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Comfort food, across world cuisines and our own, is usually the benchmark we set when we associated personal memories with good food. We’ve all been under the weather sick or experienced a stomach bug, for which our mothers and grandmothers turned to good ol’ khichdi for a cure. The mushy rice and lentil preparation has since evolved into many variations within India and inspired delicacies like the British kedgeree across the world. Now, what’s crucial to know is that both – the khichdi and the kedgeree are associated in their respective cultures as comfort food; and both are rice-based dishes. That said, each of them have distinctive characteristics that set them apart from one another.
Khichdi
Image Credits: the veg recipes people
Derived from the Sanskrit word ‘khichcha’, this South Asian preparation is made with a base of rice and yellow lentils – typically moong dal or tur dal. This vegetarian dish has many iterations across sub-cultures within India, with the most common one being with various vegetables like carrots, peas and cauliflower added to the rice-lentil mixture while cooking. The texture of khichdi is usually a mushy, overcooked one – the idea behind it being that the cooking technique allows for easy digestion.
Other variations of the khichdi across India constitute of pongal from Tamil Nadu, bisi bele bath from Karnataka, congee from Kerala and sabudana khichdi from Maharashtra, which interestingly uses sago pearls instead of rice and lentils, for those who observe a fast. Usually, the khichdi is known to be cooked as a one-pot meal, where both, the rice and lentils are pressure cooked with plenty of water and tempered with ghee and whole spices such as cumin, curry leaves and red chillies, for an extra depth of flavour.
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Kedgeree
Kedgeree, the British breakfast classic, derives its name from the Indian khichdi, and is made by cooking rice in a fish stock – which is later on flavoured with flaked fish (smoked haddock or salmon), parsley, hard-boiled eggs, curry powder and raisins. Unlike khichdi, the kedgeree is enjoyed hot as well as cold, with the texture of the rice being separate grains as opposed to mush like the former. The flavours of kedgeree although bland, have a fishy taste as a result of the basmati cooking in the fish stock.
The kedgeree and khichdi also vary in cooking technique because the former is made by initially toasting the grains of rice in butter or oil before it is mixed with other ingredients. There is also a marked absence of legumes in the kedgeree where the vegetarian protein source is replaced with fish instead. While khichdi is usually eaten with an accompaniment of pickle or kadhi, a buttermilk-based gravy, the kedgeree is relished on its own. Due to being adapted by the British, the kedgeree does not taste or appear to look anything like the Indian classic – making it distinctive enough to be a standalone British offering.
