Punjabi Kadhi Pakoda

Hi everyone.. Kadhi Pakoda today. Sanjeev Kapoor's Kadhi and Raaga (The Singing Chef)'s baked pakoda. Can't go wrong, eh? Right on! :)

 

Fig. 1. Punjabi Kadhi Pakoda

Sanjeev Kapoor's Punjabi Kadhi goes back to "olden" days. Family and friends used to love this Kadhi so it became the norm to make this North Indian version. But we sometimes exhaust a dish by repeating it way too often. Thus was the fate of this recipe. And by now, no one in the house really thinks Kadhi is a great dish. Reeks of monotony.

What's worse is that right from the beginning, the "anti-oil" and "anti-deep-fry" in me has always skipped pakodas in the kadhi. So really what I make is only kadhi, never kadhi pakoda. We do occasionally make pakodas at home, but they are never destined for kadhis. So Kadhi-Didi, sadly, is relegated to the rome-shome status on my menu and I almost never make Kadhi if I can possibly help it now. :(

Past few days I noticed kadhi-pakoda show up on quite a few Blogs, Sayali's and Priya's for instance. Those posts and their pics brought to my mind that it's been a while since we had some kadhi. I also noticed the fact that no one posts only kadhi! Am I the only one making kadhi solo? Maybe making the pakoda would be a good way to freshen up our kadhi-palate!!

I have plenty of besan sitting around that would be happy to receive some attention, so kadhi is a good candidate. This week I also had some spare cabbage sitting in my crisper. So I figured it is time to think about making pakodas. That would consume besan as well as the cabbage. And now I have the world of blogs at my disposal. Why worry about frying!! I set about searching for good "baked pakoda" recipes. And of course Raaga's blog quickly provided me a promising start!! So my plan to make kadhi-pakoda got a resounding "lock kar diya jaye!"

Extreme Make-Over Kadhi Edition begins!

Punjabi Kadhi: This is from Sanjeev Kapoor's book.
Ingredients:
Yogurt - 1 cup
Besan (gram flour) - 1/4 cup
Haldi (turmeric) - 1/2 teaspoon
Methi (fenugreek) seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1/2 teaspoon
Peppercorns - 4-6 (I used pepper powder about 1/2 teaspoon)
Red chili flakes - 1 teaspoon
Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped
Ginger paste - 1 teaspoon
Water - 3 cups
Oil - 1 teaspoon

Procedure:
1) Blend together (wire whisk works nicely for this to ensure no lumps) besan, yogurt, haldi, salt. Add water.
2) Heat oil in a deep pan, add methi seeds, jeera, red chili flakes, pepper.
3) Then add onion, ginger paste, saute well.
4) Add yogurt mixture and boil on low heat.

Baked Pakodas: From Raaga's blog.
Ingredients:
Besan (gram flour) - 1/2 cup
Rice flour - 1/2 cup
Haldi (turmeric) powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Ginger-Garlic pastes - 1 tablespoon
Red chili powder - 1 teaspoon
Cabbage - grated or finely chopped 1 cup (Raaga used onions and cashews etc chopped.)
Coriander + mint leaves - 1/4 cup (I used about 4 tablespoons of coriander + mint paste, say about 2 ice-cubes worth frozen.)
Oil - 1/2 tablespoon
Salt - to taste

Procedure:
1) Mix all the ingredients. Add just a few drops of water, as required to make a thick dough.
2) Grease baking sheet. Place flattened balls of the dough as "pakoda" on the sheet.
3) Bake at 400F for 15 minutes on one side and then flip and 15 minutes more on the other side.

Put them together: When the kadhi comes to a boil, add the pakodas. If super-conscious about food spoiling later, best to boil kadhi again with the pakodas.

Verdict:
There is truly negligible oil in these pakodas. And they are very crisp. And we loved that tiny bit of coriander-mint!! They are simply delicious even just on their own! Needless to say I made several extra pakodas and we ate most of them with tomato-ketchup. The rest went into kadhi-pakoda, which was consumed for dinner as well as taken to work to be shared with work-mates (compliments about the superb quality of my cooking are now floating through Gluttonville!) ;)

This post goes to Nupur's Blog Bites # 4 event since I cleaned some more of my fridge and pantry with this dish, getting rid of that cabbage and a good bit of lurky besan. What's more, I used a long lurking recipe!

My Kadhi-Pakoda has been rejuvenated!! We shall certainly be looking forward to more kadhi again!

Thanks, Sanjeev Kapoor! Thanks, Raaga! Thanks, Internet! Peace on Earth and all that..!

Cheers and thanks for stopping by, everyone!