For a cold, rainy day...

Before I start today's post, I have to take a moment to send my prayers to all the innocent people in Boston.  I pray for their speedy recovery, physically and mentally, from yesterday's sad event.

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This week, the plan was to put up a Butternut Squash Curry recipe, but when I was getting ready to make it last night, there was a little mishap with the butternut squash...  So I decided to replace it with this recipe, which is a great and easy one.  You can expect the butternut squash recipe next week :-)

So, this dish is one that goes by many names.  In my house, we call it "Huggi".  In some places it's called "Kichdi".  I think some people call it "Pongal".  And to translate it to English, we can call it a "Lentil-Rice Porridge".  It is extremely easy to make and is best eaten on a cold and rainy day (according to my husband).  People make this different ways, but I've boiled it down (pun intended) to a simple strategy that I use every time.

This is what you'll need:
- 1 cup of rice (I usually use sona masoori, but any kind will work)
- 1/2 cup of moong dal (this is a lentil you get at the Indian Store)
- Milk
- Water
- Vagarne / Tadka (if you missed the explanation on this, check out my first recipe on Black Eyed Peas)

A Simple Set of Ingredients

- The vagarne / tadka for this recipe includes:
     - 1/2 teaspoon of black peppercorn
     - 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
     - 1/2 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
     - A few curry leaves (if you have them)
     - 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric

And the method is...

1. Cook 1/2 cup of moong dal, 1 cup of rice and 3 cups of water in the cooker until you hear 3-4 whistles. 
2. Once cool enough to open - add 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil. 
3. Let this keep boiling until you can mix the dal and rice together into a porridge like consistency.  This will usually take about 10-15 minutes.                                               
4. Here's the trick that we really like - I hate finding whole peppercorns in my food and so does my husband.  So I grind all the vagarne ingredients (listed above) in a small coffee grinder (like this one) until it's a mixed powder.  I put this powder into about 2 tablespoons of ghee in the tadka pan and wait until it sizzles.  Then I add it to the Huggi and mix it all together.
5. Add 2-3 teaspoons of salt (salt to taste)   

This is what the final product looks like (note the final consistency)

And that's it!  We love the taste of the Huggi that comes out of this recipe. The only thing I don't like is the incredibly thick layer of crust it leaves at the bottom of my pressure cooker.  It takes a lot of scrubbing to clean the cooker once this is done.  If anyone has methods of avoiding build up at the bottom of cookers, I'm eager to hear it!

So if you decide to make this, I hope you enjoy it. And remember, it's best eaten on a cold, rainy day!

Also, remember to check out my blog topics page, for an idea of what you can expect on a weekly basis.  Thanks for reading!