Thank you, Prerna Singh of Indian Simmer for this wonderful (and vegetarian!) recipe:

KADHI PAKORA

BY PRERNA SINGH -SEP 11, 2011 It has been close to six years since I left homeland and started my own family and a kitchen. There were quite a few initial challenges and kitchen disasters but slowly I think I got a hang of it and started cooking some decent edible food. But there are two things that still make my legs weak when someone asks me to make – Indian pickles or a kadhi. A very close friend of ours is pregnant and the mommy-to-be has been craving kadhi, a lot! Lucky enough for me an Indian restaurant close to our place makes really good kadhi. Every few days I have to make a trip there. But after a few trips I realized I better face this fear and try to perfect the art of making kadhi myself.

There is no right way to make kadhi and you can find tens and hundreds of recipes out there. A Gujarati kadhi (popular in the state of Gujarat), Maharashtrian Kadhi (from the state of Maharshtra), Pujabi kadhi (coming from the state of Punjab), Aunty Sheila’s kadhi, mom’s kadhi and so on… A perfect example of what a traditional Indian food is, everyone has their own version with a few tweaks here and there but fundamentally they are all the same. Simple comfort food that fills up your belly, warms up your heart and you can never have enough of it!

Kadhi is simply a spiced soup that you make with thinning out yogurt with water and cooking it with some chickpea flour. Yes, that is all what kadhi is and then you can add whatever you want to it and make it your own. Some like to make it with some deep fried chickpea fritters, some add veggies or some like my mom make it with tomatoes. Some like to add more water and make it really thin, some don’t and so they add a little more flour to make it denser. Then the use of spices also varies from region to region. In some parts of the country mustard seeds and curry leaves are very important when making kadhi, while in other parts spices like fenugreek seeds and whole dried red chili pepper are used.

My mom makes it in one way and my mom in law makes it in another so when I try a recipe like this I take the middle route. Some of hers and some of hers! Some might find this recipe a little closer to the Punjabi kadhi and I would say those frequent trips to the Indian restaurant might have to do with that too. For the tempering, I used the spices that my mom uses and for the consistency I went with my mom in law’s style. I made some deep fried chickpea battered fritters and also some with vegetables. I am sharing the recipe with no vegetables here because that is what is commonly used for kadhi. If these fritters don’t look perfect or they look sloppy to you then please pardon me. Making gorgeous looking and perfectly shaped bhajia is just not my forte so I say “I kinda like them that way!”

Check out the recipe over at 6 Bittersweets, a gorgeous blog by one of my very good friends Xiaolu. You must remember Xiaolu from one of the most beautiful guest posts on Indian Simmer, the recipe post for orange grand marnier souffle. She is a very talented photographer, blogger and one of the most beautiful blogger friends that I have. Few weeks back she asked me to do a guest post for me and requested I make some kadhi for her and I did! So please head over to 6 Bittersweets for my guest post that I did a couple days back.

By: Prerna Singh