Gujarati Kadhi (कढी)

Kadhi is nothing but gram flour mixed boiled and simmered buttermilk with aromatic spices tempered in oil or ghee. This is very simple and easy to make dish. Main ingredient for this dish is yougurt or thick buttermilk and gram flour. There are two main variation of this dish one with salt & sugar and one with only salt.  I like both variation but in summer I like to eat sweet kadhi with plain rice, bhindi fry and moong daal fry.

Ingredients:-
(1). 4 cup yougurt
(2). 2 tablespoon gram flour or chickpea flour
(3). salt to taste
(4). 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
(5). 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
(6). pinch of asafoetida
(7). 3 clove piece
(8). 2 small cinamon sticks
(9). 3 whole black pepper
(10). 2 dry red chili
(11). 2 teaspoon chopped ginger
(12). 2 tablespoon chopped coriander
(13). 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
(14). 7-8 leaves of curry leaves
(15). handful of chopped coriander leaves
(16). 1 tablespoon oil
(17) 2 cup water

Recipe:-
In deep vessle or bowl mix yougurt, water and salt and make buttermilk.  Now in small bowl take gram and add some water and mix until there are no lumps, if some reason if you are not able to remove lumps in besan mix, use strainer to remove lumps. Now add this besan into buttermilk and stir it well.

Start the stove and put the Kadhi mixture to boil on medium flame.  While buttermilk is cooking, on different stove for tempering heat oil and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds. Once seeds started cracking or spluttering switch off the stove and add asafoetida, clove, cinamon sticks, black peppers, dry red chilis ,sesame seeds, chopped ginger and curry leaves into it. All these spices will bring very nice and strong aroma. Add this spiced flovored oil into kadhi mixture. Cook/Simmer kadhi on medium flame for about 5-7  minutes. Switch of stove. Garnish with coriander leaves.

This is optional step. If you like sweet and sour taste like I do add 2-3 teaspoon of sugar into hot kadhi and mix it well.

Serve hot with pulav or biryani. I love to eat kadhi with khichdi and mango pickle, I prefer sweet kadhi with khicdi.

Tip:-  Some people like turmeric in kadhi, so add half teaspoon turmeric while making buttermilk. This will make kadhi yellowish in color. For tempering instead of oil you can use ghee too. It will make kadhi more creamy and rich in taste.

Khichdi ( खिचडी)

Khichdi is very popular Gujarati dish.  In my home my mom used to prepare khichdi with kadhi. Sometimes instead of kadhi , she will make potato and eggplant curry. This is very easy make and healthy vegetarian dish. It mainly consists of rice and lentils( daal). Generally for khichdi tuver daal is used but one can use yellow moong daal or green split mung daal.

This is a very unique dish , it can go with pretty much any side. You can serve khichdi with warm ghee. You can serve it with fresh yogurt or raita. In village people eat with warm milk.You can also serve it with mango pickle and papads( fried or roasted). I love eating khichdi with kadhi and mango pickle.

Ingredients:-
(1). 2 cup tuver daal soaked in warm water(approx 15-20 min)
(2). 11/4 cup soaked rice (approx 15 min)
(3). 3 tablespoon oil
(4) 1 teaspoon mustard seed
(5). 1 teaspoon asofoetida
(6). 2 whole red chilies
(7).  3 cloves
(8). 4 whole black pepper
(9). 1 star seed (anise seed)
(10). 2 small cinnamon sticks
(11). salt to taste
(12). 1 teaspoon red chili powder
(13). half teaspoon turmeric powder
(14). 1 teaspoon coriander powder

Recipe:-
Remove extra water from tuver daal and rice. In pressure cooker warm oil and add mustard seeds, once seeds starts cracking add asofoetida, whole red chilies, cloves, black pepper , anise seed and cinnamon stick. Cook for minute. Now add daal and rice in spiced oil, add 4 cup of water. Stir well. Now add salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder and chili powder. Stir again to make sure all masala are mixed well in water. Close the pressure cooker and cook until 6-7 whistles. Take cooker from the stove.

Wait for cooker become cool about another 15-20 mins before opening.  Serve Khichdi with your favorite side.

Besan Halwa With Dates(बेसन हलवा)

While growing up my mom used to make Besan Sheero or Halwa for us and it was my favorite sweet dish. Now same dish my mother makes for her grand kid, the difference is she uses Dates to sweeten the Halwa in place of sugar. So it is more healthy.

Ingredients:-

(1). 2 tablespoon chickpea flour(Besan)

(2). 5 tablespoon  dry nut powder (cashew, almond, walnut, pistachio etc)

(3). 3-4 tablespoon ghee

(4). 1 cup milk

(5). 8 peeled and pitted Medjool dates
(6). pinch of saffron

Recipe:-
Chopped dates into small pieces. In cup take milk and add chopped dates init. Boil the milk in microwave for 2 minutes.

In nonstick pan take 2 tablespoon of ghee. Once ghee melts completely add Besan flour and mix Besan in ghee so that there is no lumps. Stir constantly. Cook for Besan for 2 minutes on medium flame. Add dry nut powder init and cook for another 2 minutes. Add boiled milk into cooking Halwa, stir milk so it doesn't stick and mix well in Halwa. Add saffron and mix well into Halwa. At this point add one table spoon of ghee. Stir Halwa and let it cook for another 4-5 minutes on low to medium heat.

Switch of stove and serve hot in bowl with some chopped nut on top.

Peeled and Pitted Dates

Besan flour

Mixed Nut Powder

Mixing Besan Flour in Ghee

Adding Nut Powder

Adding Boiled Date Milk

Cooking Nuts with Besan

Adding Saffron

         Cooked Besan Halwa

Besan Halwa

Tips:-
If you are using this for small babies who are 7 months and up , update above recipe with following modifications.

• Drained the boiled date milk using colander before adding in halwa to makesure there is no chunks
• Instead of 1 cup milk take 1.5 cup milk so that Halwa will be like Gujarati Raab ( gravy form) so that babies can swallow easily.
• Either you can avoid nuts or grind nuts to almost paste form before adding in halwa.