A Take On Dal Kichidi

Who doesn't like comfort food?! Be it Mac 'n' cheese from the States, Dal rice from India or Fufu from Sierra Leone, everyone likes comfort food and that which gives them the satisfaction of home cooked food.

The magical Shoestrings!!!

Being a chef, people always think you eat best of the best food, sometimes you do, but not always. Working as a chef is a hectic job. Long working hours, not a fixed meal time and many other factors, but I still love the job and enjoy what I do the best. Some times at work you just don't want to eat something fancy and just want to have some comfort food and lay back and think about the day or life. I fancy dal kichidi at times but not always. I like to eat something new and sexy every day. Today this post is a take on dal kichidi and make it into a classy dal risotto.

Same principle applies to make the dal risotto as you would make a normal risotto but with no wine and a couple of twists and turns in the process. The idea came to me when I was making dal kichidi from left over dal and rice. By working in India you are bound to find some cooks who cook good Indian food, and I happen to come across many in the past year and one of them showed the tricks to make dal kichidi and it wasn't a rocket science job but rather a simple affair.

Dal Risotto

So yesterday I decided to make dal risotto from left over dal. Started off with basic technique of making risotto but with all spices, tomatoes, chilies and everything followed by additions of leftover dal and the rice. Left it to cook for some odd 20 minutes. To finish the risotto, I added couple cubes of frozen butter to just bring to another level, I decided not to add cheese to it, because didn't like the idea of cheese and Indian spices bonding together, but classic risotto would not be completed by a handful of Parmesan cheese. I decided I not to add any vegetables as I was allergic to vegetables (Yeah right, who is allergic to vegetables?! Only Dana I guess! hahaha!) but it could be a great addition to it. You can add exotic vegetables or the daily stuff. I bet asparagus or baby shallots would go well. That's for you to try and tell me, morons! Ain't gone make everything and tell you or show you!

The risotto took about 35 minutes to make, while it was almost done I was thinking what people eat kichidi with. Some with yogurt, some with papad or some with pickles. I thought adding another texture to the dish would be a great addition. Something crunchy like papad but very different and elegant. So I decided to make potato shoestring. Not everyone might think of it as classy and elegant I thought of it and it was there. After frying the shoestrings i tossed it in some BBQ powder to give it another flavor profile of sweetness. Everything was ready and it was plating and tasting time.

Sexy & Orgasmic!!!

I scooped out some risotto on to a plate and garnished it with my BBQ potato shoestrings, a fried chili and some chili oil. I wanted to put some micro cilantro but yet again couldn't find it. Better luck next time I guess. The final dish was ready to be eaten. This time i wanted to try my own creation for once, and it was absolutely divine and orgasmic!!!Loved it to the last bit on the plate!!!For me the two things that changed the whole dish was the addition of the frozen butter and the BBQ potato shoes string...it was sexy!!!! My cooks also liked it and were like, "chef you can cook Indian food too?!"

I was very happy with the final result. I thought to myself i can really cook and I wasn't bullshitting all this while! It was good to know that.

That's it for now, morons! Hope you liked the post and enjoyed reading it! Drool for now over the dal risotto or get your ass of the seat and go make some for yourself.

Have a fun day and enjoy!!!!

Ciao!!!