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

This was a decent dish, but it really feels like more of a side-dish than a main course. I think it would be good with a nice piece of salmon or maybe some chicken.

I also messed up a bit in that I forgot that this recipe called for green onions. So when TF asked me if she could use the rest on her lunch, I told her to go ahead. With no fresh green onions left, I ended up using a bit of scallion oil for roasting the veggies instead of the olive oil suggested in the original.

Wheat Berries with Roasted Veggies

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 c. wheat berries¹
• 3 c. vegetable stock²
• 3 parsnips, peeled and cubed
• 1 small (or 1/2 large) butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 large onion (preferably red), peeled and cubed
• 5-7 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil (or scallion oil)
• 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. dried cranberries
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley
• 2 green onions, chopped

Directions

1. Combine wheat berries and vegetable stock in a small pot and bring to a boil.
2. reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for ~1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
4. Toss parsnips, squash, onion, and garlic with oli, vinegar, salt, and pepper and dump into a roasting pan.
5. Roast for ~45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
6. Peel the garlic and return to the veggies.
7. Drain wheat berries and combine with roasted veggies.
8. Toss with cranberries, parsley, and green onions.
9. Drizzle with additional vinegar and serve.

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¹ I wasn't sure whether hard or soft wheat berries would be better, but I had more hard than soft, so that's what I went with. I figured, if nothing else, hard wheat would offer marginally more protein than soft. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 3 1/2 c. water. I did use 3 1/2 c. of water, but opted to add an "herb & garlic" bouillon cube as well. I like how that worked out, so I think I'd just use 3 c. of stock next time. (I don't think the extra 1/2 c. was necessary since it just gets drained at the end anyway. ^Back

Some of the spice blends Iyer gives recipes for in 660 Curries are very simple -- like the two-ingredients dhania-jeera masala. It doesn't get much more straight-forward than that! Most of them are a bit more involved. But this East Indian bottle masala is by far the most complex of the various blends and pastes in the book. It incorporates an astounding 20 ingredients! And, according to Iyer, this is one of the simpler bottle masalas out there. He explains that the recipes tend to be family secrets and that a given recipe may contain anywhere from 20 to 75 different components! It reminds me a bit of some of the descriptions I've read of Moroccan ras el hanout: each shop or family tends to have their own recipe, they're all closely-guarded secrets, and the ingredient lists range from long to very long.

Since this makes a very large batch (due to the sheer number of ingredients), Iyer recommends sharing with friends and/or using it as a general-purpose seasoning. He advises adding it to soups, salads, or pastas to give them a unique flavour boost. I haven't been remembering to do this, but possibly I should try it out the next time I'm casting about for spices. I bet it'd be great in scrambled eggs!

East Indian Bottle Masala

From 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. dried red Thai, arbol, or cayenne chilies
• 2 Tbsp. yellow split peas (chana dal)
• 2 Tbsp. soft wheat berries (kanak)
• 1 Tbsp. uncooked long-grain white rice
• 1/2 c. coriander seeds
• 1 Tbsp. mustard seeds
• 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds
• 1 Tbsp. white poppy seeds
• 1 Tbsp. black peppercorns
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. fennel seeds
• 1 tsp. fenugreek seeds
• 1 tsp. whole cloves
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom seeds from green pods
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg shavings (or 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg)
• 3 whole star anise
• 3 cinnamon sticks, broken into smaller pieces
• 3 blades mace (or 1/4 tsp. ground mace)
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 Tbsp. ground Kashmiri chilies¹
• 1 Tbsp. ground turmeric

Directions

1. Combine everything except the ground spices in a bowl.
2. Preheat a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add the mixture and toast, shaking frequently, until the chilies begin to blacken and the rice and split peas begin to brown (4-6 minutes).
4. Transfer the spices to a plate to cool.
5. Once the mixture is completely cool, transfer (in batches, if necessary) to a spice grinder and finely grind.
6. Stir in the ground spices: nutmeg (if you didn't use nutmeg shavings), mace (if you didn't use whole blades of mace), ground Kashmiri chilies, and turmeric.
7. Store in an airtight container in a cool dark place for up to 6 months².

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¹ If you don't have Kashmiri chilies, you can substitute a 1:3 mixture of ground cayenne and sweet paprika. That said, as I write this up, I've found myself contemplating the ingredient list and I think I'd seriously consider swapping the Kashmiri and cayenne chilies next time. Instead of 1 c. of dried cayenne/Thai/arbol and 2 Tbsp. of ground Kashmiri, I think I'd be inclined to use 1 c. of dried Kashmiri chilies (whole, stems removed) and 6 or 7 dried cayenne/Thai/arbol chilies. I think that using more Kashmiri chilies and roasting both kinds would produce a blend with less heat, but a more fruity and complex flavour. (Not that a mix this complicated necessarily needs more complexity, but I do really enjoy the flavour of Kashmiri chilies...) ^Back
2 Iyer only recommends storing this mix for up to 2 months. That said, we've had ours for several years now and it's still very flavourful and potent, so I figured 6 months was probably a reasonable middle ground. ^Back

Wheat Berry Bowl with Merguez and Pomegranate

This dinner wasn't planned in advance, but as it happened we had almost everything we needed on hand, even the sausages in the freezer -- the one exception was mint, which we swapped out for cilantro.

While it does need a lot of lead time, since the wheat berries take a long time to cook, it's not particularly difficult; you have ample time to put everything else together while the wheat berries cook. And the end result is delicious!

While the original recipe calls for topping some things with others, we ended up basically mixing everything together and then just serving the yoghurt sauce on the side.

Wheat Berry Bowl with Sausage and Pomegranate

From Epicurious

Ingredients

• 2 C wheat berries
• 2 C mushroom stock
• 4 tbsp olive oil, divided (1+1+2)
• 1 lb sausage, peeled
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ½ C plain yoghurt
• 2 tbsp lemon juice, divided (1+1)
• 2 tsp za'atar, plus extra for serving
• salt and pepper
• ½ C pomegranate seeds
• ¼ C coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• ½ cucumber, quartered lengthwise and then sliced thinly

Directions

1. Add the wheat berries and mushroom stock to a large pot, then add more water until wheat berries are fully submerged with room to spare.
2. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the berries are tender and just starting to split, ~1h.
3. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet.
4. Add sausages and cook, breaking up, until browned, ~10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
5. Mix garlic, yoghurt, 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and za'atar in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
6. When the wheat berries are done, drain, rinse in cold water, drain again, and return to the pot.
7. Add the pomegranate, cilantro, green onions, cucumber, sausage, and remaining 1 tbsp of lemon juice and 2 tbsp of oil to the pot.
8. Mix well and season with salt and pepper.
9. Serve with yoghurt sauce and additional za'atar.