Kulakkar rice is an heirloom red rice of South India. This rice is mostly used to make idli or dosa, but here is a crispy masala vada using the kulallar rice which my family thoroughly enjoys. As I have repeatedly said – Let the food be our medicine – Consume food which keeps our cholesterol in check rather than has medicine which controls it. Indulge in foods that boosts the immune system and strengthen the nerves rather than vitamin tablets for it. Kulakkar rice does just that.
Did you know that the word Rice became a part of the English dictionary only in the 13th century from the french word ris, Italian RIso and greek Oryza. How did the Europeans get their hands on rice? Alexander the Great and his team during their expedition to India in 326 BC noted and possibly took back ‘a strange plant, standing in water and sown in water beds and giving large produce which the locals called “Arisi” — the Tamil word for uncooked rice.
Today, this small grain is at the center of a debate, on whether eating it makes people gain weight. Rice is cereal and a whole grain. The debate that consuming rice leads to obesity falls flat when we understand that eating a whole grain will not make us obese, sedentary lifestyle of changed to doing desk jobs, being seated all the while, and eating the more polished varients of the rice which lacks in nutrients and fiber compared to its pals the red and the black varients with the bran.
Here is where I purchased the rice from.
https://www.ulamart.com/en/rice/
Tips to get the perfect vada
- Drain the soaked rice and pulses completely off the water before grinding.
- If the batter doesn’t hold shape due to excess water, add a spoon of rice flour.
- Do not grind the rice and dal to a smooth paste. It has to be coarse for the vada to be crisp.
Here is the detailed recipe
Recipe for Kulakkar paruppu vada
Kulakkar paruppu vada
- 1 cup Kulakkar rice
- 1 cup Bengal gram dal
- 2 piece Onion finely chopped.
- 1 inch Ginger
- 2 Piece Green chilly
- A few Curry leaves.
- 4 pods Garlic
Soak the rice and dal in water for 2 hours.
Grind together the ginger, chilly and garlic to a coarse paste seperately. Grinding it with the rice will not grind it properly, as the rice is only coarsely ground.
Drain the water completely from the soaked rice and dal.
Add the salt, ground ginger chilly garlic paste to it.
Grind the mixture to a coarse paste.
Add the cut onions to the ground mixture.
Add the finely cut curry leaves to it. Mix well.
Heat oil in an iorn skillet.
Take a spoon full of the ground mixture and shape it to a flat cylinder of 1/4th inch thickness.
When the oil is heated and ready, slowly slide the vada mixture into the oil to fry.
Fry on medium heat untill the vada is crisp and freid on both sides.
Serve with chutney
Naturally Hema 