Mangsher Khichuri / Chicken Hotchpotch

I was never a news person..and may be never will be. Sitting in front of the t.v and digesting everything that is freshly being served from another side of the t.v screen has never been my agenda. But this was about the time when I did not have to sit in front of the t.v for getting news...our family news channel was freshly served by my father, who was an ardent reader and a loyal news listener. But now..without watching news and reading news papers I felt like I am lacking something and I am no longer up to dated with any of the incidents that are taking place in my home city....let alone home country. So its nearly 2/3 days I have started reading news papers online. I mainly read " The Times of India " , " Economic Times" and "Anandabazar Patrika"..the last one is a Bengali news paper. I did not read it back in Kolkata..but now after seeing French in every paper, and advertisement and hoardings reading my local news paper brought a scent of homesickness as well as the aroma of my City of Joy. The feeling of the first rain, the sweaty afternoons and the rush hours...all seemed so close to feel and yet so distant to relieve them again. And as an additional gain I got to read the food columns too which I so easily used to turn over some months ago.

Its raining heavily in Abidjan. Temperature has dropped to 25 degrees suddenly. And I am having a hard time to wake up in the morning now. Since I don't have maid now...waking up late means all my daily routine gets dismantled. So in one such a day I decided to let go of making rice and fish and other things because I had a whole house to clean up and make Khichri. The combination of Khichri and rain was also too strong to have a let down. So I made Khichri with meat.


Mangsher Khichuri / Chicken Hotch Potch
Serves 6

For the meat
Ingredients:

• 250gm chicken/lamb/mutton ( I used lamb)
• 2 medium onion - thinly sliced
• 1 tomato - chopped
• 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 green cardamom
• 3 cloves
• 2 tbsp mustard oil
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• salt
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder

Method:

• In a bowl mix the chicken /lamb/mutton with onion, ginger-garlic paste, all the whole spices, all the powdered spices, salt, mustard oil.
• Transfer them to a kadai/pressure cooker.
• If you are using kadai slow cook the meat with cover. Stir occasionally to prevent them from burning. Add water if necessary. Cook until the meat is soft and tender and the and the oil starts oozing out of the curry.
• If you are using pressure cooker, then put the meat in pressure with1 cup of water.
• Let the cooker blow at least 15-20 whistles.
• Open the lid and boil until the curry has thickened consistency and oil starts oozing out.

For the khichdi/khichuri

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Basmati rice
• 1 cup lentils
• 1 cup mung daal
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1 carrot - chopped
• 1 capsicum - chopped
• 1 cup green peas
• 1 cup beans - chopped
• 1 cup cabbage - chopped
• 1 cup cauliflower - chopped
• salt
• 2 tbsp mustard oil
• salt

Method:

• Mix everything and add water. I like my khichri to be runny. So I added more than 3 cups of water. But if you want you khichri not so runny then reduce the amount of water. 2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice makes a tigh / jhor jhore cooked rice.

When the rice and meat are cooked perfectly. Mix them together. Add a litttle ghee. This is really optional. I like to add ghee. And serve hot.:)