There was a time when my wife (that's Mrs. Enobarbus) and I seemed to get sick much more often, and more severely, than we do now. We caught colds that turned into coughs and then hung around for weeks and weeks. Looking back on it now, it seems very odd since, while we do still get colds, we never suffer anything that terrible.
That was about the time we discovered kichadi, an Indian stew of rice and dried, split mung beans. Owing to its transliterated name, there are as many ways to spell this dish as there are to cook it. (Depending on the source, you may see kichadi, kichari, kichri, kitchdi, or any of the above with a kh- at the front or an -ee at the end. The British rice and fish breakfast dish kedgeree also derives from kichadi.) The esseentials are typically the same: rice, beans, and spices are cooked in water until they develop a porridge-like texture. Essentially, it's one part dal, two parts rice, six parts water, cook till soft.
One particular variety is said to contain a bundle of ayurvedic goodness for curing what ails your lungs, and I made it this week for the first time in several years. We weren't sick; we just missed the taste. You add a couple of diced sweet potatoes to the beans and rice and spice it with ginger, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cardamom, salt and pepper -- and an unusual seed called ajwain, which tastes a bit like caraway. I used whole spices sauteed with the onion, garlic, and ginger, then threw it all in a food processor to make a spice paste.
It's amazingly satisfying, nearly vegan (a little clarified butter), and the kind of thing I know I should be eating instead of yet another dose of Five Guys.
(Odd health side note: Traditionally, a touch of asafetida is added to the mixture -- said to reduce the gassy properties of beans, also recently shown to kill swine flu.)
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