Vazhaippoo vadai (Plaintain flower crispies)

Ingredients

Channa dhal (Kadalai paruppu) -1 cup
Tuar dhal (Thuvaram paruppu) - 2 tablespoons
Dry red chilly - 4/5
Plaintain flower - chopped finely - 3/4 cup
Small onion (Shallots) - chopped finely - 2-3 tablespoon
Curry leaves and asafoetida for seasoning
Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Procedure

1.Soak both the dhals(lentils) together for an hour. Soak the chilly along with this. While soaking break this into two and soak. The reason breaking the chilly while frying and soaking gives  a nice colour.My mother used to say "milagaya eppavum killi podanum". Always break the chilly while cooking. I came to know the reason for this blind following recently :-)
2. Wash the dhal. Drain the water completely
3.Now comes the tricky part. All of you know for parruppu vadai the batter should be coarse. Most of the times we make a mistake by over grinding it.So here is the method where you will never go wrong.
4. Divide the dhals in to three equal parts.
5. Grind one part with chilly into a smooth paste.Keep aside
6.Grind the next part very coarsely. Just one or two whip in the blender. Check it and then if it's still not a coarse mixture, give one/two whips. Mix this with the already made smooth paste.
7.Last part just give a whip.It should be half and half.
8.Now mix everything together with required salt.
9. If you want you can even blend the plaintain flower also at the end and mix with the batter. Or you can add directly. I prefer to blend this with curry leaves. It's individual's wish.
10. Add the chopped onions and asafoetida.
11. Heat the oil in a pan for deep frying.
11. Take small lemon size balls of the batter, flatten it on your left palm and drop this on the hot oil.
12. At a time you can cook 2-3 vadas depending on the oil you are using.
13.Make sure vadas have enough space to cook. Don't add too many as it won't cook properly
15.Cook in a medium flame and serve hot with chutney.