kuttu ki khichdi lauki tamatar ke saath | buckwheat khichdi with bottle gourd and tomatoes...

Kuttu ki khichdi is more like a stew that you can cook in about 20 minutes if all the vegetables are chopped. So technically it may be a buckwheat and bottle gourd stew with some bits of paneer for protein in the meal. A khichdi should have a grain and a lentil or more than one grain and lentils if we talk about authentic khichdi, but buckwheat groats can become almost khichdi like in consistency when cooked with a little extra water. Though it cooks like a pilaf as well.

Anyways, this dish is more like a one pot stew that can make a complete meal. We had it with a fish fry on the side as we are not into Navratri fasting anymore, but a large serving of raita or buttermilk will complete this meal if you are fasting.

You can use any gourd family vegetables to make this stew, sponge gourd and ridge gourd work well and zucchini also can be used for a good texture and mild taste that does not mask the nutty flavors of buckwheat. I used a soft bottle gourd of the round variety and some home grown tomatoes..

Buckwheat groats can be cooked with just the double amount of water volume wise to cook like pilaf and if the cooking liquid is more, the texture of the resultant dish is more risotto or stew like.

ingredients...

(2 meal servings with a side dish or raita)

chopped bottle gourd 5 cups (400 gm)

chopped ripe tomatoes 1.5 cup (150 gm)

finely chopped root ginger 1 tbsp

whole dry red chilly one broken

finely chopped green chilies to taste

curry powder (everyday curry powder) 1 tsp

turmeric powder 1/2 tsp

salt and pepper to taste

ghee 1.5 tbsp

cumin seeds 1 tsp

buckwheat groats 3/4 cup

paneer 100 gm chopped in small cubes

procedure...

Heat ghee in a pressure cooker pan (or a normal stockpot type pan) and tip in the cumin seeds. Let the cumin splutter before you add the red chilly broken and then the chopped ginger. Once cooked and fragrant, add the powdered spices and immediately add the chopped tomatoes and salt to taste. Cook this mixture till the tomatoes cook well and look like a chunky sauce.

Add the chopped bottle gourd (lauki), toss well and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Stirring it all once in a while. Add 2 cups of water and let it come to a boil. 

Add the buckwheat groats, mix well and cover the lid and pressure cook till the first whistle  If cooking in a stock pot, let it simmer covered till the buckwheat gets cooked. Add water if required to adjust consistency.

Add the cubed paneer and let it come a boil once again. Or just mix and cover if you want the khichdi  on the dry side.

Add finely chopped green chilies and coriander leaves if using.

Serve hot with raita or buttermilk on the side. The meal might look drab in color but the flavors are really good. Use the vegetable of your choice if you don't like bottle gourd but this meal becomes a detox type meal with bottle gourd used. Zucchini or pointed gourd (parval) would also be the same but any other vegetables would change the temperament of the meal a little.

Not to worry, all vegetables have their own benefits, so go ahead and cook this with spinach or a mix of bell peppers if you wish. Just take care not to mask buckwheat if you like the nuttiness of buckwheat.

This could be a daily meal during Navratri with changed vegetables and seasoning every day. Do let me know if you try this recipe.

Cheers and wishing you all a wonderful Hindu new year...

bhuni khichri (khichdi) in winters : a Makar Sankranti special khichri ...

Makar sankranti (a winter harvest festival in North India) is called as khichri or khichdi too in Eastern UP, probably because all new crop lentils and rice is cooked into a khichri on this auspicious day. This khichri is served with many small tidbits like a bowl of ghee, fried or roasted papads, a few chutneys both savory and sweet kind, raita or some kind of dahi (yogurt) preparations like dahi vada, a few seasonal pickles etc etc.

The number of dishes would be directly proportional to how much the lady of the house can cook or how much the other members are enthusiastic about the khichri. An array of sweetmeats made of khoya and sesame and other nuts adorn the table as well. Sesame and nuts sweetmeats called tilgud are so synonymous with Sankranti in the north.

Back into my childhood, we were all a bunch of foodies who loved pitching in to cook or prepare something or the other when such feasts were the order of the day. Makar sankranti being a holiday helped a lot. I am always reminded of my Daadi (grandmother) whenever I think about such traditional meals or cook them myself. She would have made a quick green chutney and a kachumber style salad if the same meal was served on the table in her presence. She always liked the meals to be pepped up with chutneys and raw salads even if the cooking has been basic.

