Khichdas/khichdras are thick legume-and-grain porridges. This one contains wheat, rice, pigeon peas, and yellow split peas. They also generally contain beef, goat, or both. This one just contains a relatively small amount of beef, but I think that goat would also be excellent in it (either instead or as well).

This was one of those almost "too simple" recipes that made me a little nervous. Because while it contains a lot of legumes and grains, it doesn't have that much in the way of seasonings. It's mostly just cumin. Cumin, ginger, and garlic. And a little cilantro and coriander. But that's not a whole lot to hang your curry on! No asafetida. Not even any turmeric! But, honestly, it was still great! Even with the limited spices. And the beef came out ultra-tender!

While I won't go so far as to say this is a new "favourite", it was very good. It may not be as tasty as some of the other curries in the book, but it has an impressive tastiness-to-effort ratio! And it's also very cheap to make. The most expensive ingredient is the beef. And you only need half a kilo of that. And cheap stewing beef works just fine. So you don't need to spend a lot of money on the meat for it. And, other than that, it's dried legumes, rice, and wheat! All very affordable ingredients. And it makes a huge amount. So it's a great dish for feeding a hungry crowd.

Khichda

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. cracked wheat
• 6 c. water
• 1/2 c. skinned split pigeon peas (toovar dal)
• 1/2 c. yellow split peas (chana dal)
• 1/2 c. long-grain rice¹
• 500g stewing beef
• 1/2 c. chile-ginger paste²
• 2 Tbsp. dhania-jeera masala
• 1-2 tsp. black cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds³ (optional)
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 1/4 c. ghee
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds
• 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Rinse and drain the wheat thoroughly.
2. Add it to the water and allow to stand at room temperature for 6-8 hours.
3. Add the wheat and its soaking water to a slow cooker or InstantPot.
4. Add the pigeon peas, yellow peas, rice, beef, chile-ginger paste, masala, black cumin (and additional regular cumin, if using), and 1 tsp. of the salt.
5. Either slow cook on "low" for 6-8 hours or pressure cook on "high" for 1 hour. If pressure cooking, allow for a 15-minute natural release. When the khichda is done, the grains should be very soft and the beef extremely tender. The consistency should be similar to congee/jook.
6. Once the porridge is ready, heat the ghee over medium-high heat.
7. Add the cumin and sizzle for 10-20 seconds.
8. Reduce heat to medium, add the garlic, and cook for a minute or two.
9. Add the garlic-y ghee and the remaining 1 tsp. of salt to the khichda and stir to mix.
10. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

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¹ Iyer calls for long-grain white rice specifically. I reasoned that, given how long it cooks for, there's no reason why I couldn't use brown rice instead. So I tossed 1/2 c. of brown basmati into my khichda. It worked great! Would definitely do it that way again in future. ^Back
2 I use chile-ginger paste rarely enough that I don't bother keeping it on hand. For this recipe I just tossed 1/2 c. of store-bought ginger paste into the blender with 6 fresh green finger chilies and gave that a whiz. It did the job and saved me trying to find room for another jar in the fridge. ^Back
3 I find black cumin quite strong and don't like excessive amounts of it. Neither does TF. So when recipes call for blak cumin, I tend to scale it back a bit. For this one, I cut the black cumin back to 1 tsp. and then added an extra tsp. of regular cumin to compensate. ^Back

Grilled Chicken and Zucchini

So... I messed this one up a little bit. It was supposed to be grilled chicken and corn. And I even got the corn for it. But then I took a little too long getting to it and the corn had gone off by the time I was making this. Okay, that sucks. But, no worries, I'll just ask TF to run out and get some more. Except apparently no, no I won't. Because she hit up just about every grocery store in town and they were all out of corn. After making five unsuccessful attempts to purchase corn, I told her to just get me any grillable vegetable. So, in the end, we ended up having grilled zucchini, not corn with our chicken. It was still pretty good. But definitely not nearly as good as the corn would have been.

Also, I only belatedly realized that I completely forgot to add the lime zest and thyme after everything was cooked. Whoops!

