Gujarati Khichdi

OMG. KO Rasoi was published
Sorry about the OMG. As a ‘proper’ food blogger (giggles), I
wouldn’t usually promote the use of such abbreviations, but
there are times when the OMG and only the OMG will suffice.
Except when it’s obligatory to apply the ZOMG, of course.
For someone with such a passion for cooking and writing, being
recognised for it and getting published is a big deal. One of
the best feelings I’ve ever had was finding out a KO Rasoi
recipe was going to be published in a cookbook.
The Best of Food Blogs Cookbook was published in October 2010
by the online cooking encyclopaedia, Foodista. The dream began
in 2009 when the brains behind Foodista.com called out to all
food bloggers to submit their best recipes for a competition.
The entries were divided into courses such as: appetisers,
main courses, desserts and cocktails. Not being one to slam
the door shut on a hot opportunity, I submitted my favourite
recipe featured on KO Rasoi to date – Melt in the Mouth Paneer
Kofta.
Entries were voted for by Foodista users and of the 1,500+
entries, just 300 were cherry picked for the finals. Needless
to say, I was shocked and rather critical of my chances at
making the final winners list.
However, when I got an email confirming KO Rasoi’s recipe had
been selected to be featured in the Foodista Best of Food
Blogs Cookbook I could hardly contain myself. The list of 100
winners was announced at the International Food Bloggers
Conference, Seattle and I’d have loved to have been there. I
found out the news at work and was so tempted to run around
the building screaming and dancing like a gerbil on espresso
con panna.
It’s safe to say that seeing my name, words and photographs
printed in a beautiful full-colour book among the likes of top
food bloggers is utterly surreal – and also very humbling
(bragging rights aside). I’d like to take this opportunity to
say thank you to everyone who supported me throughout the
selection process and believed in me. Who knows, maybe someday
I’ll see my name and recipes in print again. You’ll definitely
be the first to know.
Order your copy of the Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook
here or here if you live in the UK. Amazon stocks copies of
the book and you can get it delivered no matter where you are
in the world. Buy the Kindle edition here and I’ll love you
forever, I promise. Once it lands on your doorstep, grab a
cuppa coffee and find me and my recipe on pages 94-95. There’s
also a little snap of my darling mug (not the one you drink
out of) in the back pages among all the beautiful people.
Enjoy.
Raghda Patties
Eating the street food from all over the world is one of the
best ways of experiencing the particular cultural identity of
that country and region. Forget dining in fancy restaurants
and five star luxury hotels… just get out there and munch.
Soak up all of that tradition and absorb the magical flavours
that the locals are used to. Street vendors are the
professional chefs of the outdoors.
Raghda Patties (pronounced: RughRa PETi-ce) just one of those
street dishes you have to try once. This fast food is like no
other MacD’s, BK’s or KFC’s. Here’s how we make traditional
Gujarati style Raghda Patties at home. They have an East
African influence with the raw mango or apple because the
majority of my parents’ generation were born and raised there.
I plan to post more East African street food/snack food
recipes soon because they are so blissful to eat!
For the outer covering combine:
4 medium floury potatoes cooked and mashed
275g paneer, finely grated
2 slices of stale bread (with crusts removed), made into
breadcrumbs
Zest and juice of one lemon
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Chilli powder to taste
For the filling combine:
1 cup grated carrot,
1 cup peeled and grated raw mango or a sour apple (which is
what I used)
½ cup fresh/desiccated coconut
Zest and juice of one lemon
¼ cup gathia/sev/Bombay mix, crushed
¼ cup fresh coriander
2 chillies (or to taste)
1 tbsp ginger, minced
½ tsp cinnamon powder
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
For dusting and frying:
¼ cup plain flour
Sunflower oil to deep fry
Method to make the Patties:
1. Wet the palm of your
potato mix and flatten it
2. Place about 2 tsp’s
spiced potato mix and set
hand and take a tbsp of the spiced
on the palm of your hand.
of the filling onto the flattened
aside.
3. Repeat step 1 and place it on top of the masterpiece you
already made and seal all the edges. Make sure none of the
filling shows, otherwise it will split when you fry it. Bad
times.
4. Repeat steps -3 until you have no mixture left. My advice:
Get a helper. (Note: You will have some filling left over
after you have stuffed the patties- set this aside).
5. Dust the patties liberally with the flour and refrigerate
for an hour.
For the Raghda:
1 cup dried green peas, boiled
1 chilli halved and quartered
½ tsp cumin seeds
4-5 curry leaves
¼ tsp asafoetida
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp concentrated tamarind paste
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Method to make the Raghda:
1. Heat the oil, add cumin seeds, curry leaves, chillies and
the asafoetida and fry for about a minute.
2. Add the reserved filling mixture leftover from making the
patties and cook for a minute on a low heat.
3. Add 3 cups of hot water and the boiled peas. Bring to a
boil and roughly puree this mixture in a blender.
4. Place the puree back on heat and bring to a gentle simmer
for a minute. Remove from the heat and set aside.
To fry the Patties:
1. Deep fry the patties two or three at a time on a low heat
until golden.
2. Drain the patties on kitchen paper to absorb any excess
oil.
3. Repeat until you have finished frying all of the patties.
(Note: Enlist the help of a slave next time).
