Polla Vadai

When I was copying the recipes from my mother's notebook, I noted that she had labelled Polla vadai, but had not added the recipe below the same. That kept me intrigued and I would look up blogs for the recipe. Later for the Navrathri that year, Jayasree posted her recipe and  I commented on her post.Then during a chat with her, I mentioned this and she sent me a long  Palakkad Iyer chat thread where people had shared few variations for the recipe. I particularly noted one where someone said,  'adhu pollanum' meaning that it shall have to puff in oil. But somehow the opportunity to make them and post never came by.
So, as I set myself of making different vadais for my Thai Vellikizhamai neivedhyam, this was one I made.
I also found a video on You tube with a title Paripoyee polla vadai - that is how the parippu ari polla vadai has come to be known.
The recipes made do with just rice and tur dhal, or had more dhals added to the grinding batter. I read them all, but finally followed  dear J's recipe. We loved them, though I feel that I should have fried them a little longer so they stayed crisp. They were fine the first day, but when I stored and tried on the second they had lost some of the crisp feel. I am sure it is easy to rectify.
I am repeating Jayasree's recipe here and have added pictures for demo.

Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 cups rice flour (I have used home pounded raw rice powder)
1/4 cup channa dhal
1/4 cup thoor dhal
1 tablespoon urad dhal
3 dry red chillis
!/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder (she mentioned just a few shakes of the bottle)
2 stalks of curry leaves
Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method:
With repeated changes of water, wash the dhals and then soak them together for an hour.
Drain as much water possible and grind them to a coarse paste along with the red chillis, asafoetida powder, salt and the curry leaves. Try not to add water while grinding. It will be easy to grind soaked dhals without water.
Mix the above paste with the rice flour and knead in a dough. The dough shall have to be slightly stiff.
Pinch out small portions, size of Indian gooseberries.
Use a banana leaf or a thick plastic sheet as base to pat the dough. Lightly apply oil on the surface. Pat the ball of dough as thin circular disc, without tearing. repeat and have a few ready.

Meanwhile, keep the oil for heating. When the oil is nearly smoking hot, peel off the patted disc. Slide them gently into the oil, few at a time. I tried frying one at a time as I needed to check if they puffed well.
Deep fry until both sides are well done. Remove from the oil with a slotted ladle and transfer to a dish lined with a kitchen tissue.
It is best served stove to table as I read in some thread. But I had it few hours later and they were crisp.
These make a nice snack for any lazy evening.