Kadi-Pakora with Spinach

 Clearly there are two parts to this dish. And by themselves, each can be a stand alone dish. The pakora and the Kadi -Pakoras are fried/baked fritters usually made with besan/chickpea flour and veggies like onions and chilies. They can also be made with spinach as this recipe explains. The second part of this recipe is the Kadi, which is also called Mor Kozhambu in the south with a few differences. Kadi is essentially a yogurt based sauce to which you add some chickpea flour, herbs and condiments for spicing it up. I present to you both recipes, both extremely simple and I hope the pictures I present make you salivate enough to want to make this right away :)

This can be had by itself as a HOT snack :)

Ingredients

For the Pakoras

• 1lb of frozen fresh spinach
• 2tbsp chickpea flour
• 2 spicy green chilies
• 1tsp caraway seeds
• salt
• grated ginger (optional)
• oil to fry

For the Kadi

• 2cups of plain yogurt
• 1tbsp channa dal (or chickpeas)
• 2 fresh (and spicy green chilies)
• 1tsp whole black pepper
• 1tsp cumin
• A pinch of asafetida
• Cilantro - 2tbsp chopped (optional) I use it liberally because i LOVE the smell of it
• Salt

For Garnish

• 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
• 1tsp coconut oil
• 1tsp mustard seeds (small ones preferably)
• 1sprig of curry leaves

Method

Preparing the Pakoras

1. Cook spinach with small quantity of water if fresh or thaw out if frozen
2. Drain the water
3. Add salt, green chilies, caraway seeds and besan and mix until it is of thick and "ball-able" consistency. Add the ginger in along with the rest of the ingredients if you are using it.
4. Make the balls and keep

Prepare your Kadi

1. While your spinach is cooking, soak all ingredients except for the yogurt and salt in about 1/2 cup of warm to hot water for about 15 -30 minutes
2. Grind finely in mixera
3. Add salt
4. Place on stove in a pan and cook until it thickens.
5. Allow it to cool for a few minutes
6. Whip the yogurt into a smooth thick paste
7. Add to the pan and mix in well.
8. Add the garnish
9. Now heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the pakoras
10. Drop them hot into the kadi and serve immediately

Note: if you are not serving right away, hold off on making the pakoras until you are ready to eat.
If your spinach remains soggy, you could add more besan or powdered cashews (about 5 -10 nuts)
Enjoy this classic north Indian dish with freshly cooked white fluffy and incredibly aromatic basmati rice :)

Masalvadai

Two big memories crowd my mind when I blog this dish -- The famous cry in the Pondicherry beach (was it) for "Samsa, Masalada, Samsa" and my dance classes... I used to get off the bus on Big Brahmin Street and head on to Mme. Sinhas's dance class and tuition with Ms. Dasappa...the bus would drop us off on (I think it is anna salai) and at the very corner of the street was the Andhi Kadai - He always set up shop at 5 and made fresh hot vadais. Amma gave me a rupee which got me about 5 vadais - fresh off the stove, steaming hot. The other Andhi kadai delicacy was the fried kadala-paruppu which was 10 paise per sachet ... Just good  chick pea stuff :)) Good fuel for all the energy i was to expend dancing and doing math!!!!

Now I make my masal-vadais as a homage to Andhi Kadai Narayanan who in my memory still makes the best Vadais! Funny how we carry all our childhood memories and tastes with us!
Ok- Long enough walk down memory lane - now to business

In Words
Ingredients
1 cup channa dal or kadala paruppu or bengal gram
4-6 green chillies
Oil to fry
1 BIG red onion
curry leaves
asafoetida a pinch

Preparation
Soak for exactly 1 hour, the dal, curry leaves, chillies
Drain all the water our of the dal - NO water needs to be used for grinding-
Grind coarse in the blender - (Use spatula to move the batter around)
Cut the onions small
In a pan place 1 tsp of oil and lightly fry the onions for about a minute or 2
Add it to the ground atta/batter and mix in
Add some safoetida and salt as well and mix in

Heat oil to fry
Flatten a small ball of batter on to your palm and drop it into the oil.. repeat until your pan has a sufficient number
Brown and remove and eat HOT HOT HOT
The unspoken ingredient would be Love without which no measurements work!

In Pictures