Chettinad Kalkandu Vadai Recipe – Sweet Medhu Vada | Sweet ulundhu vadai With Video

Kalkandu Vadai (Sugar candy vada) is a Chettinad Special Sweet Medhu Vada Recipe / sweet ulundhu vadai/ Sweet Urad dal vada made especially for Diwali and Thirukarthigai Deepam festivals. Recently we had a 2 days trip to Karaikudi, Chettinad just to explore its food and other specialties. We relished an elaborate, traditional Chettinad lunch at “The Bangala” and had a pleasant stay at “Chidambara Vilas” heritage hotel. In this trip, I got a chance to taste most of the Chettinad special delicacies like Kandarappam, Vellai paniyaram with kara chutney, Thalicha idiyappam, Kosumalli, Kondakadalai Mandi, Getti kuzhambu, Paruppu urundai kulambu, More kulambu, Milagu kulambu, Payasam, some poriyal, pachadi and kootu varieties. 

We bought all the Chettinad specialty snacks from Soundaram Aachi stores. I also bought a kg of white raw rice / Maavu arisi and murukku press near Koppudai amman temple street for making Chettinad thenkuzhal by enquiring the staffs in Soundaram aachi kadai. I visited the antique stores to buy some props for blog but I din’t buy anything as I found them too costly and not worthy for its price. Finally I bought 2 Chettinad Cotton sarees as well. Totally it was a memorable trip to cherish for years. Soon I will try to make a separate post about our trip in detail with all the pictures. 

After this trip, I got tempted to try some Chettinad recipes in my kitchen and share with my readers. So I bought “100 Chettinad recipes cookbook “ and started trying them one by one. Last week Sendhil’s friends visited us. Luckily I came to know that they are from Chettinad. I became very happy and passed this book to her to know the authenticity of the recipes given in the book. 

Thanks a lot Mrs. Inba Venkatesh. She explained each and every recipe along with few corrections. She told me to try this Kalkandu vada as its one of the most special snacks recipe of Chettinad. So I tried this recipe referring the cookbook and few Youtube videos. Even though its my first attempt, it came out really well. I am very happy with the result. It tasted crispy outside and very soft inside. Its so easy to make too. Lets see how to make Chettinad special Kalkandu vadai with step by step pictures.

Check out my other Chettinad recipes in this LINK.

Wash and soak urad dal and raw rice in a bowl adding enough water. Soak for one hour.  In a big mixie jar, powder the sugar candy/ kakandu smoothly. Alternatively you can use sugar instead of sugar candy. Take the soaked dal+rice and drain the water completely. Add the soaked dal+ rice to mixie jar. Grind to a smooth paste without adding water. Powdered kalkandu helps to grind the dal smooth without water.  So do not add water, just wipe the sides of mixie jar and grind continously to make a smooth batter.  Transfer the batter to a bowl, add salt just before making vada. Mix well with a spoon to prevent batter becoming watery.Keep aside. Add 1/2 cup of water to the mixie jar and grind it to wash the jar. Transfer to another bowl and use this water for dipping your hands while shaping the vada. If you fry the vada later, you can refrigerate the batter till use.  Heat oil in a kadai and when it gets heated , drop a pinch of batter to check the heat of oil. If the batter rises to the top immediately, oil temperature is correct. Now lower the flame to medium and drop the vada.  Dip your fingers in water and take a small portion of batter from one corner of the bowl. Make a ball, flatten it slightly and make a hole in the center. Turn your hand upside down. Drop the vada in oil by slightly tilting your fingers. Make 2 to 3 vada per batch. Cook in medium flame by flipping it whenever needed. Cook till golden brown on both the sides.  Do not cook these vada in high flame because vada turns black quickly because of sugar candy. So cook patiently in low to medium flame. Remove the vada in a tisue paper and serve hot. You can refrigerate the remaining batter for 2 days and make vada at your will. Enjoy ! This vada stays good for 2 to 3 days.

If you don’t have sugar candy, you can use sugar. Never use water for grinding the batter. Cook in low to medium flame patiently. If the vada absorbs more oil, add 1 to 2 tsp of rice flour to the batter. Do not add salt while grinding the batter. It makes the batter watery.

Try this easy, yummy, sweet urad dal vada / Kalkandu and enjoy !