I fall for basic coking and one dish meals whenever pressed for time or otherwise too. Khichri is an all time favorite and I would have cooked it more frequently if the husband was not so allergic to the sound of the word 'khichri'. He eats it alright when I cook it though, but rejects the idea of khichri every time I ask.

It so happened on the day of Makar sankranti this year too. We were just back from Goa the previous night and he had to join office in the morning. I wanted a home cooked comforting meal for myself and didn't want to cook separate things for both of us. His lunch box was also to be cooked to my despair, early in the morning. Such things feel like a pain when you are just back from a fun holiday. Anyways, I asked him if he would like to have khichri in his lunch box and he said no straight away. I asked what about a pulao with some daal in it, he said yes.

I know you would say I am manipulative. I agree I am.

I soaked the lentils in the night so a quick khichri would be ready for the day of makar sankranti. A comforting home cooked meal after 2 weeks of Goan food and a festival being celebrated in it's warm glory too. Both tasks duly accomplished. Call me manipulative but I cooked the khichri alright. Just like it was done in my mother's home.

Makar sankranti special khichri..

ingredients...
(2-3 servings as a stand alone meal)

black lentils split (urad daal split with skin) 1/2 cup
split chick peas (chana daal without skin) 1/2 cup
basmati rice 1/2 cup
fresh green peas 1 cup
dry red chilies broken to taste
cumin seeds 2 tsp
black cardamoms 2
green cardamoms 2
cloves 10
cinnamon sticks 2
minced ginger (not paste) 2 tbsp
black pepper powder 1 tsp
turmeric powder 1 tsp
ghee 2 tbsp
water 1 cup
salt to taste

procedure...

Soak the lentils well in time, at least 3 hours or overnight. Drain and keep aside.

Wash the rice, drain and keep aside till you do the other preparations.

Heat the ghee in a pressure cooker pan and tip in the dry red chilies and cumin seeds first. Let them crackle and then add the chopped ginger and whole spices and remove the pan from the burner for a while so the whole spices don't get charred.

Add the soaked and drained lentils, green peas and the powdered spices and toss them all so everything gets coated well with spices, and get aromatic in about 2-3 minutes. If cooking a larger quantity you would need to prolong this step till the aroma of spices is evident and the lentils look a little cooked.

Add the drained rice, add a cup of water and salt to taste, fix the lid of the pressure cooker and let the pressure build up. Wait till the first whistle and then lower the flame and cook for 2-3 minutes more.

Let the pressure release by itself, open the lid and let the steam out. Fluff up the khichdi with the help of a folk. Serve as required. This khichri tastes good at room temperature too.

I packed this for Arvind's office lunch with a separate box of sliced carrots. He got plain yogurt from his office canteen, while I made a carrots and onion raita for myself that day. The hare lasun ka achar was a good accompaniment to this lovely khichri too.

Some people like adding garlic to the khichri, some love a topping of fried onions on top and some wouldn't touch a khichri without a huge dollop of ghee glistening on a plate of khichri. Some would love it with a typical UP style chokha and some bhujia. Dress it up as you like, this winter special khichri with green peas and two types of lentils together is a delight to have for lunch.

Here is my khichdi platter of 2016, it was made in a hurry again but served with some seasonal winter pickles that we love having as salads. Read more about these seasonal pickles here.

Pickle, raita, chutney and papad ...all can make the khichri interesting in it's own way ...

bhuni khichri

Khichri has been a mundane kind of a meal for me , a meal cooked in a hurry or a student's sunday lunch when the mess is off , or a bachelor's way of life , food for the sick, a poor man's concoction .... it has always been a dish which we were embarrassed to acknowledge ..........it sounded so boring when everybody used to rave about maggi  and it was khichri that i preferred............i used to love it secretly.

You know a well spread full course meal is not only a meal for most of us , it is more like a statement of our well being , financially........i am talking about the great Indian middle class which some believe has vanished under the heights of super specialty malls n multiplexes......for me , it is very much there , it is just that the middle class can afford a lot more now.....the mind set hasn't change.......khichri was a poor man's food n not fit to be in your favorite food list.

