This is an inspired recipe from Rajdhani restaurant. This khichdi is fiery hot, so when you crave for something really hot and spicy just go for this. The sad part is it is not kid friendly. So you have to end up making something else for your little one. It has lots of vegetables in it, the most important one is brinjal. It renders a special taste to this rice. I love to add more vegetables in rice and this one tastes awesome with more vegetables.
More spice and oil is used in this rice. Both get balanced and has a nice and hot taste. If you try to reduce either the spice or oil, the taste gets altered. So do not reduce the oil or chilli powder from the mentioned quantity. It is cooked in an closed pot and not pressure cooked. Hence the texture of the rice is also bit different. It all gets done very quickly so no worries.
INGREDIENTS
nutritional information: serves 3 adults
1 cup of sona masuri (or basmathi rice)
1 big carrot
2 big brinjal
1 handful of peas
15 beans
1 medium sized potato
1 big onion chopped
1 tomato chopped (I skipped it)
1 tsp cumin
5 garlic cloves
a pinch of asafoetida
1 tbsp chilli powder (see notes)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
water as required
1.5 tbsp oil/ghee
Method:
1. Chop the required veggies and soak rice for 30 minutes. Heat oil in a pan and splutter cumin seeds.
2. Add garlic and onion. Saute them till translucent. Add tomato and other vegetables.
3. Let the vegetables get cooked for 2-3 minutes. Add chilli powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Saute them for a minute so that they lose their raw flavour and the veggies are coated with the masala.
4. Add drained rice and mix well for a minute. This helps in slight roasting of the rice so that it retains it shape even after cooking well.
5. Add water so as to float above the rice and bring it to a boil. Cover and cook in medium flame. After few minutes open and stir slightly.
6. If it appears dry and rice has to still get cooked add hot water, mix gently and cook covered. Rice gets cooked in 10-15 minutes so check periodically and add hot water if and as necessary.
Top it generously with chopped coriander leaves and melted ghee dotted all over. It tastes super hot so have it with plain curd or a simple raitha.
Notes:
This khichdi is meant to be super hot and oily. The original recipe called for 3 tbsp of oil and 2 tbsp of chilli powder. I have used half the qty and it was still little hot for me as we do not eat spicy food. So if you reduce oil and add more chilli powder then there will be imbalance. So add more oil for a good taste.
Vegetables like peas, carrot, beans, potato, cauliflower are optional, but do not skip brinjal. It absorbs all the flavour and tastes very good.
Add only hot water if extra water is required while cooking or the temperature might reduce and it affects cooking.
Thanks for reading the recipe, if you like this recipe please leave a comment below.