Serve the Raghda on top of the Patties and garnish with:
Finely diced onions
Chopped coriander/cilantro
Fine sev or Bombay mix
Finely chopped chillies (optional)
Drizzle with some cooling yoghurt
Dive in. Street Style.
***
Thank you to the fabulous Kathy Gori from The Colours of
Indian Cooking for passing this award on to me!
The rules of the award state that the person receiving the
award must state ten HONEST facts about themselves. So here
goes…
10 Honest things about Sanjana
1. I have never been to India *gasp* Oh the horror. The shame
of it.
2. I have a super wonderful and supportive family.
3. My elder brother thought of the name KO Rasoi. (K for
Kalidas, O for Odhavji and KO for their KnockOut food!)
4. It gives me so much pleasure to read the comments you guys
post on here. I get unbelievably happy when I see the words “#
comments to be moderated”.
5. I love to eat out. Too much.
6. I get excited visiting kitchenware shops. What a glorious
feeling.
7. I have a tattoo. *giggles*
8. I drive a Melina blue Ford Puma.
9. I love Bollywood music.
10. Keeping this blog has been one of the best decisions I
have ever made.
I would like to pass this on to ten other food bloggers whose
posts I long to read every free minute (the first ten that
came to mind in no particular order)…
1. Mr. P of Delicious Delicious Delicious
2. Ju of The Little Teochew
3. Trix of Tasty Trix
4. Mina of Give me some Spice
5. Priya of Priya’s Easy and Tasty Recipes
6. Divina of Sense and Serendipity
7. Pari of Foodelicious
8. Meeso of For the Love of Food!
9. Shelly of Experimental Culinary Pursuits
10. The Vegetable Matter duo
If I haven’t included your name here it doesn’t matter, please
pick up the award because you’re all wonderful to me and I
hate picking favourites… There’s way too many food blogs out
there I love to pick just ten! So please, please, please take
this award everyone and tell me 10 honest things about
yourselves! C’mon I’m waiting!
I also received these from Siddhi of Cooked Dil Se…! and
Vaishali of Adding Zest to your Cooking
As for the rules that come with the Kreative Blogger award…
You can find 7 things about me here.
Everyone please take these awards and share the blog
love!
The
Turmeric
Gujarati Khichdi
Showcase:
As promised, it is my pleasure to share with you a recipe in
which turmeric is a key ingredient. Gujarati khichdi
(pronounced: khiCHdRiy) literally translates to ‘mish-mash’sounds appetising, right? Well maybe not, but it is one of the
most comforting rice and lentil dishes in the whole world (at
least in my eyes!) I have been eating it since I can remember;
which is probably since I began to grow teeth! Every time I
eat a big spoonful of this soft, nutritious, buttery
Comfort I am teleported back to my childhood. It can
be eaten on its own, mixed with milk for breakfast (although I
think it’s good any time of the day!). Or with that other
Gujarati favourite, kadhi.
If you are not familiar with this dish then you may be
familiar with the British version Kedgeree, which is a similar
rice dish made with eggs. Kedgeree was adapted from Indian
khichdi to suit the appetites of British colonisers during the
British colonial rule in India. I think it’s really
fascinating how food blueprints tend to travel alongside human
footprints, creating long-term impressions upon far away
countries. Could we call them ‘foodprints’? Okay, neologisms
are not where I was going with this…
Ah yes, khichdi; a mish-mash both comforting and delicious…
It’s great for our diets whether we are 1 or 100!
I tend to mix the raw ingredients for khichdi and keep it in a
tuppaware so it’s ready to go for whenever I like. This
khichdi mix recipe will probably give you around 10 servings
but don’t worry… You don’t have to cook it all at once. If you
don’t want to keep any by for next time then just reduce the
quantities of everything by half.
Ingredients for khichdi mix
1 cup dried, split mung beans
1 cup basmati rice
1 cup broth mix or pearl barley (I like to add this instead of
another cup of rice because it’s much healthier and much
tastier!)
Mix this all up and transfer into a tuppaware. It will keep
for a very long time!
Directions to make khichdi
1. Use ¼ cup khichdi mix per person (or more if you’re
hungry!). Wash it a couple of times to remove some starch from
the rice.
2. Put the mix in a deep, non-stick pan and cover with cold
water. Okay here’s where the really Indian method comes into
play- You need to use you’re middle finger (yeah, the ‘giving
someone the finger’ finger… hehe) to gauge how much cold water
you need to add. If you touch the top of the khichdi mix (not
the bottom of the pan) and fill the pan with cold water until
it reaches the second of the three lines on your finger this
will be perfect. Don’t ask me why and don’t ask me how. It
just works.
3. Add a pinch of turmeric per person and bring this to the
boil on a medium heat Cover for five minutes. Remove the lid
and cook with the lid off until all of the water has been
absorbed.
4. Season with salt, ground black pepper and butter/ghee if
you like.
Please enjoy this authentic Gujarati classic as much as I do!
And don’t forget to send in your entry for the Create for a
Chilli Chopper competition (ends 31st December 2009 at 23:59 GMT)
C’mon guys, I’m waiting!
Update 21/12/09- Sorry I have been a little sidetracked
recently. I totally forgot about picking these up… I would
like to thank Ash and Vaishali for this award
And thanks to Anncoo and Sh for this one
I’d like to share them with all of you guys because you
deserve them!