Iyer Kichadi Recipe - Rava Kichadi Recipe - The story of Pappu Iyer.

Iyer Rava Kichadi Recipe

So for those who are wondering why a Iyer recipe in a chettinad cuisine blog I'm obliged to tell you this story. The time goes back to my grand fathers's period. A Iyer man approched my grandfather seeking job as his family was suffering in poverty and not able to afford a meal a day. Pappu Iyer was short, weak and slender man so my grand father decided he his not fit for hard labour in farm fields and asked my granny whether she needs any help for the kitchen. My granny appointed this pappu iyer for kitchen help. Pappu iyer was good help at the kitchen, he was a witty man and was very friendly to everyone in the house, childrens in the house started liking him and always a bunch of kids were behind him. As the months passed my granny promoted him to cook few meals but she was doubtful whether his cooking style and tastes will cater to the chettiar tongues which got used to chettinad foods. On the days when they wanted to eat something different from usual chettinad he took turns to cook. He specialized in making sweets, sambar and morning tiffins. So this is one of his special rava kichadi recipe which was their favorite. After few years Pappu Iyer had to move with his family to some other place because of his sons. There by he had left them. I had not seen him personally as he had worked for my granny many years ago but heard about him whenever we prepare his recipes my mom, granny and everyone in our family talks about him. A interesting point is that no one in our family remembers his original name the kids were fond of him and after working in our kitchen this slender man turned to be very fat and stout so kids started to call him friendly "Pappu Iyer".

Ingredients
Rava ( roasted) - 1 cup
Moongdal - 1/4 cup
Onion ( small) - 1 no
Tomato ( small) - 1 no
Green chillies - 2 to 3 nos
Chopped carrot and peas - 1/4 cup
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Channa dal - 1/2 tsp
Ghee or Oil - 3 tbsp + 1 tsp
Water - 2 and 1/2 cups
Salt to taste

Rava Kichadi Recipe

Method
1. Roast rava in 1 tsp ghee until aroma rises, remove to a plate and set aside.
2. Soak moong dal in warm water for atleast 1 hour.
3. Coarsely chop onion, tomatoes and cut chillies into half.
4. Heat ghee in a pan, when ghee melts add mustard seeds, as the mustrad seeds crackle add urad dal and channa dal, stir fry for 2 seconds.
5. Add the chopped onion, green chillies, tomatoes and vegetables and turmeric to the pan and saute for a minute.
6. Add water to the pan, when water starts boiling add the soaked and drained moong dal to boiling water.
7. Cover and cook on low heat until moong dal is soft( when u pinch a dal between thumb and index finger it should get smashed).
8. Season water with salt and again bring the moongdal mixture to boil, slowly add roasted rava to the pan and keep stirring constantly so no lumps are formed,
9. Cook for sometime until rava is cooked.
Serve hot rava kitchadi immediately with
Coconut Chuteny----click for recipe.

Kichadi Recipe

Tips
1.Instead of soaking moongdal for a hour you can pressure cook moongdal for 3 whistles and add the cooked dal after adding water to vegetables in the pan, in this case you have reduce water to 2 cups.
2.Its optional to add veggies, you can add fried cashewnuts to kichadi to make it rich.

Keep looking for my post about chettinad style rava kichadi.