Food talk
Currying favour

Kadhi-chaawal make a great combo and what is fascinating is that different regions in India have their own signature kadhi delicacies, writes Pushpesh Pant

Chef’s special

We have always felt that kadhi has always suffered from undeserved neglect because as the adage has it intimacy breeds contempt. Most of us enjoy it with unalloyed joy when it is prepared at home on a holiday when the kitchen brigade is feeling a little lazy or a meal has to be rustled up in a jiffy for an unexpected guest. How easily do we forget that it is the quintessential dish that immortalises the vessel it is traditionally cooked in—the karahai. The preparation (ideally) involves kadhana— patiently thickening the besan-dahi mixture over medium low heat that is what the verb kaadhana means.

Kadhi-chaawal make a great combo and what is fascinating is that different regions in India have their own signature kadhi delicacies: the Punjabi rendering is thick and creamy made more substantial with pakori incorporating pyaaz-shyaaz and tempered with generous dollops of ghee while the pahari version provides a study in contrast.

Called palyo or baant, it is watery making do with minutest quantities of available curd, at a pinch substituting chhaans for it and is ‘enriched’ with muli or torai in season. In Gujarat they have a very different sweetish (what else?) lasooni kadhi and in Rajasthan friends have introduced us to the maans ki (non-veg) kadhi. When our footlose food research had taken us to Lucknow a few years back, the kind old Haqim Safdar Nawab, may his soul rest in peace, had let us taste karheel—the coral tinted moong daal kadhi of the most subtle kind.

Then there is the Sindhi kadhi and much more but let’s not beat around the bush. We were reunited with kadhi when a friend served us moong daal ki kadhi pakodhi at a one-dish lunch at her home. Replacement of besan with moong daal flour did the trick.

The pakodhi were lighter than air, easy to digest even if consumed shamelessly in large numbers and the kadhi tasted refreshingly different slightly unfamiliar but so enticing for that very reason.

Just one word of advice: the dumplings become even better if the batter is whisked by hand just before these are put in the oil to deep fry. Soaking them in a bowl of water is not to be indulged in fancy—this is prescribed only for moong daal badha in its chaat avatar.

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