ginger, finely cut
2 cloves of garlic, finely cut
2 largish green chillis, finely cut
A handful of coriander and mint, coarsely cut
1 large red onion diced finely (2 if they are small to medium)
Salt to taste
A small pinch of red chilli powder (if you need the extra kick)

For the frying:
Some groundnut oil or rice bran oil.

Method

Drain the water completely from the soaked channa dal. Dunk the, by now slightly soft, dal into a mixer along with the fennel seeds and the rest of batter ingredients. Add a tablespoon of water and start grinding. Initially for about 20 sec and then pulse 3 times for about 5 sec each. The batter by now should be quite coarse and the fennel, garlic, ginger and pepper incorporated. If the batter resembles a gooey paste, then you've gone too far. The ideal batter should have a mix of pulped dal, coarse dal and almost whole dal. Scoop out a bit in your hand - if it feels grainy and stony, then it's perfect.
Transfer the batter to a large mixing bowl and refrigerate for 30 min.
Chop all the flavouring mix ingredients according to the instructions above.
Remove the batter from the fridge and all the flavour mix, except for the onions and salt. Let this now rest until you are ready to fry them up.
2-3 min before you ready to fry, add the onions and salt and give everything a thorough swirl.
Heat the oil and drop a small roundel of the batter to test. If it raises to the top, the temperature is right and you can start.
If you are comfortable patting the batter nice and thin, please do so, else shape it into small roundels. The later is much easier if you are doing all of this on your own!
Fry until a nice golden brown.
Serve with either coconut or coarse coriander chutney.

or

Masala Vadai:
Step 1: Soak one cup of channa dhal at least two hours. After washing and draining water completely, grind the dhal in the mixi with required salt only for few seconds so as to get coarse consistency,
Step 2: Separately coarsely grind a small piece of ginger, a few pods of garlic, two green chillies, one tsp saunf and half tsp of curry leaf powder.
Step3: Cut one big onion into small pieces.
Step 4: Once the oil is getting heated for frying, mix all the above by hand (Add also one tsp of rice flour if available) and fry the vadai shaped dhal when the oil is sufficiently heated.
Note:According to the quantity of vadai, increase the proportions of all other items.