Cabbage Ambado (Cabbage Fritters)

Cabbage Ambado is a very delicious fritter. I got this recipe from my amma. My amma makes excellent ambados and cannot be matched with any other! It is one of our favorite ambado. This was my 2nd attempt and I was happy with it as it had turned out somewhat similar to my amma's. 
Try making these addictive ambados (fritters) and I am sure you all will love it.  (Warning- It is very hard to stop at 2-3 fritters. I am not responsible if you over eat it:-))

Ingredients:

• Cabbage, finely chopped- 1/3 cup
• Onion, finely chopped- 1/3 cup
• Rice- 2/3 cup
• Chanadal/Split chickpeas- 3 Tbsp
• Grated Coconut, fresh/frozen- 1 Tbsp
• Roasted red chilli- 4-5
• Tamarind- A small piece
• Salt- To taste
• Oil - For deep frying

Procedure:

Soak the rice and chanadal together for 1-2 hours. When it is soaking, chop the cabbage and onion, fry the dry red chilli using few drops of oil.

Once the rice and chanadal gets well soaked drain the water completely. Now grind together the soaked rice- chanadal, roasted red chilli, grated coconut, tamarind and salt to get a coarse sticky paste (don't add water while grinding).

The final mixture somewhat looks like this (not too fine or not too coarse).

I hope its clear from the picture. The crushed rice- chanadal grains should not be too coarse or turned to a paste. Making this paste is a very important step. Once the rice mixture is ready, start heating the oil. Check for salt in the rice mixture.

If the oil is hot enough then, its time to add the chopped onion- cabbage (this has to be done absolutely at the end because they give out moisture when mixed with rice mixture. If the moisture content in the final mixture is more, then the fritters will absorb more oil. Hence this is another important step) to the rice mixture. The final mixture just before frying looks like this.

Now make small lemon sized balls and just flatten them slightly like this-

Fry them (don't over crowd while frying and the flame should be medium-high) in hot oil until they turn crispy and dark brown on both sides. Once it is done, drain them on a paper towel to remove excess oil. Cabbage Ambado is ready!!

Serve it hot with rice and dalitoy. Above measurement makes 14- 15 fritters.

Note: These fritters turn out very crispy. If you want it little on the softer side then increase the amount of grated coconut to 2-3 Tbsp.