Vaghareli Khichdi

Jul 4, 2020

Another recipe! When I get asked for recipes I write them up here so that I can remember them too.

Some day I will get back on the topic of 3d printing &c, but first:

Khichdi is a dish of rice and and daal that is consumed all over India. This one is specifically Gujarati. I think that this kind of dish is probably the basis for that thing called Kedgeree, which has flaked fish in it and is sometimes served as a breakfast dish in the UK and other places.

This is basic, but there’s no reason at all that you could chop extra vegetables in with it to make it a full meal. The recipe uses ghee, but if you use the vegetable ghee then this will be entirely vegan.

This recipe uses “cups”, but consider this a relative measurement! I will make some of this and weight it out properly at some point.

• 1.5 cups rice
• 1 cup toor daal
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 0.5 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 dry red chilli
• 8 whole black peppercorns
• 5 cloves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 5 bay leaves
• 4 or 5 cups of water

The toor daal, also know as pigeon pea, tur, tuvar and gungo peas is a yellow lentil, and with roti or rice is a staple in India.

Wash the daal and the rice separately, and set them soaking, separately again, for 30 mins. The water should just cover the rice/daal. You might know the score here already – if there are any discoloured lentils or ones with the hulls still on, take them out. Wash the rice until you get a cleanish rinse.

Heat the ghee in a big coverable pot and when hot hot put in the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, dry red chilli, cloves, cinammon and peppercords. You are making a fragrant oil here that will coat everything. These should sizzle when they hit the oil – give them 5 seconds and then throw in the soaking daal, including the water! It will be a noisy business. Stir around, put the cover on the pot.

After about 10 minutes, add the rice and its soaking water, the salt and the turmeric powder. Bring the mixture to a boil for a minute or two, then reduce the heat to low, cover the pot and cook on low for 15 minutes. Take it off the heat, and set it aside, undisturbed for another 15 minutes. Don’t mess with it! Let it settle. FINALLY then you can mix it all up and start eating it.

It’s very delicious. You can put chutneys or anything through it, or hot sauce, etc. It’s great to go with a bit of veg curry.

Recipe for Naan Bread

Jun 9, 2020

This recipe comes from a Punjabi woman living in Dublin, Ireland. In her household, naan bread was a real treat, something that only appeared when there were guests over, or there was some kind of a celebration. Otherwise it was roti and chappati all the way. She called the white flour used to make this “cake flour” – so not a high-protein strong flour, but the material that is mostly called Plain Flour in the shops.

This recipe uses “cups”, but consider this a relative measurement! I will make some of this and weight it out properly at some point.

• 3 cups plain flour
• 0.5 cup milk
• 0.5 cup yoghurt
• 2 tsp baking powder or yeast
• 2 tsp butter or ghee
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp kalonji seeds

Ok we need a little digression here on the topic of kalonji – it’s a plant called Nigella sativa and it’s in the Ranunculaceae family, distantly related to the good old buttercup that decorates our gardens and fields. You will find it in shops as Kalonji, or as Onion Seeds. It’s nothing to do with onions.

Sieve the flour in one big bowl, put a hole in the middle and then put in the baking powder (yeast), milk, yoghurt. Take a beer out of the fridge, open it and pour into the appropriate glass. Back to the bowl – add butter (ghee), sugar, kalonji seeds and salt. Wash your hands. Mix with your fingertips to make a dough. If it feels a bit dry, use more milk. Butter up your hands and knead it a little, then cover and leave in a warm place for 6-8 hours.

later…

Divide the dough into 10-15 balls. Roll them out into an oval shape and put the naan under a medium heated grill (for the bubbles) then cook the other side on a pan. Or cook it all on the pan, or a tandoor if you have one, whatever works, like. Hotter the better.

You can add an egg to soften the naan – restaurants tend to do this. If you want to eat the leftover naan (if any) later on, then using ghee is best for the dough.