If there is one dish that captures the soul of slow cooking it has to be Khichda rich with chunks of mutton, an Eid special for the Bohri community.
Chef Golam Khan of the Taj Yeshwantpur hotel in Bengaluru, offers a recipe for truly exceptional Whole Wheat Mutton Khichda, which is broken wheat, tender mutton and a symphony of spices simmered for hours to create a meal to remember for the happy occasion of Eid.
Eid Mubarak, Dear Readers!
Photograph: Kind courtesy Miansari66/Wikimedia Commons
Whole Wheat Mutton Khichda
Serves: 3-4
Ingredients
- 500 gm mutton, curry cut, frozen
- 50 gm daliya or cracked whole wheat
- 1 cup yoghurt, for marination
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 large tomato, chopped
- 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste.
- 3-4 tbsp oil+ghee
- 3-4 lavang or cloves
- 1 tej patta or bay leaf
- 1-inch stick dalcheeni or cinnamon
- 1 chakra phool or star anise
- 1 bari elaichi or black cardamom
- 1 tsp whole black pepper
- 1 tsp saunf or fennel seeds
- 1 tsp jeera or cumin powder
- 1 tsp brown dhania or coriander powder
- 1 tsp haldi or turmeric
- 1 tsp kasuri methi or dried fenugreek, roasted
- 1 tsp degi mirch, a preferred type of red chillies
- Salt to taste, about 2 tsp
- Water
- 1-2 tsp ghee for garnish
- Handful birasta or golden-fried onions, for garnish
Method
- Marinate the mutton overnight in the yoghurt.
- Soak the cracked wheat or daliya overnight too.
- In a heavy-bottomed saucepan or a kadhai, heat 2 tbsp of the oil-ghee mixture and add in all the whole spices.
Then add the ginger-garlic paste, onion, tomatoes and saute well.
Next add the jeera powder, dhaniya powder, turmeric, degi mirch.
Mix in the soaked daliya and saute for a few minutes more, take off heat and keep aside. - In another large saucepan saute the marinated mutton with the remaining ghee-oil and add roasted kasuri methi.
Add in 3-4 cups water.
Then add the daliya mixture, cover and let it simmer a good 30-45 minutes or more allowing the meat to get fully cooked. - Serve hot, garnished with golden-fried onions and ghee.
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