Hesaru Bele Kosambari Vade

We as a society never wasted anything, especially food. We always salvaged the saddest of foods. If nothing else worked, the cattle of the house or neighbor was always there to do the honor! Now our lifestyle has changed and many of us sadly don't care much about throwing that left over or a fruit past it's prime.

So last Ugadi Amma was with us and we had great fun. The initial Bevu-Bella exchange was done, the elaborate supper of Holige, Chitranna, green Beans palya, Kosambari, Payasa  and Holige saaru was done complete on Banana leaf (they are selling fresh Banana leaf for $1.50 in New Jersey), we were left with some more Holige (always welcome and never goes stale) and Kosambari. Poor dear Kosambari typically comes with a rather short shelf life. So no one wanted anything to do with Kosambari the next morning.  My clever mother had this trick up her sleeves. She converted the rather sad and watery Kosambari into deep fried vade and they were gone before everyone had had their fill.. We all were left longing for more.

For the Kosambari, we will need:

Split Moong dal /Hesaru bele 1 cup picked and cleaned
Split Channa dal/Kadale bele 1 tsp 
Carrot grated 2 -4 tsbp
Coconut grated 1/4 cup
Peanut oil  1 tsp
Mustard seeds 1/8 tsp
Hing a dash
Green chillies slit or dry red chillies broken 2-3
Curry leaves 8-10
Salt and lemon juice /grated raw mango to taste.


Method:

• Wash the dals in multiple changes of water and soak it in fresh water for a few hours. Mother tells me that for every auspicious feast, we need to make two different types of Kosambari the Moong dal one and the Channa dal one. But in a 3-4 people household, sometimes it is just not worth the effort. So the short cut to the problem is adding that teaspoon of Channa dal! So be it.
• Once the dal is tender, (try and eat some, and they should not be hard), drain the water very well and place it in the serving dish along with grated carrot and grated coconut along with grated mango if using.
• Prepare the Oggarane. Heat the oil and throw in the mustard seeds, hing, curry leaves and chillies. once the spices stop  spluttering, pour it over the dal. Adjust salt and lemon juice and serve it immediately.

Once salt is added to the Kosambari it will need to be served immediately. Otherwise it will become soggy and sad!

For the Vade now...

 We will need,

Left over Kosambari 1 cup
Rice flour a few tablespoons ( as needed)
Salt if needed
Dill leaves 1/4 cup chopped (optional)
Ginger grated 1 tsp
Oil to deep fry.

Method:

• Squeeze the Kosambari to remove any moisture. The more moisture the problematic the vada will be.
• Place the well drained Kosambari in a grinder and grind it into a chunky mixture. 
• Place the oil in a Kadai and set it on medium heat
• Throw a tablespoon of rice flour, salt, dill leaves, ginger  into the ground dal and mix. If the mixture can be gathered into a patty, the mixture is ready to go, else if the mixture is too wet, add one more table spoon of rice flour and check. Repeat until the mixture can be gathered into a patty/vada.
• Drop the patty into hot oil and deep fry till golden in color. Remove from the oil using a slotted spoon and serve hot. It is delicious.