Jhatpat Vadas

We have a 166,500 sq ft public library with two branches in our neighborhood. This two floored building is considerably a big sized one for a suburban town. We even get DVDs and books in several Indian regional languages. Every new hindi movie dvds are available in this library. Only point is they are always checked out. Coming to books, naturally Indian cook books are also available. Though my world does not revolve around cooking, I am tempted sometimes to visit the area where rows and rows of cook books are colorfully arranged. In one of my quests recently, I found a book on Indian food written by a non Indian. Of all the books I have seen these years by all those fanciful, Indian chefs who have world wide fans, I found this one to be simple with recipes of every day cooked food in most of the Indian homes. Though it contained a non vegetarian section and food with the spicy masalas which I don't consume, there were simple, wonderful food recipes which suit my palate.
The following is one of those which I noted from the book. It had another name but I would like to call it Jhatpat vadas, since vadas needed no soaking or grinding. They were quick to make and were delicious, crunchy, crispy even the next day. I don't think I am going to need a maddur vade recipe now.
This recipe has been adapted from Wendy Hobson's "Classsic 1000 Indian recipes".

Ingredients:
Rice Flour - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour / Maida - 1/2 cup
Semolina / Rava - 1/2 cup
Asafoetida / Hing - 1/4 tsp
Salt - about 1 & 1/4 tsp
One big onion finely chopped
Finely chopped Cilantro / Koththimera - 2 Tbs
Finely chopped green chillies - 3-4
Few finely chopped curry leaves
Oil - 3 Tbsp
Water - 3/4 cup or as needed
Oil - For frying

Method:
Heat oil in a wok / deep bottomed pan.
Excepting the last two ingredients on the list, Add everything else and make a stiff dough adding as much water as needed. Take a small ball of dough and place it in your left palm or a plastic sheet / wax paper. Flatten it with your right hand, make a hole in the center.
Carefully slip the vada (shaped dough ball) from the sides into the hot oil. Repeat the same process with the remaining dough and fry them in batches on low - medium flame till they turn golden brown and cooked through out.
Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain them on kitchen towels.

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