The ultimate comfort food for dinner – Bhakhri, Khichdi, Kadhi, Shaak

Bhakhri, shaak, khichdi and kadhi is the ultimate comfort food for me. Dinner is called vaalu in Gujarati, and this is a typical combination for dinner in a Gujarati household. There are subsets of this combination of course, which are also quite popular like bhakhri-shaak and khichdi kadhi.

Moving counter-clockwise and starting from bottom left, the picture shows bhakhri, khichdi, shaak, kadhi and a papad on the top. You can also see jaggery and ghee on the bhakhri. Even though this might look like a super long post, making these for dinner is not at all complicated. I just like to make sure I do not miss out on any detail.
Bhakhri (A soft and crispy Indian bread)
Bhakhri is ideally prepared with slightly coarse wheat flour, lending it a distinctly soft and crispy texture. Bhakhri lasts longer than the fulka roti, doesn’t turn soggy the next day. In fact, bhakhris taste just as yummy on the next day if not better, with a cup of chai.

Bhakhri (A soft and crispy Indian bread) – Makes 8 to 10

Ingredients

1. Whole wheat flour – 2 heaped cups (Use slightly coarse wheat flour, if available)
2. Oil – 1 tbsp
3. Salt – 1 pinch

Method of preparation
Add salt and oil to the wheat flour and mix well. Adding oil while kneading the dough is called adding mon in Gujarati, and this oil is the key to crispy bhakhris. Slowly add water and knead into a tight dough (harder than that of roti). For 2 cups of flour, you should roughly require about 3/4 to 1 cup of water. Make laddu sized balls from the dough and smoothen each of the balls indivially into slightly flattened balls like shown in the picture.

Take a slightly curved tava (not totally flat), and put it on low heat. Roll out one dough-ball into a thick chapati. Let it cook on low heat on one side and before it gets pink spots, turn it on the other side and let it cook till it gets nice pink spots. Put a few drops of oil on the tava and cook the first side first. Press gently with a flat turner ladel to make sure all sides of bhakhri are getting cooked. Cook on the other side, for a few seconds only as it is cooked already. Spread out the bhakhris as you make them, on a paper or an inverted steel strainer so that all the steam escapes without making them soggy. Once they cool a bit, you can stack them in a dubba or casserole.

You can eat it with any rasedar subzee and kadhi(sample recipes below) or with grated jaggery and a little ghee.

Bataka nu fotravalu shaak (A potato curry with potato peel intact) – Serves 2 to 3

This is a very basic and quick potato curry and this is probably the first things I learnt from my mother. It is so simple that unless you try really hard, you just can’t mess it up!

1. Potatoes (big) – 2 nos
2. Onions (big) – 1
3. Coriander – 1 tbsp, chopped
4. Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
5. Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
6. Red chilly powder – 1 tsp
7. Cumin powder – 1 tsp
8. Coriander powder – 1 tsp
9. Oil – 1 tbsp
10. Asafoetida – 1 pinch
11. Salt to taste

Wash the potatoes thoroughly and scrap them lightly with a knife, to remove any dirt or blackened parts. Chop the potatoes and onions into 3/4 inch cubes. Heat the oil in a thick bottomed kadhai. When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, asafoetida, turmeric powder and the chopped potatoes and onions. Add 2-3 cups of water, salt and put a lid on it. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Check from time to time to see if more water needs to be added. When the potatoes are cooked properly, add the cumin, coriander powder ( or you can just add dhanajeeru) and red chilly powder. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes and then switch off the flame. Garnish with chopped coriander.

Kadhi – Serves 3

When people said Indian “curries” are famous all over the world, well, I believed they were talking about this kadhi, till a long long time. In those days, kadhi was one of those routine dishes, prepared once in a week, for a break from the monotony of the daal. I didn’t see anything so special about this dish, for it to be so famous. But then firangis were known to fall for strange things :).

Anyway, so when I figured that the much hyped curries and kadhi are actually two different things, all of a sudden my interest and respect for kadhi grew. Don’t know why. Enough of blabber for the day. Over to the recipe.

Ingredients

1. Slightly sour curd – 1 cup
2. Besan – 2 tsp
3. Green chillies – 6
4. Ginger – small piece
5. Curry leaves – 5
6. Fresh coriander – 1 tbsp, finely chopped
7. Cinnamon – 1/2 inch
8. Cloves – 4
9. Jaggery – 1/2 cup, grated
10. Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
11. Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
12. Oil or Ghee – 2 tsp, for vaghaar (tadka/tempering)
13. Salt to taste

Method of preparation

Blend the dahi with enough water using a wooden or electric blender and make buttermilk of desired consistency. Take half a cup of water and mix the besan well so that no lumps are formed. Add the besan, grated jaggery and salt to the buttermilk and put the vessel on low flame. Chop one green chilly finely and grind the rest of the chillies with ginger into a paste. Add the chilly-ginger paste in the kadhi. Let the kadhi simmer for at least 15 minutes. The kadhi will turn frothy. According to popular belief, a kadhi’s worth is gauged by the number of times it is brought to a boil. And the criteria for success is 18 times! In Gujarati such kadhi is called adhaar ubhra ni kadhi. Digression over, back to business. I don’t literally follow the dumb rule of 18, just let it simmer for 15 odd minutes and we are good. Now, take a small pan for tadka and heat oil in it (I used oil, but ghee is preferred.). When hot, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, chopped green chillies cloves and cinnamon. Let it simmer for a couple more minutes, garnish with chopped coriander and serve it piping hot with rice or with a meal like this.

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