The warmth emanating from the golden rice called Khichdi caught my eye when it appeared recently in the Food Guide from The New York Times.    The seasonings in the recipe that accompanied the photo featured a  balance of sweet cinnamon, cooling cloves and hot chile powder that promised to enliven any number of winter meals.  The addition of moong dal (split mung beans) to long grain rice would create a soft, custardy texture.  In short, I was hooked on Khichdi before I even prepared it.

An Asian rice recipe always presents westerners with a teachable moment.  We are unprepared to soak rice for 15 minutes before heating it, although this practice halves the cooking time.  The wait is more than worth it.  Soaking rice removes its phytic acid and improves the body’s absorption of its iron, zinc and calcium.

If you are new to Indian cooking some of the spices in a Khichdi  may require a trip to the supermarket.  Cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom pods and mustard seeds are whole spices that will keep more than a year.   They are staples of Asian cooking.  Curry leaves are an optional ingredient and an intriguing one. Their pungent scent is one I associate with warm, wet soil and citrus.  They are leaves from a tree, not to be confused with curry powder which is a mixture of spices.  Small bundled stems of curry leaves are available in the refrigerated section of Indian grocery stores.  Indian medicine attributes numerous nutritional and health benefits to them eaten fresh or cooked.  They will keep for two weeks refrigerated.  Substitutes to curry leaves in Khichdi include a bay leaf added directly to the cooking rice and freshly slivered basil leaves folded in just before serving.

Then there is ghee, a concentrated form of butter that Indian cooks use for frying.  It is available in the international aisle of most supermarkets.  You can make this clarified butter at home by simmering butter slowly to evaporate its water content, skimming off the casein foam from the surface, then spooning off the golden butter fat from the milk solids that will brown and stick to the bottom of the pan.   A easier solution is to substitute vegetable or grape seed oil to fry the spices and fold in a tablespoon or two of butter after the rice is cooked.

A container of Khichdi hwa become a frequent resident in my refrigerator.   Why am I addicted to the explosive scent of spices when they hit the rice water or the golden hue of turmeric?   It didn’t take much research to find that Khichdi is the choice of Indian mothers when they introduce their babies to solid food.  I have succumbed to a comfort food from the other side of the world.

KHICHDI

Ingredients:

2/3 cup long-grain white rice (jasmine or basmati)
1/3 cup yellow split moong beans
2 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil
1/2 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 cinnamon stick
2 green cardamom pods
2 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon red chile powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 sprig curry leaves or 1 bay leaf added to the rice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
1 dozen fresh basil leaves, rolled together and thinly sliced, to replace curry leaves

Begin by soaking the rice and moong dal for 15 minutes in 4” cool water.  Drain and place the rice and dal in a pan with 1 3/4 cups cool water.  Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Heat the ghee or oil in a small skillet with the mustard seeds.  When the seeds begin to pop, add the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, cloves, chili powder, turmeric and curry leaves.  Let them cook in the hot oil for a minute swirling the pan to coat them, then add them to the rice, off the heat, taking care to avoid the splatter created when the hot fat hits the water.

When the liquid in the saucepan comes to a boil, give the contents a thorough stir to mix in the spices and add the bay leaf if you haven’t added the curry leaves.  Turn down the heat to a simmer, cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes.  Off the heat, let the rice stand for 10 minutes.  Remove the spices that are visible on the surface, and stir in the basil strands if you haven’t added curry leaves.  Season to taste with salt.

This recipe's author Tejal Rao suggests serving Khichdi with a garnish of cilantro leaves, some whole milk yogurt and a jarred Indian lime-pickle.  I have served it as a stuffing in baked delicata squash, with grilled fish and tossed with sauteed Tuscan kale.

In

If you ever wanted to make pasta by hand but were too afraid to try, let me introduce you to gnocchi.  It’s a pillow-shaped pasta that the most timid cook can make without having to resort to a YouTube video.  The first step is to examine how different it is from flat pasta noodles.

The pasta we now buy dried and boxed was originally the preserve of live-in Italian nonnas who spent their waking hours mixing and rolling out dough with a slender tapered rolling pin.  These grandmothers knew how to wield this pin, modifying the pressure with each pass to create an impossibly thin sheet of dough which they then casually folded like a freshly laundered sheet and cut it into thin strips.  I’ve watched this process, and it is amazing.

Less well known is the dumpling-shaped pasta known as gnocchi.  Mashed potatoes replace much of the flour in this dough making it firm enough to roll into logs like cookie dough and cut into into individual pieces.  The soft malleable gnocchi can take on any number of shapes from round, to oblong, to furrowed and stamped.   You can purchase a wooden board to imprint the pasta if you don't have a nonna handy.

Today’s featured recipe is yet another, easier and unique gnocchi, called the gnudi, from the kitchen of Chef Sarah Stegner of Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook, IL.  In a recent Zoom session Sarah demonstrated her recipe that replaces mashed potatoes with artisan goat cheese from Judy Shad of Capriole in Greenville, IN.  Sarah blended goat cheese with flour, grated Parmesan and an egg in a stand mixer, but stirring the ingredients together by hand works just as well.  The dough required just little extra flour on the work surface to roll out and cut into pieces.  Like all fresh pasta, the gnudi cooked in 2 minutes and rose to the surface to be skimmed off  I complete the whole process at home in less than half an hour.

Gnocchi and gnudi are traditionally sauteed or baked in browned butter with fresh sage leaves.  Sarah substituted horseradish leaves and tossed the gnudi into a pan with browned butternut squash and pecan halves.  Once all the ingredients were hot and coated in butter, she squeezed on fresh lemon juice and scattered them over plates cover with salad greens.  Think tart, tender pasta, sweet, buttery squash and roasted pecans with a touch of lemon to accent the flavors and fresh crisp greens.

I can't think of a better combination for and early Fall meal. PS. The gnudi freeze easily and are destined to become a year-round staple at my house. (see note below.)

 
GOAT CHEESE GNOCCHI WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND PECANS

Pasta for 4 servings:

8 ounces (scant cup) Capriole goat cheese
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup grated Parmesan or pecorino Romano cheese
1 large egg, beaten

Squash and Pecans:

4 tablespoons clarified butter or half butter, half vegetable oil
4 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced
3/4 cup pecan halves, toasted in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes
1/4 cup sage leaves, thinly sliced
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Bring 4 quarts of lightly salted water to a boil in a large pan.

Pasta:  Blend together the goat cheese, flour and grated cheese.  Mix in the beaten egg to form a cohesive dough.  Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and divide into 4 pieces.  Roll each piece into a log 1/2" thick and cut them diagonally into bite-size pieces.  Drop the pieces of each log in boiling water and wait for them to rise to the surface, about 2 minutes.  Remove them with a slotted spoon to a sheet pan and repeat until all the pieces are cooked.

Squash and Pecans:  Saute the diced squash in the hot butter turning the pieces until they are cooked through and have begun to brown.  Add the pecans and sage leaf slices and continue cooking to heat them through. Add the gnudi and continue tossing the ingredients as the pasta reheats and browns lightly.  Squeeze on the lemon juice and divide the mixture among plates covered with fresh greens.

Additional Notes:

Freeze uncooked pasta pieces on an oiled baking sheet.  Slip them into a freezer bag.  Transfer them directly into boiling water from the freezer and cook until they rise to the surface.

Sarah sautes cooked gnudi in butter for her daughter who prefers them fried.