Kadhi is a yogurt based curry common throughout India. Each family has it’s own kadhi recipe and they are all delicious. The Kadi pakoras from North India, the Sindhi kadhi from the North west. This is a Maharashtrian Konkani dish and a childhood favorite. My grandmother was from the Konkan area of India and this is her recipe. This is a fairly involved recipe- is it worth it? YES, a thousand times yes.

Gole are dumplings made of chana dal. Besan is chickpea flour or chana dal flour. Both chana dal and besan are available on Amazon or at your friendly neighborhood Indian store.

Gole: Soak 1 cup of chana dal in 5-6 cups of water for 6-8 hours. Process to a coarse grind in a food processor with 1 tbsp ginger, 1tsp turmeric, 1tsp of chilli flakes, a pinch of hing (asafetida) and some salt. Taste it- it should taste good. If you add a tadka and raw grated green mango and some coconut to this- it is ambyachi dal- also delicious but that is a differnt recipe. This shouldn’tbe a paste – make inch size balls from the chana dal. These are your gole.

Kadhi: If you are an Indian- skip this part. Make your own kadhi the way you like it. For others- this is my recipe. To 2 cups of yogurt, add 2 tbsp of besan and 2-3 cups of water. Whisk well till there are no lumps. In a pan, heat 2 tbsp of ghee or butter (has to be ghee or butter). Sputter 1 tsp of jeera seeds, add 1 tsp of turmeric and a pinch of asafetida and 2-3 dried red chillies and 5-6 kadipatta leaves (your standard Marathi jeera tadka). Add the besan-yogurt mix and 1 tbsp of ginger. Stir fairly frequently till it starts boiling. Then simmer on low for 15 minutes. This kadhi is excellent on rice.

Add the gole to the boiling kadhi- cover and boil for 10-15 minutes. Don’t disturb the dumplings while they are cooking- they won’t hold their shape if you do.

Make the tadka for topping the gole: This is an essential step. Heat 2-3 tbsp of butter or oil, sputter 1 tsp of mustard seeds (they will crackle and pop), add a pinch of asafetida, 1/2 tsp of turmeric, 2-3 red chillies torn into pieces and 4-6 cloves of garlic very thinly sliced and 1/2 tsp of salt. You want garlic chips but remember these burn very fast. Remove from heat when pale brown.

To eat with roti/parantha/naan or rice- take some kadhi in a bowl with 2-3 gole. Remove the dumplings on your plate and crush them, add the garlic chips in the flavored butter. The gole are eaten seperately from the kadhi.