It always reminds me of Moharrum.
Khichda is an awesome one-dish meal that is usually prepared during Moharrum,
but in some homes, all round the year. It
is yummy, healthy and simple. It is also the elder brother of of Khichdi (dal and rice), but that is another story.
My version of ‘White Khichda’ is inspired by Bohra cuisine
again and I have just relied on my taste buds to decide what must go into it, to
taste like it should. I have substituted the normally used whole beaten wheat
with pearly white barley jau, which is good for cholesterol too.
Soak 350 grams of barley jau in
water overnight and rinse in clean water once next morning. Also soak 2
tablespoons of red masoor dal and one tablespoon each of yellow moong dal and
tur dal. With all this soaking going around, you should now have time to
prepare two accompaniments for the Khichda. To save time, slice four large
onions and keep aside. You will need
onions at three different stages. First accompaniment is a ‘Kachumer’ which is a
cucumber & tomato salad. Grate cucumbers and squeeze out the water. Chop
two tomatoes into tiny pieces and avoid using pulp (it will make the kachumer’
watery). Mix cucumber, tomatoes, one
sliced onion, few chopped green chillies, a little chopped coriander ,some salt
and a little lemon juice. Refrigerate. Meanwhile, also fry two sliced onions in
oil till brown, cool and crush. By virtue, this is called ‘Barista’. No one
knows, whose bright idea it was, to name coffee shops after fried onions!
The second accompaniment is a
Date & Onion Chutney. Deseed 10 to
12 dates and put in a blender with some water for a few minutes. Pour this
sauce into a pan. Add a teaspoon of cooking oil, a teaspoon of black pepper
powder, some salt, half a teaspoon of roasted cumin powder and lots of red chilly powder (you will not be
putting much in the khichda, so its okay to make this chutney a little fiery!).
Cook on a low flame for about five
minutes till you get a dark brown sauce. When cool mix one chopped onion
into the chutney.
Get the mutton ready for the
khichda. (half a kilogram, but with bones).
Heat a little oil and fry mutton pieces
with a little ginger-garlic paste. Add a few cloves, green cardamom and piece
each of star anise and cinnamon. Fry for a few more minutes. Add lots of water
and salt to taste and cook till tender, for about 35 to 40 minutes (in a pressure
cooker).
In a separate open pan cook the
soaked barley and dals. Add some more whole garam masalas and lots of green chillies.
The whole masalas will be removed later on, but not the chillies. Boil till the
barley and dal are tender enough to be crushed. Keep stirring occasionally to avoid sticking
to the bottom of the pan.
Remove the whole garam masala
from both, the barley-dal broth and the mutton. Add only the mutton soup to the
mixture.
Traditionally, you can use a
wooden pestle to crush the khichda, but that would be time consuming and requires
a lot of energy. Try a hand blender.
The consistency should be a
little grainy, so avoid overdoing it.
While you are doing this you can check the taste for salt and spiciness.
Add a pinch of garam masala powder and little red chilly powder at this stage.
It will still not change the colour of the khichda and anyway, the attempt
should be to improve the taste and no one is going to receive a trophy for
making an‘Albino Khichda’!
Add mutton and reheat for sometime. If you notice, it is the lack of
turmeric that will not give your khichda
the yellow dal-like colour that we are normally used to.
The best and the ONLY way to
serve the White Khichda is with a little ‘Barista’ and some chopped mint leaves,
sprinkled with lemon juice. Drizzle a
little melted butter or ghee too. Serve
kachumer & spicy date chutney separately. This will complement the blandness
, if any, of the khichda. But trust me.....the White Khichda should melt even the darkest souls!
