kichuri

Kichuri is the ultimate Indian comfort food.  Its a combination of rice and daal and is quick, easy, filling and nutritious!

Ingredients
*oil or ghee
*1 onion (garlic/ginger will also be a nice addition, but I didn't have them)
*1 cup of daal
*1 cup of rice (i used brown rice)
*4 cups of water
*salt to taste
* turmeric
*hing (Asafoetida) - just a pinch will do - hing goes a long way.
*mustard seeds
*cumin seeds
*cloves

This is the basic skeleton of kichuri - you can add cinnamon, peppers, methi, frozen veggies... whatever sounds good.  :)  I also didn't put a measure on the spices in my list..  More or less depending on the freshness of the spice and your personal taste.  I would say starting with 1/4 tsp of a spice is a good start.  Except the hing - start with a pinch and go from there.  Its got a strong odor and strong taste, but I really like it.  I probably use closer to "2 pinches" --- however much that is :)

Cooking method:
1. heat oil in a pot big enough to hold all ingredients
--add whole spices
2. heat onion/garlic/ginger in oil until onion is transparent
--add hing and powdered spices and salt
3. add rice and daal - stir everything together.
4. add water and bring to a boil, cover, then reduce heat to medium/low and cook for 20 (more or less) minutes.
5. stir occasionally to keep daal from sticking to the pot too badly

Covering the pot while cooking will let the steam help cook the rice.  If you find that the water has been cooked away but the rice is still hard, add more water and cook longer.  The finished product should be roughly the consistency of oatmeal.  You can't really "over cook" it (though you can burn it - so don't keep the heat too high).  If you find that the rice is "done" but you still have more water, remove the lid and cook until water is gone.

Serving: serve with butter, lime juice, yogurt, or indian pickle.

Lentils soup with pineapple, tomato and cilantro

This way of cooking lentils always feels so... refreshing - if a lentil can be classified as "refreshing", that is.

For this meal, I surely didn't feel like cooking but I also felt that I needed to have a "real" meal.

The pineapple adds some sweetness and some tartness and fits really nicely with the tomato.  If you want a little extra salt, cook in veggie/chicken broth.  Cooking time is roughly 20 minutes, prep time is about 10-15 minutes.

Ingredients:

*1 pound of Lentils

*olive oil

*2 jalapeno peppers (opt)

*1 onion - diced

*3 tomatoes - diced

*1/3 of a whole pineapple, cut into chunks.

*1 bunch of cilantro - chopped.  

*Limes 

I think I added some creole seasoning (which has a fair amount of salt already in it) and some black pepper.  Add whatever spice you like.

1. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pot that will be big enough to hold all the ingredients plus about 8 cups of water.  If you are adding whole spices, you may add them at this time

2. add the diced onion - cook until transparent but not burned

3. add the tomatoes, jalapenos and any powdered spices/salt/pepper 

4. add pineapple and cook until ingredients start to turn soft.  The finished base should be a little mushy.

-- add a handful of cilantro here, as well.

5. add lentils and water as per package instructions.  I think I added about 8 cups.  Broth may be substituted for some of the water - especially if you like saltier food. 

-- cook until lentils are soft.

Garnish with lime juice and cilantro

I added some crumbled goat cheese to my bowl of soup and it was fantastic!  Experiment away!