Pardon me for straying from the humble subject , the khichri........which , i recently came to know that , is not a humble dish actually ..........it has traveled to far away places ...........

Kedgeree is the new name ( for me) ........some say the original name ( i disagree that it came to India from Scotland first and then traveled back to Britain to become popular ) .......British were so enthralled by this simple dish that they adopted it for their breakfast , garnishing it with fish , bacon or egg and many more things alien to Indians in the time of Raj ( British empire).....i was even unaware of the fact that it is popular breakfast dish in the good old south  of India), by the lovely name of pongal........i saw all these things only after i started writing my blogs n was introduced to so many blogs on traditional foods .......... kedgeree and pongal both as breakfast was very new for me and to the disgust of any north Indian i'd love to have khichri for my breakfast any day....... it's yet to happen though i have adopted my multigrain soup as a breakfast ( only mine , not the husband's ....he likes sweet breakfasts or stuffed parathas )......

I have some very fond memories of khichri from my childhood when i used to make a thinner khichri sometimes n temper it 3-4 times with different set of tempering to make it super flavorful ........ all of us 3 sisters used to hog like mad on khichri , the brothers still hate khichri and so does the husband.....to my utter dismay..........

But i am clever.....don't you know ?

He loves tahiri and i make khichri n tell him it is tahiri..........and he loves it.......do you have a kid?

This khichri i pass off as tahiri is actually a dressed up version of khichri , the bhuni khichri .......which is prepared more like a pulao and is spicier and drier looking like a biryani.........yes biryani ......to do away with the embarrassing part....:)

This is a tomato masala bhuni khichri or a daal wali tahiri .whatever you like to call it ..........as per your convenience.

Arvind carries a lunch box sometimes and one day i asked if he wants tahiri for lunch , he said yes n i made this khichri........in the evening i was reported that he couldn't get enough of it as the friends raided the lunchbox n he had to make do with other things.........

With a sealed pack of plain curds and any kind of raw salad it is a very good balanced meal and a very good option for lunch box.........i have been getting requests for lunch box suggestions n i hope i am able to post a few more.

ingredients...

rice 3/4 cup ( i used brown basmati rice )
whole mung beans with skin 1 cup
tomatoes chopped 2 cups
ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp
chopped green chillies 1 tbsp ( and /or red chilly powder according to taste)
curry patta 4-5 springs
asafoetida powder a pinch
cumin seeds 2 tsp
black peppercorns 2 tsp
coriander , cumin , black pepper n bay leaf powder made using 2:1:1:1 ratio of the ingredients
( this is my everyday subzi masala  but any curry powder will be good )
salt to taste
ghee 2 tbsp

procedure...

Soak the mung beans overnight or for 3-4 hours at least , it will become almost double in volume.

Wash the rice and drain , keep aside.

Heat ghee in a wide thick base pan with tight fitting lid ........throw in the asafoetida and cumin seeds n black peppercorns .let them sputter.

Add the ginger garlic paste, green chillies and the curry patta and stir for a minute , throw in the powder masala mix , fry for a while till the masala gets aromatic , preventing burning .

Add the chopped tomatoes and salt and cook till the tomatoes are mushy .

Add the soaked rice n daal and bhuno , that is , stir fry the mixture for a couple of minutes till you see a slight change in the color of dal n rice......a bit translucent .

Pour 3.5 cups of water and let it come to a soft boil , adjust the flame to the minimum , cover the lid and cook for about 10 minutes........check after 5 minutes to adjust cooking time.....the grains of rice should be firm and the daal should get mushed when pressed , but should retain their shape.

Keep it covered after the cooking for 5 minutes , you get a nice aroma when you open the lid finally......

It's usually a one pot lunch for the two of us , it is a good choice for a filling n non messy lunch box too....dahi ( plain curds) is a must with it and some sliced cucumber , onions and carrots make a perfect accompaniment.

The UP version of bhuni khichri is spicier and laden with ghee , it has bay leaf instead of curry patta and a few cubed potatoes are sometimes thrown in........it is actually a very forgiving dish , very very customizable .........according to your mood , convenience and off course your imagination......not to mention your pocket.......add bacon , anchovies, prawns, boiled eggs or even nuts and be merry with khichri........or kedgeree.

Enjoy...be it Khichri or kedgeree.........