Week 3 - Naashta - India

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that Indian food is one of my favourite cuisines.  Like the country itself, it's epic!  Which is why this week's entry is a two-parter.  With such a diverse field of options, who could pick just one?

We were lucky to be joined in this week's breakfast project by Jon's gracious and adventurous parents.  I feel very lucky to have such a supportive family surrounding me in this endeavour.  Hat's off to Janet and Gregg for being so patient as we worked our way through these recipes and for all of their excellent feedback on the results!

Part 1 - KHICHDI

Khichdi, (also spelled khichri, Khichdee, khichadi, khichuri, khichari, and adapted in England as Kedgeree) is a prime example of why I'm loving this project.  It's a dish I've never heard of before and certainly have never seen offered in a restaurant.  But just a short google search showed it to be a classic recipe throughout India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.  In these countries it's a homey food not only served for breakfast but also to babies as their first solid food and to people with upset stomachs.  People described it with nostalgia and each claimed their mother had perfected the best version.

But what is Khichdi?  Basically it's a porridge of lentils and rice.  Other common ingredients include all manner of vegetables, spices and sometimes meat.  For our breakfast I settled on a simple recipe using split red lentils, basmati rice, potatoes, spinach, onion, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, turmeric, ghee and some garam masala.

Well, maybe not so simple and the recipe definitely involved more effort than I'm used to expending in the morning.

But the results were straightforward - it was soft, buttery, had just a hint of spice and produced a general feeling of well-being after a heaping bowlful.

Here's the Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

From the soaking of the rice and lentils to the prep work involved with all those ingredients, this recipe probably took a good 90 minutes to prepare.

For Degrees of Separation:

Khichdi is miles away from my daily bowl of Cheerios.

For Guestability:







This depends on your guests, ours were awesome and ate it up readily, but I bet they would've been happier with some delicious Torrijas.

For Sustainability:

After a couple of bowls of this we weren't hungry again until suppertime.

Overall Appeal:

This is a breakfast that has a definite time and place.  I can see making a huge pot of this on a cold wintery Sunday morning and enjoying it for the rest of the week.  But for a beautiful Saturday in July, not so much.

Stay tuned for Part II, coming later this weekend....