Grilled Chicken and Zucchini (or Corn)

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. smoked paprika
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds¹, ground
• 3 Tbsp. lime juice
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 4-6 zucchini, halved lengthwise or ears of corn, husked
• 680g skinless boneless chicken breast
• 1 Tbsp. lime zest
• 1 Tbsp. fresh thyme

Directions

1. Set up a grill for direct heat cooking and allow to preheat.
2. Combine the paprika and cumin and stir to combine.
3. Mix in the lime juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper.
4. Brush the vegetables all over with the paprika mixture.
5. Toss the chicken with the remaining paprika mixture.
6. Add the vegetables to the grill and allow to partially cook (5-10) minutes.
7. Add the chicken and grill until cooked through (3-5 minutes per side).
8. Remove from heat and sprinkle everything with lime zest and thyme.

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¹ The recipe called for cumin. And that's what I used this time. But I think it might actually be quite good with dhania-jeera masala either instead or as well. I think I'd be tempted to try using 1/2 Tbsp. of masala + 1/2 Tbsp. of ground cumin next time. ^Back

I thought that we had made all of the various enchilada recipes from the Dish of the Day and Vegetable of the Day cookbooks. But it turns out that I'd missed one! This one involves a simple filling of black beans and kale (spinach in the original recipe) with a bit of cheese and some homemade salsa verde to bring it all together.

Personally, I felt like the sauce could have used a bit more kick. I would be tempted to add some jalapeños and/or finger chilies next time. But the kids seemed to enjoy it this way, so that's good at least.

I'm glad that I tried doing the sauce from scratch for these. It was nice. That said, if you're looking for a way to streamline the recipe, I wouldn't hesitate to use store-bought salsa verde in place of the homemade.

Kale and Black Bean Enchiladas

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Sauce

• 12 tomatillos, husked and halved
• 3 poblanos, halved and seeded
• 1 jalapeño, halved and seeded (optional)
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 1 c. fresh cilantro
• salt and pepper, taste

OR

• ~1L store-bought salsa verde

Enchiladas

• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 small red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. dhania-jeera masala
• ~300g frozen chopped kale or spinach
• 2 cans (~400mL each) black beans (or 1 1/2 c. dried black beans, cooked), drained and rinsed
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 250g Monterey Jack (or pepper jack) cheese, shredded and divided
• 1 medium tortillas¹
• 1-2 avocadoes, sliced

Directions

1. Preheat the broiler (on high if it has multiple settings).
2. Place the tomatillos and chilies, cut-side-down, on a baking sheet and broil until slightly charred and softened (8-10 minutes).
3. Transfer tomatillos, chilies, onion, garlic, and cilantro to a blender and purée.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.
5. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
6. Heat oil over medium heat.
7. Add onion and bell pepper and cook until softened (~5 minutes).
8. Add the cumin and masala and cook for another minute or two.
9. Add the frozen greens and cook until thawed.
10. Remove from heat and stir in the beans, cilantro, half the cheese (~1 c.), and 3/4 c. of the sauce.
11. Spoon ~1/2 c. of sauce into the bottom of a 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish.
12. Put ~1/2 c. of filling in the centre of each tortilla, roll up into a tube, and place seam-side-down into the prepared baking dish.
13. Once all of the tortillas have been filled and placed in the baking dish, pour the rest of the sauce over them.
14. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, cover with foil, and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30 minutes.
15. Remove foil and continue baking for another 10 minutes.
16. Serve topped with avocado and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

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¹ The recipe calls for flour tortillas and that's what I used this time, but I actually think that corn tortillas would have been better here. They just didn't have any when I went to the grocery store and I didn't feel up to making my own from scratch this time. The flour tortillas were fine. I just think that corn ones tend to work especially well for enchiladas. ^Back

This came together gratifyingly quickly. The longest part was pressure-cooking the beans, but that gave me time to dismantle the chicken and mise-en-place all the ingredients.

