Khichri (Parsi rice and lentils)

This was inspired by the two recipes for khichri in My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking by Niloufer Ichaporia King. The little stories in cookbook are wonderfully interesting, and the recipes are different from things that I'm familiar with (they are a combination of Indian and Persian). I first noticed it because it won a James Beard award, so borrowed a copy from the library, but I think I'm going to buy one so I can have it in my permanent collection! NPR has an article about the cookbook and some of the recipes posted.

King always cooks her rice on the stove top; I always use a rice cooker. In addition, she suggests adding some softened onions to the khichri, but I didn't have some on hand. I also used a mixture of half rice, and half lentils and mung beans. The lentils cook in the same amount of time as the rice, so they turned out very soft, but the mung beans were a bit crunchier then I'd like--next time I use mung beans, I would soak the rice/bean mixture for 30 minutes before cooking to help soften the beans (I think I was actually supposed to use split & husked mung beans, not the whole beans). In addition, I've also reduced the size of the recipe to make only 1 cup.

My Khichri: (makes 1 cup cooked rice)
1 part basmati rice
1 part red lentils (masur dal) or husked mung beans (mung dal) or a mixture of both
1 tbsp oil or ghee (I used olive oil -- which isn't parsi at all, but I don't have any ghee)
1/2 stick cinnamon
2 or 3 whole cloves (I didn't have any so I used a very small pinch of clove powder)
6 black peppercorns, ground (or a few twists of grated pepper)
2 cardamom pods
2 red chiles, cut in half
1/4 tsp turmeric
a pinch of salt

Wash the rice, lentils and, beans in several changes of water until the water is almost clear. Check and make sure that the mixture doesn't have any stones. Add the appropriate amount of water (my rice cooker has water lines according to how much rice is being cooked). Add the remaining ingredients. You can either cook the mixture right away, or if you would like an even softer khichri, let the mixture soak for up to 30 minutes. Cook the mixture in a rice cooker, following the machine's normal directions. When the rice is done, fluff it gently.

Seasoned Pressed Tofu with Carrots and Celery

I had planned to use the grated celery and carrots with tofu noodles, but the tofu noodles were too old to be eat. So instead I used the vegetables with some pressed tofu, and I'm really pleased with the results! The shape of the carrot and celery "noodles" are a nice contrast with the tofu slices. I went for minimalistic seasonings on this--which seems to work well with the dish.

For more information about seasoned pressed tofu see here or here.

1/2 block seasoned pressed tofu
1 large carrot
2 stalks celery
3 dried red chili pepper
a dash of Chinese rice wine (about 1/8 cup ish)
salt
1 tsp Chinese BBQ paste (I used vegetarian)
1-2 tsp hot chili oil
1 tsp peanut oil

Peel the outer layers of the carrot. Cut the carrot and celery into pieces about 4 inches long. Use a manoline to juilenne the carrot and celery into long thin strips approximately the thickness of spaghetti (I used a Benriner Japanese Mandoline with the medium toothed blade). Slice the tofu block into slices about 1 or 2 mm thick.

Place some oil in a saute pan on high. When the oil is hot, cut the three chili peppers in half and add to the pan. Add carrot and celery "noodles". Saute for one or two minutes, until the vegetables soften. Add a dash of rice wine and let the liquid boil off. Move the vegetables to the side, and add 1 tsp Chinese BBQ paste in an open section of the pan. Saute the bbq paste for 15 seconds to release aromas. Mix the bbq paste thoroughly with the vegetables. Add the tofu slices and mix in the hot chili oil. Continue cooking for one to three minutes, until the tofu is hot and the vegetables are cooked but not limp (i.e. the equivalent of "al dente" for vegetables). Turn off heat, add add peanut oil. (Peanut oil is added after cooking, since it can burn.)

Shrimp Donburi

Follow recipe for Chicken Donburi, except that shrimp cooks much faster than chicken (shrimp cooks in about 1 minute or less).

I used brown rice, and chives instead of scallions. Since I didn't have any dashi (which would have been preferably since its fish based), I used chicken stock and also added 1/4 tsp fish sauce--be very careful to only add a tiny bit of fish sauce because it is very extremely salty.

Coq au Vin

I attempted coq au vin with pearl onions and mushrooms. Served with cobb salad and acme bread. I followed a recipe, originally by Molly Stevens, which is very similar to Julia Child's recipe for Beef Bourguignon.

I learned that 300 degrees Fahrenheit is too low--use 325 degrees for the oven temperature. I placed a piece of parchment over the top of the chicken pieces, and then put the lid on top of that--the temperature is hot enough if you see little splatters of the liquid on the parchment paper. Some recipes suggest that the dish cooks in 30 minutes to 1 hour. However similarly to Alton Brown, I found that it actually took 2 hours to 2 and a half.

The bacon and the chicken stock make the sauce very fatty, so next time I would definitely recommend degreasing the sauce.

Pictures of the mushroom and pearl onion sides: