Basic Kitcharee

 A warm, nourishing and yummy dish suitable for everyone

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup yellow mung dhal (also spelt moong)

1/2 cup basmati rice

2 tbsp ghee

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

Handful of freshly chopped cilantro

Black Pepper

 

 

Method:

•  In a medium saucepan or rice cooker, wash yellow mung dhall 3 times, drain.
• Add in basmati rice to the dhall, wash well once and drain.
• Add in salt, and 4 cups of water.  Bring mixture to a boil, then cover and cook on medium slow fire for approx 30 minutes.
• In a separate saucepan, heat ghee until it just starts to smoke.
• Add in the cumin seeds and fry until they stop popping.  This will only take a few seconds if your oil is hot enough.  Do not let the seeds burn.  Immediately pour the ghee & cumin mixture into cooked rice and stir well.
• Add in some black pepper if you like.
• Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.

Serve this with Mango chutney if you can find it.  Papadams also go very well with this dish.

 

Notes:

• The ghee should be hot when putting in the cumin seeds as this will allow the seeds to immediately ‘pop’, releasing their essence.  If your ghee is not hot enough, this will not happen.  You can see the effect this has on the seeds - they will have doubled in size after popping.  The seeds at this point can burn very quickly, so the ghee has to be just hot enough to allow the seeds to crack immediately without burning.  Pour the mixture into the cooked kitcharee before the seeds burn!

• Cilantro will normally have a lot of grit so you will have to wash well to get all the grit out.  I normally trim off the ends of the bunch, and then holding the end of the bunch, swish the bunch in a bowl of cool water, then drain.  You will clearly see the sand at the bottom of the bowl.  Do this at least three times to clear all the grit.