Bhuna khichuri

Ingredients

• Short-grain rice400 g
• Moong dal250 g
• Onions2
• Ginger40 g
• Green chillies5
• Turmeric2 tsp
• Ground cumin2 tsp
• Bay leaves3
• Cinnamon stick1
• Cardamom pods5
• Ghee80 g
• Potatoes3
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Dry-roast the moong dal for five minutes, to a nutty smell, and rinse it.

   10 min

2. 2

   Rinse the rice and dry it. Wet rice will not toast; it steams in its own water.

   8 min

3. 3

   Heat the ghee, brown the potatoes and lift them out.

   10 min

4. 4

   In the same ghee fry the bay, cinnamon and cardamom, then the onion and ginger until golden.

   10 min

5. 5

   Add the rice and dal with the turmeric and cumin and toast them five minutes, stirring.

   7 min

6. 6

   Add boiling water at twice the volume of the grain, return the potatoes, season and add the whole chillies.

   5 min

7. 7

   Cover and cook twenty minutes on a low heat, then let it stand ten minutes without opening it.

   32 min

About the dish

Bhuna means fried: the rice and lentils are toasted in oil with the spices before any water goes in. That is what keeps the grains separate rather than letting them collapse.

The moong lentils are first dry-roasted to a nutty smell. Without that roasting khichuri tastes flat, and Bengali cooks do not skip it.

It is eaten in the monsoon, and not by coincidence: hot rich food against damp is a fixed pairing in Bengali habit. Fried aubergine and pickled lime come alongside.

Worth knowing

• — Boiling water, not cold. Cold water halts the toasting and the whole point of bhuna is lost.
• — The chillies go in whole — they give aroma without heat. Split, they make the khichuri noticeably fiery.
• — Do not replace the ghee with oil. In a Bengali khichuri its smell is half the dish.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

540 kcal

Protein

18 g

Fat

18 g

Carbs

78 g

More from Bangladesh

• Shorshe ilish — Hilsa in a ground mustard sauce, cooked by steaming. The great fish of Bengal.