Kadhi

I made this a couple of days ago when it was kind of gloomy outside.  Kadhi is one of the Indian foods I remember liking ever since I was a little kid.  It's my favorite thing to eat with rice, especially in cold weather.  There are fancier variations of this (for example, putting okra in it), but I always default to the original one.  Also, in my opinion, the more sour the yogurt the better.  I've also tried this with ready-made buttermilk from the store (replace for the yogurt and water), and it tastes good with that too.

Ingredients

1 tbsp gram flour (besan)

1 cups yogurt1.5 cups water

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp red chili powder (optional)

1 green chili, cut into slivers (optional)

1 tsp ginger, grated2 curry leaves

1/2 inch stick of cinnamon2 cloves

1 tsp ghee (clarified butter) or oil

1/4 tsp cumin seeds1/4 tsp black mustard seedsa pinch asafoetida powder

1 tbsp cilantro, chopped

Directions

1.  Mix the gram flour with the yogurt until all of the lumps are gone (I do this by adding a little yogurt at a time).  Add the water, salt, red chili powder, green chili, ginger, curry leaves, cinnamon stick, and cloves.  Mix well. 2.  Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 10 mins (be careful, if the heat is too high, it will boil over).3.  In a separate small pan, heat the ghee/oil until hot.  Add the cumin, mustard seeds, and asafoetida and fry for ~1 min (until the mustard seeds start to pop). 4.  Add this to the kadhi and boil for another 5 min.5.  Sprinkle the cilantro on top and serve hot.