Guyanese Kitchri

Kitchri/Kitchree Recipe

(This recipe is Copyrighted and owned by Nanda Sahadeo. Anyone reposting it on their site without permission from Nanda Sahadeo is committing an infringement.)

Kitchri comes from the Sanskrit work khiccaa--a dish made of lentils and rice. There are variations to its pronunciation too: Kitchdi/kitchari. It is one of the most ancient dishes of India. Our Ancestors was fond of cooking this as it was easy to prepare, hearty and inexpensive too.It is a still a very popular dish in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar...the places where most of our Ancestors are from.

At Hindu weddings in Guyana, the groom is given Kitchri when he sits down to eat after the ceremony is over.

In India, different dal/pulse/lentils are used. In Guyana, as only yellow split peas were available to the Indian Immigrants, this was adopted.Today only this dal is used in the preparation of Kitchri for Guyanese. 

You can try out the different dals if you are adventurous. However, if it is one of those dals that cook quickly, add the dal afterwards and not before the rice. Have used parboiled long grain rice in this recipe.

You can use any rice of your choice, just be careful with the cooking time. If it is one of those fast cooking rice like Basmati and you are using yellow split peas, you will need to wait until the dal is almost cooked as in this recipe. If you are using Indian dals like mung or masoor dal, you can add both dal and rice at the same time.

Ghee/clarified butter is an absolute necessity in this dish. Phal ka ghee that is available in Guyanese and Trinidadian groceries...is not Ghee...it is vegetable shortening. Ghee is that which is made from Cow's milk/butter. Phal literally mean fruit and ghee cannot be made from fruits so please be aware of this. 

In Ayurveda, eating Kirchri is one way of giving our body a rest and allowing it to self cleanse. For this purpose, one can omit the onions and garlic. If you are just making Kitchri to eat regularly, you can add fresh whole pepper when you add the haldi at the beginning.

This is an ideal dish to make when you are bush-cooking, cooking outdoors/picnicking. It goes well with a side of pakoras/pholourie/baigani. Fresh mango chatney also goes very nicely with this. And of course with a fresh garden salad.

Ingredients:

2 cups long grain parboiled rice
3/4 cup split peas/dal
1 cup grated coconut
1 cup onions chopped coarsely
1 teaspoon ground jeera/cumin
1 teaspoon ground haldi/tumeric
5 flakes garlic...2 chopped coarsely, 3 sliced 
1 tablespoon ghee
1 tablespoon whole  jeera/cumin 
5-6 cups water

Method:

1. Add the grated coconut to the water, stir it around with your hands, then squeeze the coconut out. 
2. Strain this coconut milk into a deep saucepot and put it to boil on a high flame.

3. Wash the dal and drain the water off.
4. Add the dal to the coconut milk when it starts to boil then turn down the heat to a low flame.
5. Stir completely to prevent the dal from sticking to the bottom of the pot...it can clump up and burn quickly.
6. Add the ground haldi, cover and allow to boil.

7. When the dal is half cooked....

8.Add the rice, stir to incorporate completely.
8. Add salt to taste.
9.Add the coarsely chopped onions and garlic, cover and allow to cook again.

10. When both rice and dal are almost cooked, add the ground jeera.

11. Heat the ghee in a shallow pan and when it is hot, add the whole jeera.

12. When it starts to crackle, add the sliced garlic.
13. Allow to fry until golden brown.
14. Now add this ghee/garlic/jeera mixture to the pot of rice and dal.

15. Your Kitchri is ready to eat. Enjoy...

Soft Mithai/Kurma

Laktho is a traditional sweet/mithai from Bihar that came with our Ancestors.
I mentioned before with my Mithai/Lakthoe recipe that Mithai literally means Sweet. All Indian sweetmeats are called Mithai. The recipe here is for the soft version of Mithai/Lakhto. Long ago, Muslims generally used to make this and they added eggs to their recipe. These days, Hindus too make these for their Maticore minus the eggs. It is very easy and faster to prepare which may be another reason why Hindus make them now when they have to make large quantities as is done for the Maticore ceremony.

For those using eggs, you can use it instead of whole milk but I have no idea how it will come out--just experiment and see what happens.

Ingredients:

4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 oz butter, softened/room temperature
1 cup grated coconut
3 Tablespoons condensed milk
1/2 cup whole milk (approximately)
10 elachis/cardamon ground
Oil for frying

For Syrup:
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup water


Method:

1.Mix flour and baking powder together.
2. Add the softened butter and incorporate with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse meal.
3.Add the coconut and elachi and incorporate completely.
4. Add the condensed milk and mix thoroughly.
5. Now add the milk a little at a time until it becomes a soft but firm dough.

3.Cover with a damp kitchen towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

4. Cut dough into two balls.

5. Roll out one of the balls on a lightly floured board/counter to about 1/3 inch thickness.

6. Cut into 1 inch strips with a sharp knife.

7. Now cut each strip into diamond shaped pieces

8.Heat oil in a pan. When oil is hot but not smoking, add the pieces one at a time. Be very careful as these are very easy to fall apart.
9.Deep fry on medium flame until golden brown on one side then gently turn each piece over and allow to fry again until golden brown.

9. Remove and drain on paper towels.
10.Do the same with the rest of the dough until all is fried.

Now make the syrup:

11. Put the water and sugar into a saucepan and put to boil on a high flame.
12.Stir often as it boils, with a wooden spoon.
13.As it starts to thicken--like honey, dip a spoonful and watch how it flows off of it. Drop some into a glass of water and if it retains it soft ball shape--it is ready.
14. Remove from the heat. You need to be quick now.
15. Now add the syrup a little at a time to the mithai pieces and stir carefully to coat each piece.
16. It will look sticky and you need to turn it over and over for it to dry...just be very gentle and these are very delicate pieces of mithai.

17. When it is dried, the pieces will no longer clump together.
18. Your Mithai is ready to serve/eat. Enjoy.