Kichiri

This kichiri recipe is a dish from Herat province in Afghanistan, Zaheda Ghani’s birthplace. It is a rice dish cooked with braised lamb or beef. The mung beans add a distinctive flavour and texture to the dish, when cooked with black pepper.

Credit: Jiwon Kim

• serves

  8-10

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  1:30 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• 4 cups basmati rice, soaked for 3-5 hours
• 2 cups moong dal or split mung beans, soaked for 3-5 hours
• ¾ cup olive oil, divided into thirds
• 2 large brown onions, finely chopped, divided
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 kg lean beef (chuck or gravy), cut into 4 cm chunks
• 1 tbsp ground turmeric
• 1 ½ tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp ground black cardamom
• 3 cups (750 ml) beef stock (or chicken)
• Salt

Soaking time: 5 hours

Instructions

1. Separately drain the rice and moong dal. Heat ¼ cup oil in a large saucepan over high heat, then add the moong dal and fry, until caramelised, then remove from the heat and set aside.
   
2. To make the stew, heat ¼ cup oil, half the onion, salt, pepper, beef, the spices and stock in a pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 35-40 minutes, or until the beef (may take less or more time depending on your pressure cooker).
   
3. While the beef is cooking, heat a large frying pan with ¼ cup oil and add the remaining onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until deeply caramelised (but not burnt). Allow to cool, then use a mini chopper to blend the caramelised onion to a paste. Set aside.
   
4. When the beef has finished cooking, use a slotted spoon to remove the beef to a bowl from the cooking liquid, then stir the caramelised onion paste through the broth. Cover the beef to keep warm. Strain the liquid into a very large jug with a fine mesh sieve, pushing through any onion through the strainer with a fork.
   
5. To make the rice, combine the fried moong dal and drained rice in a large pot and mix well to combine. Pour enough of the strained cooking liquid from the beef over the rice until it reaches 2 cms above the rice and stir to combine. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring regularly until the water has evaporated, then gather the rice into a mound using a spatula and make three holes in the mound. Pour extra stock into the three holes (1/4 cup – ½ cup, depending on how cooked the grains are), then cover the pot with a tea towel and a lid. Gather the edges of the tea towel around the pot so it is not touching the base of the pan, then cook on low heat for a further 30 minutes.
   
6. Once cooked, serve the meat under the rice.

Photography by Jiwon Kim.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Stream free On Demand

Taste of Tradition

episode • The Cook Up with Adam Liaw • 

cooking • 

25m

G

episode • The Cook Up with Adam Liaw • 

cooking • 

25m

G