This meal was adapted from "The Bean Book" by Rose Elliot [Fontana 1979] ISBN 0-00-635536-6, inspired by Wizard Prang's cooking 'A Pot of Message'. The name Khitchari actually means 'mess' as in 'mess of pottage', and is the origin of 'kedgeree'.
Preparation time: 90 minutes; serves 3 - 4.
Wash the beans and soak them overnight. Rinse the rice and beans again. Peel the potato (if you want) and cut it into small chunks. Peel and chop the onion and fry it in the oil on a medium heat, stirring often, until it starts to soften after about 5 minutes. Chop and add garlic and spices, and keep frying until the onions are golden brown, stirring often. Quarter 2 of the tomatoes, and add them along with the potato, mung beans and rice. Turn down the heat for a few minutes and stir the mixture so that everything is coated with oil. Add the water and bring to the boil. Put a tight lid on the pan, turn down the heat and cook very gently for about 45 minutes, until the rice and beans are cooked. Turn off the heat and leave to stand (covered) for another 15 minutes. By now the liquid should have been absorbed, and you should be getting hungry.
Serve with lashings of tamari, and a salad of sliced tomato, raw onion rings and carrots.
Copyright ©2002 Malcolm Smith. These recipes are free software; you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. DISCLAIMER: All these recipes are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.