Saturday, February 28, 2015

Dal khichdi


Dal Khichdi is the north Indian counterpart of south Indian’s sambar sadham (atleast thatz what i have interpret so far). My love for sambar sadham is an unsung story and I confess that a mixture of dal and rice cooked till mushy with vegetables makes my day.
I have tasted them a couple of times with variations and this is my version or should I say a derived version after a lot of trials and tests to suit my taste buds. Do try it!
Ingredients:
To Pressure cook:
Rice-1/2 cup
Moong dal/Split green gram dal-1/4 cup
Toor dal/Red gram dal/pigeon peas split-1/4 cup
Cubed Vegetables-1 cup (green beans, carrot, potato)
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Salt-as needed
Water-3 &1/2 cups
To Temper:
Cumin seeds-1 tsp
Asafoetida/hing-1/4 tsp
Dried red chillies-2, broken
Green chillies-2, slit
Ginger-garlic paste-1 tsp
Onion-1, cubed
Tomatoes-2, finely chopped
Red chili powder-1 & 1/2 tsp
Garam masala powder-1 tsp
Salt-as needed
Vegetable oil-2 tbsp
To Garnish:
Coriander leaves-2 tbsp, chopped
Ghee-1 tbsp

How It Happened:
1. Wash and soak the dal and rice for half an hour. Then add all the ingredients mentioned under ‘to pressure cook’ list in a pressure cooker along with water and half the salt needed. Then put the lid on and pressure cook for 1 whistle in medium flame and 1 whistle in simmer. Switch off the flame and set aside until the pressure is completely released.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, red chillies, asafoetida and green chillies and fry for a minute.
3. When the cumin seeds pop, add cubed onions and cook until they turn translucent.

4. Add the ginger & garlic paste and cook until the raw smell goes off.
5. Throw in chopped tomatoes, red chili powder and salt. Mix and cook until the tomatoes are completely mushy and oozes out the oil.
6. Sprinkle the garam masala powder, stir in and switch off the flame.
7. Add this mixture to the cooked rice and mix well.
8. Serve hot with chopped coriander and a drizzle of ghee along with vadams and papads.
Notes:
* I have used regular ponni rice. You can also use sona masoori/raw rice.
* The rice and dal should be well cooked and mushy so I have added more water. Adjust as per the nature of your rice.
* Usually either toor/moong dal is used. I have used both.
* Usually in north Indian tempering they don’t add mustard seeds or curry leaves, even I feel that they are the significance of sambar sadham. So I skipped those. But you can add if you like it.
* You can use whole cinnamon, clove and cardamom while tempering instead of garam masala.
* You can easily skip onion and garlic and make it vrat ka khana. Use ginger juliennes.

*I highly recommend the drizzle of ghee on hot khichdi while serving. They smell and taste heavenly!

No comments :

Post a Comment