Sunday, June 04, 2006

Fastfood without the guilt

When T and M were visiting, M made some delicious Kichdi at my place. M is a great cook ( the puliyodharai she made five years ago is still fondly remembered). Now I have taken to making this whenver I am running short of time.

It is the easiest thing to make if you have a pressure cooker (don't know about other desis, but for Indians, p-c is an absolute must in a kitchen). I cook basmati rice and arhar dal in 2:1 proportion in a p-c. In a Kadai, I cook tomatoes, onion (you can add other veggies too) with the standard desi spices - chilly, dhania powder and turmeric (all added andaz se) and once that is ready, add it to the cooked rice+dhal. Add salt (I always add salt last, but amma tells me that is not advisable) and it is ready to eat. I usually eat this kichdi with dahi, achar and papad.

3 comments:

Naz said...

I make this in a rice-cooker! Such a complete meal if you dont mind the mushiness.

work_in_progress said...

MM,

Arhar dhal is called Toovara parippu in Malayalam. I suspect the term in Tamil should also be similar. If you still don't get it, let me know, I have a Tamizh friend and I will ask her.

You know, this dish reminds me of pongal, but this tamizh friend told me not to use Basmati rice for pongal.

Sorry, this recipe is not the most helpful in terms of measurements. But, you must have years of experience as compared to this novice, so I am guessing you should not have a problem with the amount of spice to use.

S,

I forgot about the rice cooker. Yep, this should work fine with the rice cooker too. I don;t mind the mushiness at all, with the dahi it is such a complete meal.

Naz said...

You can make it with any dal really, couldn't you? I usually use moong dal since it cooks fastest.