The Rice Bowl · Main
Moong Dal Khichdi
- Easy
- 15 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, an earthy, grounding base, on a slow, honest burn.
Ingredients
- 150 g split skinned moong dal
- 150 g rice
- 1.2 L water
- 40 g ghee
- 5 g cumin seeds
- 1 g asafoetida
- 15 g ginger, grated
- 1 green chilli, slit
- 3 g ground turmeric
- 8 g salt
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
The words inside
Allergen screen
Found: dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Dry roast the moong dal in a pan over medium heat, shaking it, for 3 to 4 minutes until it smells nutty and a few grains freckle brown, then rinse it with the rice until the water runs clear. 4 min
- Heat half the ghee in a heavy pot and crackle the cumin until the seeds darken a shade and stop spitting, then add the asafoetida, ginger and chilli and stir for 30 seconds only, since asafoetida scorches fast.
- Add the rice, dal, turmeric, salt and water, bring to a boil and simmer covered for 25 minutes, or pressure cook to 3 whistles, until the grains have lost their edges and the mass drops off a spoon in a soft ribbon. 25 min
- Beat in the rest of the ghee off the heat and loosen with boiling water until it pours slowly, then serve straight away.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Roasting in a hot oven 56 recipes
- The oven was fully up to heat before anything went in, given time beyond the indicator light rather than judged by it.
- Every piece has air around it. Nothing touches its neighbour and nothing is packed to the edge of the tray, because crowded food steams itself in its own moisture and never browns.
- Colour is even across the whole tray, the tray having been turned at least once: no pale row at the back and no dark row at the front.
- It came out BEFORE the target temperature, not at it. Carryover keeps driving the inside up by several degrees after it leaves the oven, and that rise is part of the cooking rather than an error in it.
- The temperature was read at the coldest part rather than the easiest one to reach, and read again after the rest.
Where it goes wrong The tray was crowded, or the oven was not truly up to heat. The food releases steam faster than a cool box can carry it away, so it sits pale and slack, and the extra minutes spent chasing colour take the inside well past where it should have stopped.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
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