LIVE TO COOK

When I prepared Manipuri khichdi for our lunch, I was thinking about serving Pickle and Yogurt as sides. But, Anthony mentioned that Khichdi will go very well with Manipuri Ootti. I got interested and decided to prepare Ootti to serve with Manipuri Kichdi. Like adding fuel to fire, the ingredients for Ooti were very few and were my pantry staples setting my interest ablaze. So, I jumped in to action and set up another crock pot for Manipuri Ootti.

Anthony was right! Manipuri Ootti and Khichdi are the perfect duo. Thanks to him that we had a wonderful lunch.

Since I was planning Ootti as a side for two of our meals and the amount of soaked and sprouted green peas that I had in hand was not sufficient, I added some field beans sprouts too.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Dried Green Peas (soaked for 8 hours or more. I Sprouted the peas. But it is optional)
1/2 Cup Dried Field Beans (Dried Lablab or Fava beans, Mochchai paruppu in Tamil, Avarekkalu in Kannada) (soaked for 8 hours or more. I Sprouted the beans. But it is optional)
2 tsp Oil
1 1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Black Mustard seeds
1 medium sized onion (chopped)
1/4 inch piece of Ginger (Minced)
1 pinch Turmeric powder
2 Dried Red chillies (broken into large pieces)

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a small pan and add the black mustard seeds. When they splutter, add turmeric and red chilli pieces. Stir for a minute.
2. Add the chopped onion and minced ginger. Fry till the onion turns slightly brown.
3. Add this tempering to a 5 quart slow cooker insert.
4. Drain the peas and beans well and add to the tempering above.
5. Pour 2 and 1/2 cups of water. Add salt and the baking soda.
6. Cover and cook in low for 8 - 12 hours.
7. Serve with cooked rice, flat breads or Khichidi.

I am serving Manipuri Khichdi and Oooti to all of you through RCI - North east India hosted by Bhags.

I started thinking about the Seven sister states of India when Bhags announced the event RCI - North East India. I tried very hard to recall something about North East India. All I could recall was my Geography teacher reducing 2 points from my total points for my map locating skills. She asked us to point Manipur and Nagaland with their State capitals in the Map of India. I located them and used two different colored markers to differentiate the States and their Capitals. Unfortunately, the marker that I used on the small map provided for marking the capitals was frayed that Imphal (Capital of Manipur) took some of the territorial regions of Nagaland!

Well! To be honest, I knew absolutely nothing about these states and I thank Bhags and Lakshmi for providing me an opportunity to explore them. After looking at the different links provided in the Event Announcement post, I decided to try couple of recipes from Anthony’s Blog. I prepared his “Manipuri Khichdi” in my recent toy - Crockpot or Slow cooker.

After some success with “Slow cooker Venn Pongal”, I was confident that this khichdi will turnout well in slow cooker and it did. I served it with Manipuri Ootti. But for the ease of categorizing, I am posting it as a seperate post. So, stay tuned!

Ingredients:

1 Cup Brown Basmati Rice
1/3 Cup Toor Dhal
1/3 cup Chopped onions
4 Tbsp Peanuts
2 Tbsp Ghee or Clarified Butter
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
3 Cardamoms
3 Cloves
2 Bayleaves
2 Dried Red chilli
1 Clove Garlic (minced)
1/4 inch piece of Ginger (minced)
1 pinch Turmeric powder

Method:

1. Heat ghee in a medium sized pan.
2. Add Cumin seeds and when they turn brown, add other spices along with chopped onions.
3. when the onions are translucent, add minced garlic and ginger.
4. In a 5 quart Slow cooker insert, add the rice, dhal and fried onion mixture.
5. Add salt and turmeric powder. Pour 2 cups of water.
6. Cover and cook for 6-8 hours.
7. In a small pan heat a tsp of ghee or oil and fry the peanuts until golden brown. Mix with the cooked Khichdi and serve hot.