Layered Baked Khichri

Layered Baked Khichri as the name speaks is a meal in itself. Khichri, be it with arahar dal, moong dal or chilke-wali moong dal is dinner staple in most of  the traditional Gujarati households. Slow cooked, piping hot  Khichri with a dollop of ghee was believed to be the most comforting food to dive into. It relaxed us after a tiring day at work or eased our ill tummies. Long  before the variety bug bit us,  Khichri and Kadhi or Khichri with milk or Khichri with some simple rasawali subzi  (thin gravy veggie) had been a traditional dinner in Gujarati households. You must  be thinking what the heck is variety? Variety, my dear readers is  what dinners have become in our households. Not eating the conventional food but choosing for Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Chaat and the likes as a dinner option has become a norm. Sadly, the children and most adults simply refuse to eat the regular Bhakhri-Shaak or Bhakhri-Shaak-Khichri, Handvo etc.  for dinner. While evenings are reserved for variety,  the weekends are dedicated to take-aways or dinning outside. To be honest, the urban Gujarati families are eating less and less of conventional Gujarati foods more so,  it is becoming trendy to refuse or  frown upon the foods of our heritage or regular everyday food.

Khichri, the subcontinental staple has always enjoyed a special place on our plates and  in our hearts. A dish that breaks all cultural, social, economical barriers, Khichri till date is enjoyed in its numerous regional avatars. In Gujarat  the vaghareli khichri/tempered Khichri, ravaiya ni khichri/stuffed eggplant khichri, fresh tuver/pigeon peas Khichri, Bajri ni Khichri  are some of the numerous ways we love to cook it. I believe that when cooked with vegetables, Khichri pretty much becomes a one pot wonder. As a working profession I have always loved the convenience and comfort of one-pot meals. Believe me they are a blessing ❤️

During my recent (Decemeber 2017) trip to Ahmedabad I had loads of  such simple yet elegant everyday meals planned to be cooked and shot for the series of One-Pot Meals I plan to post on this space. And there was no other recourse than re-visiting my old cookery books, the ones I had bought in late 80s and early 90s. Guys, those were the times when internet was non-existant and we had to refer books for information 😇. Since those days, Ms. Tarla Dalal has been one of my favorite cook book author and I own a vast collection of her books. I think barring few I have most of her books. The early books were very comprehensive and have wide spectrum of recipes from simple to elegant. It was also the time when I cooked a lot from her books and few recipes have stayed along. Of course, I did not experiment with ingredients then but as you grow as a person and cook you tend to be more bold in your approach towards your cooks. So we begin with this Layered Baked Khichri from an old Tarla Dalal cookbook  ‘The Joys of Vegetarian Cooking’.  It is an exquisite dish almost like Biryani and calls for very little effort. Nothing much taxing. And believe me  it tastes divine…

Try it…