Make the best of this summer with crispy vadam, vathal

Summer for South Indians is marked by our grandmas and aunts reclaiming our terraces. Sheets of plastic saved from packaging material is spread across the rooftops, and vadam mixture is spooned onto them in straight lines — a pure visual treat. While growing up, most South Indian children can recall being employed as guards to these sun drying vadam, keeping birds away from them. Requiring minimal amount of labour, vadam and vathal are an integral part of many households, as they come with a long shelf life period and make for crispy and delicious accompaniments, even when a curry doesn’t turn out right.

Food historian and chef Sridevi Balasubramanian says vadam go all the way back to the Sangam Age (3rd to 4th century BC) with references to them in ancient literature. “Probiotics, which are now becoming increasingly popular, have existed from centuries ago. One of the vadam recipes from the ancient times used a day’s old cooked rice, which acts as a probiotic, along with shallots and green chillies, blended into a mixture and dried in the sun as vadam. They make for very crunchy accompaniments to one’s meal. Another recipe that goes back to decades involves vadagam, made out of lentils and shallots, that require sun drying for over a week. Sun-dried salted fish are also very traditional and have been done in the households for many centuries,” Sridevi tells DT Next.

Home chef Vasanthi Subramanian suggests using aval (flattened rice or poha) for making vadam through a quick and easy recipe. “One can use half a kilo of getti aval (thicker variant) and soak them in water and air dry. A slice of white pumpkin can be grated and kept aside. Red chillies, green chillies and salt, along with the aval and grated pumpkin can be blended together into a mixture along with a dash of asafoetida. The mixture can be spooned onto sheets of plastic as small discs and sun-dried for a day. It takes less than half hour to prepare and can be stored for months,”she says.

Use of millet flour while making vadam mix or added tomato or mint paste will uplift them to another level with fresh flavours, while also making them healthier. Vathal, which are usually vegetables or beans or seafood, salted and sun-dried, can also be made more nutritious by using ingredients like okra, bitter gourd, radish, sweet potato, says another city-based home chef Monizha Karthik Shankar.

“Soaking vegetables like sweet potato (juliennes) in vinegar and salt and sun-drying in the sun, makes them easy to be preserved. Once dried completely, they can be oil-fried and eaten as a snack or along with a meal. They offer a nice salty addition to everyday lunch or dinner, while also helping one eat the vegetables they otherwise wouldn’t prefer. A recipe of my mother’s uses boiled and mashed beetroot along with rice flour, green chilli and cumin mixture for making vadam. This makes them healthier, and keeps artificial colours out. One can also use spinach for giving a green colour, and turmeric for a natural yellow,” she adds.