Khichuri to remind me of my Bong connection

City rat and pseudo bong are the terms I am associated with by people who don’t know me well. I don’t blame them. I was brought up in a multicultural city, by a family that many call “hybrid” — my mother is a Sindhi from Gujarat and my father a Bengali from Jharkhand.

I went to a school which had a Gujarati management, graduated from a convent and did my post graduation from a college in Chennai, which had students from all over Asia.

I lived with my parents till I was nine and the food that I ate was Sindhi and Punjabi. Since I grew up eating Sindhi food, I couldn’t adjust to Bengali cuisine.

My grandfather’s job required him to travel around the world, which meant I would always have my refrigerator full of international processed food, chocolates, cheeses, spreads and meats.

I gorged on them as a kid, which is probably why I prefer ham sandwiches to vada pav, rissottos over khichuri and cranberry juice over kokum sharbat. 

But when I entered my 20s, my conversations with friends matured. Coincidently I always had friends who were Bong and I also happened to choose a profession that many say “Bongs have a thing for”.

I was suddenly more interested in all things Bong, including food. So I thought of cooking a Bengali dish to surprise my grandmother on her birthday which fell on the same day as Durga Puja began.

I obviously needed help with the recipe and my friend’s mother in Kolkata was the best person I could think of. I called her up and took down the recipe of the basic but must-have dish during Puja, the khichuri. Normally served as bhog in pandals, khichuri for me is a blend of religion, rationality, simplicity and luxury. The recipe will tell you why.

Ingredients
For khichuri
    Yellow moong dal, 2 cups
    Basmati rice, 1 cup
    Turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp
    Chopped ginger, 1 tsp
    Sugar, 1.5tsp
    Ghee, 2tsps
    Salt, to taste

For the tadka
    Ghee, 3tsp
    Dry red chillies, 2
    Bay leaves, 2-3
    Chopped ginger, 1/2 tsp
    Mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp
    Cumin seeds, 1/2; tsp
    Methi, 1/2 tsp
    Carom seeds (ajwain), 1/4 tsp
    Cinnamon stick, 1/2 inch
    Cardamom pods (elaichi), 3-4

I entered the kitchen in the morning like every day and my house help thought I was there to get my morning dose of caffeine.

Soon she noticed that I was looking for ingredients in certain cabinets that only my grandmother uses. Curious, she asked what I was looking for.

I told her what I needed and why. The next thing I know she went out into the living room and announced what I was attempting. My entire family was curious to find out “what was wrong with me”.

After a lot of questioning and embarrassment, I managed to get them out of the kitchen and got all my ingredients in place.

I started off by roasting the dal and rice in a pan and in the meantime I kept some water to boil in another big vessel.

After roasting it for 10 minutes, I added the roasted dal and rice mixture to the boiling water.

I then added the turmeric, chopped ginger and salt and let it cook on medium flame for close to 20min and added little more water when I thought it became dry and sticky.

In another pan, I heated ghee and added dried chillies, ginger, bay leaves, mustard seeds, cumin, fenugreek seeds and carom seeds and stirred it for 30sec.

I then added cinnamon and cardamom and took the pan off the heat and added the tadka in the rice and dal mixture, stirred it well and let it cook for 10 minutes.

Next I added some sugar, gave it a good stir and added some more ghee before I took it off the flame.

As I had expected, it was slightly over cooked and not half as good as what my grandmother makes, but my family ate it with a straight face. Being Bongs they do not tolerate bad food, so I am guessing it was pretty decent.

As for me, so much traditional cooking had left me craving for a ham sandwich so I skipped the khichuri and stuck to my usual lunch.