Instant Khichdi

January 7, 2009.

It was another day at the office. Had become a daily routine from going in the morning and working till evening. That day i returned home before punit and sarvoday. And after a long day at work, empty stomach was growling. Apart from a few biscuits and chips, there was nothing ready or cooked to eat. And i did not know how to cook anything. Well almost anything.

I thought to go out to McDonalds have a burger and milk shake and that would be for dinner. An easy way out but something compelled me to make a start. A start towards cooking. The idea seemed scary as it would in most likelihood be wastage of time and resources. But a couple of days before my friend and room mate sarvoday had taught me to cook khichdi (also called tahiri in his native place). I still am unable to fathom why does he call it khichdi when infact it is so different from the simple khichdi what i know. This khichdi of sarvoday when he cooked it first time, it was totally different from what i was expecting and so good. Nice orange colored rice with peas, carrots, potatoes and spices.Since then the new khichdi has almost become a kind of staple diet.

Continuing with that evening, i recalled the khichdi lessons of sarvoday. The problem was that day, sarvoday had prepared the khichdi and i was just a spectator, a kind of theoretical lesson. And on that evening, i was alone with no one to guide or correct me. Well there had to be a first time and that day it was. I took out some rice kept it in water and in the meanwhile cut potatoes and carrots.

Now came the most difficult part. The process called " chokhna " sorry guys, could not find a fitting english word for it. This chokhna involved adding oil, jeera, spices, salt in the right proportion and cooking for the right amount of time to avoid burning. So i started this task adding all the ingredients and vegetables and mixing them thoroughly and voila, my good luck the color and smell seemed good.Then added the rice and after about 40 mins my first dish was ready. In between those 40 mins, i had opened the cooker 3 times just to see how things were looking or better put it cooking.

After about 90 mins from the start, the khichdi was ready. Now was the time to test or taste it. I had the first spoon of it and was pretty satisfied with what i had prepared. Had a plateful of it and then went to sleep. Sarvoday and Punit came later in the night and they were also pretty surprised with what they saw on the dining table. In the morning when i woke up and went to the kitchen and opened the cooker, it was almost empty. I also had a glance at the garbage bin just incase. But that was also empty. So i presume they liked it and ate it.

It was a good start towards cooking. The khichdi took double the time what sarvoday takes for the same. But none the less, it was satisfying in the end. 1 dish done. Lets see what's next on the menu.