Bengali Masoor Dal Khichuri/Khichdi
Masoor dal and gobindobhog rice cooked together with onions, garlic and ginger is the ultimate comfort food.
Ingredients
- ½ cup masoor dal red lentils
- ¼ cup moong dal small yellow lentils
- ½ cup Gobindobhog rice or any short-grained fragrant rice
- 3 nos large onions or 8-10 shallots
- 2 tbsp chopped garlic
- 4-5 nos garlic cloves
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 3 nos cloves
- 2 nos green cardamom
- 1/2 inch cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1.5 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 nos bay leaf
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 cup green peas
- 2 large potatoes
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 1 tbsp mustard oil
- 2-3 nos green chilies optional
Instructions
- Dry roast moong dal over medium flame till the dal becomes just a little bit red. It's better not to roast it too much for this dal. Take the dal out of the hot kadai and leave it to cool down.
- Measure out the rest of the dal and the rice. Take them both in one container. Add the cooled down moong dal to this. Wash all three together three or four times. And then drain out all the water.
- Peel the potato skin and cut the potatoes into quarters. Cut the onions into large quarters and if you are using shallots, you can use them whole.
- Wash the peas and keep aside.
- In a pressure cooker, take 1 tbsp of mustard oil and 1 tbsp of ghee. Then when the oil becomes hot, add bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.
- As soon as they start to splutter, add the cumin seeds, onions, ginger and chopped as well as whole garlic cloves. Stir fry for a couple of minutes. Keep the heat at medium so that the spices don't burn.
- Add the potatoes and green peas. Sprinkle a little bit of salt and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
- Add the rice and dal mixture. Add turmeric powder, salt and sugar and stir fry with the spices and vegetables for two to three minutes.
- If you want, you can add a couple of gree chilies here. After that, add 3.5 cups of water and give it a boil. Adjust salt and add more turmeric powder if you feel that it is not enough yellow.
- Then close the lid of the pressure cooker and let it cook for 1 whistle or 10-12 minutes. At the same time, boil a litre of water in another pan and keep it hot.
- Don't force the steam out of the pressure cooker and let the potatoes cook in the steam. Once the steam has released, open the lid. Then add hot water and gently stir. Masoor dal khichuri has to be of runny consistency. Hence a lot of water is required.
- Finally, add ghee and serve hot with some fried fish or begun bhaja, papad or some omelette. You can also make some Bengali-style omelette called mamlette. You will find the description of mamlette in the post above.