Quick Green Chicken Chili

Cook's Country August/September 2018 (recipe card)

Ingredients

• 1.5 C mixed dry black and great northern beans
• 6C half-strength chicken or vegetable stock (or 6C water + 1 stock cube)
• 2 tsp (~0.5L worth) Better than Bouillon stock concentrate or equivalent
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• ¾ tsp pepper, ground
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp cumin, ground
• 1 C premade green salsa
• 1 grocery store roast chicken, skinned and shredded
• ½ C fresh cilantro, chopped
• Yoghurt and hot sauce (for serving)

Directions

1. Add beans and stock to pressure cooker. Pressure cook high for 40 minutes.
2. Depressurize and drain beans, reserving 1L of cooking water. If you have less than 1L, top up with tap water.
3. Stir stock concentrate into the bean water; set aside.
4. Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.
5. Add onion and pepper and cook until translucent and softened, ~5 minutes.
6. Stir in garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, ~1 minute.
7. Stir in beans, bean water, and salsa. Increase heat to medium high and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer 10 minutes.
9. Mash some of the beans against the side of the pot for thickness, if desired.
10. Stir in chicken and cilantro and cook until warmed through, ~2 minutes.
11. Serve with yoghurt and hot sauce; we found that this tomatillo-based sauce worked nicely.

This recipe got significantly overhauled by symbol. As written, there's too much broth for our quinoa, so that got reduced; the spices got tweaked and oil reduced, too.

For the final "drizzle with oil" step, the original recipe calls for ¼ C of olive oil. We had just made this tagine, and it produced lots of grease; we ended up skimming off about ¼ C of the sauce, of which maybe ¾ were grease. I've approximated this with schmaltz here. If you want to keep it vegetarian, use a reduced quantity of olive oil.

Moroccan-Spiced Roasted Vegetables and Quinoa

Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan (p. 50)

Ingredients

• 3 large parsnips (or 6 small ones), peeled and cut into 1cm pieces
• 2 large carrots (or 4 small ones), peeled and cut into 1cm pieces
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ras el hanout
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tbsp grease + 1 tbsp other sauce bits
• 1½ C chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 C quinoa, rinsed
• ¼ C dried apricots, quartered
• 3 tbsp slivered almonds, toasted
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 2-3 tbsp schmaltz or other oil for drizzling

Directions

1. Toss parsnips and carrots with oil, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, ras el hanout, salt, and pepper.
2. Arrange on a baking sheet and roast at 400°F until vegetables are tender and starting to caramelize, 35-40 minutes
3. Meanwhile, bring the broth to a boil in a medium-sized saucepan.
4. Add the quinoa, cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, 12-15 minutes.
5. Transfer quinoa to a large bowl. Top with vegetables, apricots, almonds, and parsley.
6. Drizzle over schmaltz and serve.

Mirch Palak Ki Subzi (Chile-Spiked Bell Peppers)

Despite the "chile-spiked" in the title, these didn't turn out all that hot using a single pepper; even the Kidlet was ok with them. We ended up being a bit short on pepper because one of them had gone bad, so I increased the spinach quantity to compensate, but I do think I'd prefer it with the higher pepper:spinach ratio called for in the original recipe, which is what I've written up here.

I also made it with frozen spinach, which was fine, although I think it might come out better with fresh (or perhaps with kale?).

Mirch Palak Ki Subzi

660 Curries p.544

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 large red bell peppers (1lb total), stemmed, cored, and cut into 1" pieces
• 2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1-2 fresh green Thai chiles, stemmed and finely chopped
• 2 tbsp chickpea flour
• ¼ tsp ground turmeric
• ¾ tsp coarse salt
• ½ lb fresh spinach, rinsed

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the cumin and cook until they sizzle and turn reddish-brown and fragrant, 10-15s.
3. Add the bell peppers, garlic, and chiles and stir-fry until the peppers blister, ~5 minutes.
4. Add the chickenpea flour and turmeric and stir until the flour is lightly browned, ~1 minute.
5. Deglaze with 2 C water and the salt.
6. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for 10 minutes.
7. Add the spinach. Return heat to medium-high and cook, uncovered, until spinach is wilted and sauce thickens, ~5 minutes.