Making vadis/bori at home in the oven:an adventure

Let me confess-the store-bought vadis taste like impostors. Mom and grandmom used to make urad dal (kolai er dal) vadis/bori at home and dry them in the sunlight. California sees enough sun, but I am wary of birds adding their own ingredients to my creation. ( Update: I tried to dry them in the sun by covering with cling wrap).

I looked up possibilities with an alternative source of dry heat -the conventional oven. I decided to make my own version after consulting my mom and Ashwani Uncle (from a food group on FB, thanks for the bake-cool cycle tip). One recipe suggested to use the lowest temperature for 4-5 hours. Made sense because the home made vadis were dried through the day.

Method:

1. Soak urad dal overnight or for 8 hrs, or until soft. (You may also make moong vadis similarly)
2. Make a paste using Magic Bullet, add salt, hing, and a pinch of red chili powder halfway through. (Ashwani uncle also suggested coarsely ground Cumin seeds, Black Pepper, Black cardamon  and Cloves for extra kick)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Heat oven to the lowest. Add a thin film of oil on an Aluminium foil and place 1 tsp batter, pat with your fingers if you want, to make suitable shapes. (flattened disc traditionally).
4. Alternately bake in 3 heat-cool cycles for an hour each. Best done on a weekend.

Recipe with vadis.

I made climbing spinach and shrimp with the vadis. Follow this recipe with shrimp. And crumble vadi/bori on top.

Another popular recipe in Bengali households is stirred fried green with fried and crumbled bori.


You can use rest of the batter to make dahi vadas.

You might be interested in the YouTube video that shows how to make 
Goyna Bori  Link 1
Link 2
Bori pulao