Khichda

Many of you know what Khichdi is......but what is this Khichda???? For those who are hearing this word, Khichda, for the first time, let me explain - Khichda is Khichdi's cousin, born and brought up in Hyderabad, :-P. Khichda is a richer version of Khichdi, also its like a thick porridge. In khichdi we use rice and moong dal, whereas in khichda we use rice, a mix of dals (moong dal, buller dal, taur dal, lobiya dal, whole moong dal,etc,..) and mutton - thats why i called it a richer version of khichdi. Preparing khichda is a time consuming task. I still remember, my mom used to spend hours in kitchen preparing this one dish meal. Don't worry....I am a very lazy cook, so I am gonna share the simplest form of preparing khichda. For all calorie-conscious people - this is not your cup-of-tea. But you can try this and skip the other two meals of the day, only if you can. Ok lets start...

You can serve 4 people, using the following ingredients:-

Biryani rice - 1 cup
Mixed dals - 1 cup ( i used 3 tbsp each of buller dal, whole moong dal, split moong dal, taur dal and lobiya dal, so altogether you will get 1 cup of mixed dals)
Mutton - 500 gms, cut into medium size
Onions - 2 big sized, sliced
Tomato - 2 medium sized, chopped
Ginger - 3 inch piece, peeled and chopped
Garlic - 12 cloves, peeled
Green chillies - 4 nos
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp, heaped
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp, heaped
Tumeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala powder - 2 tsp
Mint leaves - handful
Coriander leaves - handful
Curd - 3 tbsp
Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Ghee - 1-1/2 ladle
Oil - 1/2 ladle
Water - 5-1/2 cups


Method

Wash and soak dals overnight.

Wash and soak rice for half an hour (just before cooking).

Make a paste of ginger, garlic and green chillies.

In a pressure cooker, put the soaked rice and dals and add 4 cups of water and some salt and cook it. The rice and dal mix should be slightly overcooked.

Once the dal and rice is cooked, mash it finely and keep it aside.

In a pressure cooker, heat ghee and oil. Put sliced onions and saute it. When the onions turn golden, add the ginger,garlic and green chilli paste. Saute it nicely.

After a couple of minutes, throw in the tomatoes and again saute it till the tomatoes turn pulpy.

It's time to add the masalas........add chilli powder, coriander powder, 1 tsp garam masala powder and tumeric powder. Mix well and cook for a minute.

Now add the greens and mix.

Put curd and mutton pieces and mix it well. Cook mutton till it turns colour and add 1 cup of water and pressure cook till the mutton turns tender.

The cooked meat will look like this.........

Now mix the prepared mutton and rice dal mix and mix it nicely. To it add lemon juice, remaining 1 tsp of garam masala and 1/2 cup of water. Cook this under medium low flame.

After 5 minutes add 1 ladle of ghee and mix it thoroughly and cook for another 5 minutes.

Your khichda is readyyy.......

Serve it with chopped coriander leaves on top. The best sidedish for this recipe is NOTHING. lol....I bet you will prepare this very often....as its tastier and yummy......