Karhi A Yogurt Sauce Food

KARHI, A YOGURT SAUCE

Steps:

• Put the chickpea flour in a large bowl. Very slowly, add 1 cup water, beating with a whisk as you do so. Keep beating until there are no lumps. Add the yogurt and beat it in until the mixture is smooth. Add another 4 cups water gradually, beating as you go.
• Pour the oil into a medium pan and set over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the cumin, mustard, and fennel seeds as well as the chilies. As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop, a matter of seconds, put in the turmeric and curry leaves. Stir once and pour in the chickpea-yogurt mixture. Stir with a whisk. Turn heat to medium. Add the salt. Keep stirring with the whisk until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble. Turn heat to low, cover partially, and cook 25 minutes.

KADHI RECIPE (PUNJABI KADHI PAKORA)

Steps:

• In a bowl take the sour curd and whisk it well till smooth
• Add gram flour, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder and salt to the whisked curd.
• Stir and mix everything again.
• Add 3 cups water and stir again.
• Stir very well to make a smooth mixture without lumps. If there are lumps, then break them with a wired whisk or a spatula or with your fingers. Set the curd slurry aside.
• You can use a blender to make this mixture, but make sure you don't over do it. You will get butter instead of a smooth blended curd.
• Take the gram flour in a bowl and add carom seeds, red chili powder, garam masala powder and salt.
• Add 1 cup thinly sliced onions.
• Mix everything well and set aside covered for 30 minutes.
• This will allow the onions to release their water in the mixture. Depending on the water content in the onions, the mixture will become very moist or just about moist.
• Then accordingly add water as required to make a thick batter. I added ¼ cup water.
• Heat oil for deep frying in a pan or kadai. Let the oil become medium hot. Then with a spoon carefully drop the pakora batter in the oil.
• When the pakora are partly cooked, then turn over and fry the other side.
• Fry till the pakora are crisp and golden.
• Remove the fried pakora and place them on a kitchen paper towel so that extra oil is absorbed. Fry the pakora in batches this way. When done set all of them aside.
• In another pan or kadai, heat mustard oil. Make sure to use a large bottomed pot so that while boiling, the kadhi does not spill.
• Add the cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds and asafoetida. Allow the cumin seeds to crackle and the fenugreek seeds to change their color. Fry on a low flame, so that these spices do not get burnt.
• Add chopped onions. Stir and sauté for 3 minutes on a low to medium-low heat.
• Then add chopped ginger, chopped garlic and chopped green chillies. Stir and sauté for a minute.
• Now add curry leaves, dry red chilies (halved or broken and seeds removed). Stir and sauté for a minute on a low flame.
• Then add the curd slurry.
• Stir very well.
• Increase the flame to medium and bring the kadhi to a boil. Keep on stirring often so that the bottom does not get browned. Time taken to cook kadhi will be around 14 to 16 minutes.
• After the kadhi has come to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for more 6 to 7 minutes. The kadhi will thicken.
• If the kadhi becomes too thick, then add some hot water.
• Now add the onion pakora to the kadhi and stir gently.
• Cover with a lid and let the onion pakora be soaked in it for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Lastly sprinkle some garam masala powder.
• Serve kadhi pakora with steamed rice or cumin rice, topped with few teaspoonfuls of ghee. You could also have kadhi with roti or paratha.

AUTHENTIC KARAHI CURRY (WITH BASE SAUCE)

Steps:

• Cook Chicken, or other meat.
• You can grill, fry or oven cook meat in any way you like. I often fry in oil adding a little turmeric and garlic. Once cooked set the pre-cooked meat aside.
• Base Sauce.
• Chop onions, ginger and Garlic roughly and fry in oil until cooked, add hot water, just enought to cover onions and garlic, you may not need all 500ml. Then simmer for 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes take off heat let cool then blend with either a hand blender or in traditional blender, then set aside.
• Spice Mix.
• While the base sauce is cooling this is a good time to prepare you spice mix, just put all the spices in one bowl and mix together.
• The Curry.
• Heat oil to medium heat, and fry garlic and ginger for about 2 - 3 minutes, towards the end of the 3 minutes turn the heat down to very low.
• Once the oil, garlic and ginger have cooked and cooled a little add the spice mix a spoon at a time, you want to make a paste when the oil blends with the spices, so you may not need all the spice mix or you may need to add more oil.
• Once you have a runny oily paste turn the heat up very slightly, be very careful because if the spices burn the whole dish will be ruined. The trick is not to fry the spices just heat them sufficiently enough to bring out all the aromas and flavours, this should take only a few minutes.
• Then add the tomatoes, curry base, orange, salt, bay leaf, cinnamon, chicken stock cube and pre cooked chicken stirring the dish well.
• Let simmer for at least 20 mins but can be left for hours.
• 5 mins before you are ready to serve add the coriander and Ghee then dish up, I would recommend to serve with chapattis or basmati rice.

INDIAN PUNJABI PALAK KADHI - SPINACH CURRY WITH YOGURT SAUCE

Steps:

• In a food processor or blender, combine yogurt, 4 cups water, gram flour, 2 tablespoons coriander, turmeric, and salt (do this in 2 batches because of the volume); set aside.
• Make sure yogurt is thoroughly blended, or it will curdle during the cooking process.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large wok or a saucepan over moderately high heat and cook, stirring, until the peppers sizzle, about 30-45 seconds (they may get white spots on them) (also, stand back in case peppers burst and may fly into your eyes).
• Add the onion, ginger, and garlic, cooking until the onion is tender, about 2 minutes.
• Very slowly add the yogurt mixture, stirring constantly, and bring it to a boil, cooking about 4-5 minutes.
• Make sure you stir the yogurt or it will curdle.
• Reduce wok heat if ingredients start to boil over.
• Once liquid comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is smooth and silky, and oil becomes visible, about 45-50 minutes.
• Adjust thickness of sauce with the exta cup of water, if needed (cook further if it is too thin).
• Sauce can be made up to 2 days ahead of time.
• Stir in the fenugreek, then add spinach, and simmer about 5 minutes more.
• Check consistency of sauce, and thin if necessary.
• Heat remaining oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat and briefly heat dried peppers (about 30 seconds), shaking pan; stir in coriander and remove from heat (alternatively, for an oil-free method, dry roast peppers and coriander briefly in pan, but do not toast the paprika).
• Add paprika and IMMEDIATELY pour mixture over the curry; do not delay or the paprika will burn.
• Serve at once with steamed basmati rice.