Cucumber (Kakri) Badi | Nainital, Uttarkhand - The Pahari Life - 200gm

Cucumber (Kakri) Badi | Nainital, Uttarkhand - The Pahari Life - 200gmBadi is a traditional preparation of making dry nuggets out of soaked and ground batter of different kinds of lentils vegetables. Known as Vadi in most parts of India, this age old tradition is followed in Uttarakhand where Badi making is very famous in every rural household. These can be prepared with Moong Dal, Urad Dal, Masoor Dal, Chana Dal, Gahat Dal etc and mixed with vegetables like petha, kakri, gaderi, mooli etc to give a unique taste

Badi is a traditional preparation of making dry nuggets out of soaked and ground batter of different kinds of lentils/ vegetables. Known as Vadi in most parts of India, this age-old tradition is followed in Uttarakhand where Badi making is very famous in every rural household.These can be prepared with Moong Dal, Urad Dal, Masoor Dal, Chana Dal, Gahat Dal etc and mixed with vegetables like petha, kakri, gaderi, mooli etc to give a unique taste – specialty of the hills .

Badi is a traditional method of making lentil dumplings and drying them under the sunlight. It is the oldest way to bring all the female group in the house together at a place to put the lentil dumplings in a mat/cloth/ aluminium utensils under the sunlight. Usually, the terrace or the big verandah is chosen where women make a big circle and they gossip to the fullest while putting the dumplings/small balls. This traditional method of making Badi is still carried on in almost all households in Uttarakhand. Even the city dwellers have not given up this method of making Badi at their narrow verandas or common terrace in an apartment.

The modern household however has slowly forgotten this traditional method, obliterating to the present fast pace of livelihood people do not have so much time or patience to spend on making the dumplings and it also needs a little bit of labor. The joint families where Grandmother is the ablest individual who continues the tradition of Badi making and also she patiently make these Badis every year, preserve them in a big container for the entire year, few she distributes to her daughter or son living in different places to carry the legacy of supreme taste in the Pahari recipes. Many housewives even in today’s modernization have continued learning this traditional art of making Badis from their mothers or Grandmothers. This process of making dry Badis are usually done during the Autumn season when women soak themselves under the warm sun in the cold season, also enjoy making the Badis with their hand. There are modern techniques that have come into the market to make Badis, but the way our ancestors used to spend their time and put their love into making those Badis were beyond any description.