Sweet Kichdi

Ever since I saw the panorama of breakfast dishes in the Saffron Trail's roundup, I have been wondering what my favorite weekend breakfast is, besides toast omelet. Much as I like Idli –Dosa-Uthappam, I have been considering those as dinner items for a long time now. Nor can my sleepy stomach digest puttu/ pathiri with meat/fish curry - the traditional heavy breakfast of Calicut.
While on vacation, I do eat them but I just want to crawl back and sleep some more to get over the lethargy. Kichdi was the one recipe that leapt to mind, light and sweet, my comfort food from a long time ago.

Now, Kichdi or “Kichuri” is easily recognized as a rice and lentils cooked together to a mish mash. It is also used colloquially to mean a "mess". The more familiar kichdi is the salty/spicy version of it, either cooked bland enough for a baby or a convalescent to digest it easliy or spiced up to be defined as an Indian masala rice.
My friend once made a spicy version with whole green gram lentil and lots of green chilies and garlic. The taste of that kichdi still lingers on.
I am sure everyone has their favorite recipe of the kichdi and it would be interesting to learn about them. If you want to know more about them, try these interesting posts on "kichdi" and Masala kichdi

The Malabar version of the kichdi is a sweet one. It is still rice and lentils cooked together but flavored with coconut milk, ghee and sugar. We do add a tempering (tadka) of shallots but it is entirely optional. The small onions (don't try to replace it with large onions) adds a hint of spice to the kichdi, to balance the sweetness. The shallots is a trademark of the Malabar food, added to most desserts (payasams) and drinks.
This is my entry for the Saffron Trail's Breakfast Blogging.
Rice and Lentils cooked yet seperated...

Served hot with sugar...




You will need
Split Green gram lentil ( Moong Dal) -200gm
Raw Rice (Basmati or long grain) - 150 gm
Small onion (shallots)- 1chopped finely.
Ghee-1 tsp
Salt -a pinch.
Grated Coconut - Approx.1 cup (frozen)

1. Grind coconut with 3/4 cup water and extract 1 cup thick coconut milk. Or 1/2 cup milk from coconut milk powder added to 1/2 cup plain milk will do. Using just the coconut powder milk has a cloying aftertaste not associated with fresh extracted milk.
2. Wash rice and lentils together and add salt and double quantity of water. Cook it together in a pressure cooker for just one whistle and switch it off. Alternately you could cook it in a rice cooker or on open flame with sufficient water.
3. Open cooker and on low flame, add the coconut milk and stir well. let it blend together for a minute and take it off the flame. The kichdi should be moist and not too thick.
4. Heat the ghee and fry the chopped shallots till brown. Add it to the kichdi.
5. Serve hot in a bowl, topped with 1/2 tsp ghee/butter and lots of sugar to taste.