Rice and dhal powder

I got the recipe from this blog.  I like baby to be adventurous in her food and not limit to western style purees or chinese style porridge.  And indian food and spices are very delicious and healthy too.

I was torn between buying an indian pressure cooker or a chinese porridge cooker.  In the end, I bought the chinese porridge cooker, and now thinking of getting an indian pressure cooker as well.

I have been thinking of how to cook khicddhi for baby.  It's a mixture of rice and dhal and cook together to eat.  I cooked it for myself last time and it was so delicious and healthy.  It's also one of the ayurvedic recommended food.

In the absence of an indian pressure cooker, making cooking khiccdhi difficult, this blog suggest I made it into powder form and easier for cooking, which I have to agree immensely.

Do click on the blog to find out more.

To make it into powder form is quite tedious and lots of work.  But the results and end product makes cooking so much easier.

I used basmati rice and moong dhal.  But the blog suggest to use toor dhal and moong dhal mix.  I read that moong dhal is easier for digestion.  All the ingredients you can get from any indian store.  I got the rice, cumin seeds and asafoetida from Giant while moong dhal and pure ghee was from Modern Store in Brickfields.  I used Amul Pure Ghee which can only be found there.

For the split green gram or moong dhal in Hindi, you can find the ones whole (i.e not split) and with skin.  In it's original form, this is green bean as in the sister of red bean.  With skin is green and without is yellow.  It's so difficult to find organic moong dhal here, so I just buy the normal ones.  Split ones are easier to cook.

Ingredients:

1 cup basmati rice

1/2 cup moong dhal (split green gram)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp asafoetida/hing

1 tsp pure ghee

1. Soak the moong dhal in water for few hours.  Some recipes didn't state to soak but I prefer to soak so that the gas is removed.  After few hours, drain and wash the moong dhal and put aside to dry.

2. Wash the rice thoroughly and dry.  I let the moong dhal and rice dry together in a big tray that has been laid with baby's unused white cotton muslin cloth.  I used the cloth so that rice and dhal would dry easier as the cotton would absorb the moisture.

3.  Once it is dry, heat the wok with the ghee and roast the rice and dhal together until golden.  This with medium heat would take 15-20 minutes.

4. Put aside to cool.  I put it back on the tray without the cloth.

5. While waiting for the rice and dhal to cool, in the same wok, roast cumin seeds and asafoetida for few minutes.  Then mix with the rice and dhal and cool.

6. Once it is cooled, put all into the blender and blend until fine powder.  

7. Sieve before putting the powder into an air tight container.  If the powder is not fine enough, then blend again.  I have to do this few times because my blender is not that great.

Keep in the fridge for longer lasting.

The whole preparation takes about 30 minutes.

I am not sure if I used too much cumin seeds but the smell was quite strong.  I was worried that baby may not like it but surprisingly she just ate it happily.

To make the porridge, just take 2 tbsp of powder and add 3/4 water.  The blogger also added nut powder but since I haven't tested baby's allergy with nuts, I avoided this altogether.  Then serve with 1 tsp of pure ghee.  

This is quite filling and after eating this amount, she was already very full and quiet.  I was worried that she might be too full or having indigestion but no, just satisfying.

I fed this to a 6 going to 7 month old baby.  My baby's first indian food.

Some suggested that it's easier to cook the rice and dhal first and then blend into puree.  Yes, that's doable as well but bear in mind, I am a FTWM.  I would prefer to prepare the food in advance so that someone else can do the cooking while I am at work.  Besides, I feel weird blending cook rice into puree, worried it might be too gassy that way.  But that's just me.

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or a pediatrician.   Please seek their advice if you have a lot of questions about spices and so on.