Punjabi Kadhi Pakora with Jeera Rice - The Mad Scientists Kitchen

Punjabi Kadhi Pakora with Jeera Rice~Indian State Punjab

Today we are Punjab the people who are real lively people who are fond of eating good food and enjoy life!! Hoy Bale Bale!!

Probably the most famous cuisine in Indian cuisine is Punjabi cuisine. Why not the Punjabis are the most enterprising people who have make their presence felt all around the world. Punjabi food is usually relished by people of all communities. But Punjabi home cooking differs from the restaurant cooking style. At the restaurants, the chefs make a liberal use of desi ghee, butter and cream to make the food lip smacking and finger licking. At home just like you and me people prefer using sunflower oil or some other refined oil for cooking, with the basic idea of making the food low in fat content.

The cuisine of Punjab has a variety of mouth-watering vegetarian as well as non vegetarian dishes. The spice content ranges from minimal to pleasant to high.

Wheat is the staple food here but rice is also enjoyed. When it comes to food, each region in Punjab has an entirely different preference. In the preparation of Punjabi food, onion, ginger and garlic are used extensively to enhance the taste of the food.

Traditional Punjabi thali consists of varied kinds of breads; some are baked in the tandoor such as tandoori roti, lachha, paratha, naan and kulcha, while others are dry baked on tava like chapatti and jowar ki roti. There is another fabulous variety of roti called rumali roti, which is larger in size as compared to the normal one and is also easily absorbable. Also, there are breads that are shallow fried such as parantha. Aloo paratha, methi paratha, paneer paratha and deep fried such as puri and bhatoora.

But what will you eat it with Butter Chole, Rajma, or Cauliflower and Potato vegetable, palak panner, peas paneer or corn palak, mattar paneer… the list is endless!

But there are also stuff like kadhi chawal, peas pulao… whatever you eat top it all off with lassi or chaas!! To make your breakfast healthier try making some Beetroot Lassi-Simple and Tasty.

Of course, you cannot forget the creamy curds that are made at home every day. To make your own curds you can follow my easy Homemade Indian Yogurt|Dahi Recipe.

Today however we have shall eat Punjabi Kadhi Pakora with Jeera Rice!!

The Kadhi is copied from Dassana’s Veg. Recipes of India. I have used ghee for making the kadhi and rice bran oil for frying the pakodas. You can fry the pakodas in mustard oil.

Punjabi Kadhi Pakora

Indian State: Punjab

Recipe Source: Dassana

Serves: 6-7

Ingredients:

For the onion pakoras/fritters:

2 cups besan/gram flour
1 cup water
4 medium sized onions, sliced
1 teaspoon ajwain/carom seeds
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
½ teaspoon garam masala powder
A pinch of asafoetida/hing/asafoetida

For the kadhi:

Curd made from half a litre of milk
1 cup besan/gram flour
3 ½ to 4 cups water
2 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 ½ teaspoon haldi/turmeric powder
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
Salt to taste

For the tempering:

1 medium sized onion, finely chopped (optional)
1 ½ tablespoon crushed ginger-garlic
1 teaspoon jeera/cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon methi/fenugreek seeds
2 sprig curry leaves
2 green chillis
1 or 2 dry red chillies (optional)
3 tablespoon ghee
A pinch or two of hing/asafoetida

Method:

Lets make the Onion Pakoras:

Mix the onion slices with salt in a bowl and let it sit for some time. So that the onions release some water, say
10-15 minutes.
Next add gram flour/besan in the bowl with carom seeds, red chilli powder, garam masala powder to the bowl and
mix well.
Add little water I used about 2 tblspn of water as I wanted the pakodas crisp but wanted to fry them immediately. If
you have the time mix the onions with the besan mixture and keep aside for some 20-30 minutes.
After 20-30 minutes, the onions would have released enough water to make the batter liquid. If the batter still
feels dry, then add some water to it. Check the salt and spices and add more if required.
Heat oil for deep frying the pakoras.
Fry the pakoras till they are crisp and browned.
Drain on kitchen paper napkins or tissues.
Keep the pakoras aside.

Lets make the curd kadhi:

In a big bowl add the curd. Whip it well to make it smooth and add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, salt and the gram flour/besan.
Mix the spice powders with the curd, add water and mix the contents well.
The reasons you need to whip well is there make sure there are no lumps.
Use the back of a spoon to dissolve the lumps into the curds. But I prefer the immersion mixer, but make sure you don’t overdo it. We do not want butter churned out of the curds.
In a large deep pan, heat ghee splutter cumin seeds.
Add chopped garlic, ginger, green chilli, add curry leaves and dry red chilli. Fry till the raw smell of the garlic ginger disappears.
Switch the gas off and pour our liquid curd mixture stir the whole kadhi.
Return it to low flame keep stirring bring it to a boil first and then simmer for 8-10 minutes.
The kadhi is ready.
Just before serving add the fried onion pakoras to the hot kadhi.
Cover and close the pan and let the onion pakoras be soaked in the kadhi for some minutes.

Punjabi Kadhi Pakora with Jeera Rice~Indian State Punjab

I like Dassana’s suggestions a lot so I have included them in to here:

Use sour curd. If the curd is not sour, then the kadhi will not be sour, but still tastes good. To make the curd sour, you could add amchoor powder whilst cooking the kadhi.
Use mustard oil if possible to fry the onion pakoras and for tempering. Mustard oil lends a pungent sharp taste and flavor to the curry.
You could also bake the pakoras instead of frying them.
Don’t skip on curry leaves, as you will know that something is missing from the kadhi.
Use good quality gram flour/besan
The onion pakoras can be prepared before hand and kept aside.
Use a large bottomed pot for cooking the kadhi. The curd mixture froths whilst cooking and can spill if you use a small pot.
To make softer pakoras, add 2 or 3 tablespoon more water than mentioned in the recipe below. In this case, add the pakoras to the kadhi, just before serving.
Some folks do not like the mushy and soft pakoras in the kadhi. In this case the pakoras can be a little hard. Add little or no water to the batter. The onion liquids does the job of moistening the batter.
In this recipe I have not made the pakoras soft. Just added enough water to make the batter smooth but not liquidy. In this scenario, you could well add the pakoras just after the kadhi is ready. The pakoras won’t break when the kadhi is served later.

As for
Jeera rice just follow this link.

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