Elantha vadai / Jujube Fruit Vada / இலந்தை வடை | Simple and Yummy Recipes

Elantha Vadai ( இலந்தை வடை ) / Jujube fruit is a mouthwatering sour snack / candy from Tamil Nadu. The fruit is called Elantha Pazham ( இலந்தை பழம் ) in Tamil. This fruit can be used to make pickles, candies or snack. It is one of the famous tradtional oldest snack / candy in Tamilnadu called இலந்தை வடை in Tamil ( Elantha Vadai ) .

You can make this vadai either spicy or sweet version. Today I'm going to share the spicy version of this snack. If you increase the quantity of jaggery and decrease the quantity of chilli then its becomes the sweet version. I like the sweet one very much. Depending on your taste buds you can either increase or decrease the quantity and chilli and sugar. Its up to you.

Here is the recipe and scroll down for the video recipe
Ingredients :
1 kg Elantha Vadai ( இலந்தை பழம் ) / Jujube Fruit
1 tbsp Asafoetida Powder
10 Green Chillies
1 cup Jaggery / Natti Sugar
Salt as required

Method :

• Rinse the fruit 2 or 3 times with water and check for the rotten ones and discard. Some of the fruit has tiny worms, discard those ones.

• Take a mixie jar, place a 2 or 3 handful of the fruit, 2 green chillies, little asafoetida powder, 2 tbsp of  jaggery, pinch of salt and grind it. Do not grind continuously. Stop it for 2 to 3 times, scrape the side with the help of a ladle or hand and grind it . Transfer to large bowl.

• Repeat the above step 3 to 4 times and transfer to the bowl.

• Mix the ingredients well with the help of a spoon.

• Now grease a large plate with oil and also grease your hand with little oil.

• Take a small portion of the mixture, say a size of large amla/ Indian gooseberry and flatten them with the help of your finger and place it on the plate. (It's like how you do it for masala vada )

• Repeat this step till it is done.

• If the mixture sticks to your hand, to avoid this, take a bowl of water and dip the hand in the water and start the process.

• Place it under direct sunlight for one day to dry.  When the vada is 3/4 th dry on the top, then flip the vadas, and so that the other side also get dried. 

• Next day place the vadas under the shadow and let it dry for another 2 to 3 days. If you keep the vadas under direct sunlight more than a day it will become very hard and very dry.