Dressing up desi ‘dal khichdi’ to make Chorizo Indian Risotto

Say what!!!!!!!!

What’s dal khichdi? My non-Indian friends might ask

‘Indian Risotto’, Italian cuisine fanatics might snort!!

‘Chorizo Indian Risotto’ – is that like a Risotto with Indian spices and Chorizo?? What’s fancy in that?

Questions! Questions!! Questions!!!

Let me start with explaining about the ultimate Indian comfort food – ‘Dal Khichdi’ for the benefit of my non-Indian friends. It’s a gooey concoction of rice and yellow ‘moong dal’ (yellow lentil as shown in picture) with mild spice flavoring. It is eaten with fresh homemade yogurt (not that you can’t eat it with commercial one. I prefer to eat as much homemade as possible) or mango pickle…..and oh yes!!!!!........greasy fried papdums (I am drooling all over my laptop)!!!

I still remember when I first heard of dal khichdi as a dish being made at home, through my best friend, when we were kids. My mom didn't make it at home a lot. But my friend used to often eat dal khichdi and I would think, ‘Man, all that she eats is dal khichdi!!! Why?’ The most I had eaten it was in restaurants (not that I was a fan of dal khichdi back then!). In fact most of Indians eat dal khichdi when they are unwell or down with a flu. Dal khichdi is kind of considered as a sick person’s food!! After I came to college, I remember eating a lot dal khichdi in our college canteen; and even then I was not a fan of dal khichdi.

Then, one fine wintery day, after about 15 years of friendship, I ate dal khichdi at my friends house, who I am pretty sure grew up eating it most of her life (let’s see if she reads my blog and figures out that I am talking about her!!!) aaaannnddd it was the most delicious, homey and flavorful comfort food I had eaten (it has since then toppled Maggi noodles from no 1 position of comfort food, for me). Ever since then, I have been hooked to this dish!

Now on the n^th day of lockdown, I was running out of comforting and quick dishes to make. I had some chorizo sitting in my fridge and I wanted to eat something downright delicious and full of umami flavors. And then I thought, ‘Why not use Chorizo in my Dal Khichdi?!!’ Sure I have never done that before, but what could go wrong? I like chorizo, I like dal khichdi; don’t two positives make a positive? So here’s the recipe of Chorizo Dal khichdi or Chorizo Indian Risotto (because the texture becomes creamy as that of Risotto due to the moong dal and excess water)

Chorizo Dal Khichdhi

Makes for 2

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Ghee or oil of your choice (the smell and flavor of tempering with Ghee is incredible. Plus it’s healthy. I am soon going to do a blog on how to make Ghee. It is so easy, you will always have a jar of Ghee in your home.)

1 tsp of Cumin

1 tsp of Mustard seeds

4-5 curry leaves (optional, we don’t get curry leaves in France; at least not where I live. But if possible DON’T miss these)

1 tbsp chopped or grated ginger

1 tbsp chopped or grated garlic

2-3 green chilies chopped or 1 tsp of red chili powder

1 tsp of turmeric

1 tsp of coriander powder

1/4th cup chorizo, chopped in cubes of about 1 cm

1/4th cup chopped onion

1/4th cup moong dal, washed

1/2 cup rice, washed

Salt as per taste (remember, the chorizo is already quite salty)

Steps:

1. Heat a pan and put some ghee or oil in it.

2. Add cumin, mustard, curry leaves, green chilies (if using red chili powder, don’t add here). Let everything sizzle.

3. Add onion and when it turns translucent, add ginger and garlic.

4. I also add a pinch of salt when sautéing my onions; it helps in building the flavor of the

dish.

5. Sauté till the raw smell of ginger and garlic dissipate.

6. By this point the onion would have started turning nice caramel brown color. Start adding the dry powder ingredients.

7. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder and chili powder (if using). Stir everything together to make a nice pasty mixture.

8. Add the chorizos and let the oil from the chorizos cook your masala ingredients.

9. When the oil starts oozing out on the side of the mixture, add rice and moong dal. Stir to combine everything.

10. The most important part of dal khichdi is the gooey risotto like texture. Normally when you cook rice, you should always take double the quantity of water as is your rice. However, for this recipe or rather for Dal Khichdi the water quantity is much more and it depends on the way you are cooking your rice. If you are making this dish in pressure cooker, then you put 3.5 times the water as is your rice and dal combined. Cook for about 3 whistles on big flame and for 2 whistles on low flame.

If you are making it without pressure cooker i.e. traditional style with lid on the pan then put the water about 4 to 4.5 times of rice and dal combined. Let the khichdi cook on medium flame with lid on. Stir regularly to let the steam escape. Once you reach a stage where there is little water remaining in your khichdi, let it simmer on low flame till you achieve your desired texture. The best part about this method is you can control the texture of your khichdi by adding water while the khichdi is cooking.

11. I cook till I cannot see the definitive shape of dal and the texture becomes creamy.

12. Oh and I almost forgot to mention, when you add water, stir everything and check for salt.

13. Tada…..your Indian risotto is ready. The chorizo adds a certain umami flavor to this regular dal khichdi. Of course, you can replace it with regular chicken, fried paneer (cottage cheese) or anything else you like. Serve it with a dollop of yogurt or your favorite pickle and you are good to go!