Khadi Pakora

Picking off from my earlier post on "Lemon Rasam", talking of comfort food, I believe Khadi Pakora counts for a few people although I was only familiar with the South Indian counterpart of Khadi - the "more kozhambu" in Tamil or "majige huli" in Kannada. But there are fundamental differences between these two. Thanks to my mother-in-law I learnt how to make this delicacy.

The pakoras are something I have experimented with a couple of times using moong dal and this is the recipe that has worked for me.

The Khadi and pakoras have to be made simultaneously. The pakoras have to be fried and dropped hot into the Khadi that is cooking. Time the recipes accordingly as per your convenience.

What usually works for me:
Grind the paste for the pakoras without adding baking powder and then go ahead with the khadi preparation.
While waiting for the khadi to boil after adding water, heat the oil for frying pakors, add baking powder to the pakora paste, and start frying them.

Recipe for the Pakoras (Makes about 25 small lemon sized pakoras)

Ingredients
Moong dal - 6 tbsp
Dry red chillies - 2
Salt - to taste
Rice flour/Besan -  1 tbsp
Baking powder - a pinch
Turmeric powder - a pinch

Method
Wash and soak the moong dal in just enough water to cover the dal, for about half an hour to an hour.

The dal should have soaked most of the water. Drain the rest of the water out if any and grind the soaked dal, dry red-chillis, salt and besan/rice flour into a paste.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed kadai. By now the Khadi should be cooking in another kadai.

Add baking powder to the paste made earlier.

When the oil is hot, pick small half-a-lemon sized portions of the batter and drop them into the oil. Fry until golden brown on all sides.




Recipe for the Khadi (serves 4)

Ingredients
Besan (gram flour) - 1 tbsp
Thick curd - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch

For Tadka (Tempering)
Oil - 1tbsp
Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 6-7

Method

Make a paste of gram flour (besan) and curd and set aside.

Add oil to a hot heavy bottomed vessel and when the oil is hot enough, add the cumin seeds and curry leaves. When the cumin turns brown, add the curd-besan paste. Add salt, chilli powder and mix well. When the mix comes to a boil, allow it to cook in low flame, until the raw smell of besan is gone. After that add water mix well. Make sure there are no lumps. You can add water gradually, stirring all the while. Let it come to a boil again in low flame.

While the Khadi is simmering, add hot pakoras into the mix.

Hot khadi-pakora is ready to be served with rice or roti.

You can drop half the fried pakoras into the khadi and reserve to rest to share as a crispy treat either with lunch or at tea-time. My kids prefer eating the pakoras as such and don't prefer Khadi as much.

Verdict This has been a hit with folks at home. A welcome change from regular dal and sambhar we make, so the grown ups love it, and the kids love the pakoras, so a win-win.