Kadhi Sazza

Kadhi Saaza

Nothing is more appetizing than having piping hot food especially on a cold wintry evening (even though Mumbai winters are nothing great to talk about ) and if one is in a slightly adventurous mood to try out a new recipe (even a simple one at that ),it normally turns out quite good (personal experience has often proved so in my case !).

Last week Mumbai experienced one such wintry evening (it was actually quite cold- next day’s newspaper corroborated that!),and stirred within me a strong desire to try out something new (but not for me those oh-so-exotic –sounding dishes which is the current fad that even if one is not fond of it, one likes to pretend that one does, though in the confines of the four walls of one’s dining room one would probably be tucking into aloo parathas, khitchdi, sarson ka saag, paneer mutter and other such typical spicy Indian food that the the desi tongue craves for !). After much consultation with Sanjeev Kapoor, Tarla Dalal.,Neeta Mehta, Premila Lal , Savitri Bhatia ( what I am referring to of course are their cookery books ! ) I decided to make vegetable Kadhi ( whats so great about that some of you may wonder,) but here I was , a South Indian ,used to making only morkuzhambu (-the south Indian version of the North Indian kadhi) –embarking on a new adventure.

Armed with all the necessary ingredients I launched Operation Kadhi . Whisked curd with gramflour into creamy consistency and added a pinch of turmeric powder, salt and a pinch of asafoetida and kept the mixture aside. Poured a teaspoon of oil in the kadhai and as it heated up, in went ginger,garlic,green chillies,cummin seeds , red chillies, fenugreek seeds,and finally ajwain seeds.As the spices cackled and sizzled ,in went potatoes, drumsticks, cluster beans, baby brinjals and curry leaves and left to cook with a little water covered with a lid. Ten minutes later when the ingredients were cooked the creamy mixture was poured into the kadhai and kept on slow fire. Ten minutes later – Voila- my vegetable kadhi was ready to taste and the aroma that wafted was mmmmmmm………and tasted yumm……y (did’nt know that teaspoon of kadhi would all that I would get to taste that day ! )

Happy with the outcome, I poured my mouth watering ( rather pompous blowing ,my own trumpet eh ? ) preparation into the casserole and then made some gobi parathas and kept that in another casserole. Dinner time arrived and so did my appetite but as for my husband ……no sign of him ! With my appetite increasing by the minute I decided to do justice to the food. Took out my new melamine bowl (decide to inaugurate my new set )and as I started to open the lid suddenly developed a mind of its own and decided to stay stuck to the casserole. Half an later I was still struggling and the adamant lid remained in the same position ! Finally losing the battle I had to make do with eating only the parathas (which by now had become cold as they had been served on the plate half an hour before.) An hour later when my husband sat down for dinner , I warned him about the dinner that awaited him. Never one to give up easily, armed with a hammer and tongs he subjected the casserole to all kinds of banging and pulling and lo behold….. it split wide open revealing steaming hot kadhi. A for my better half… he relished the dinner thoroughly with a triumphant look of having won the battle while I felt I had been given Kadhi Saaza !