Huggi /Seasoned rice gruel

My mother used to tell me a story about a destitute girl who prayed to lord Vishnu to help her ease the pangs of Hunger. Lord Vishnu appears before the girl and presents her an Akshayapatra that could produce Huggi on a particular command, stopping at another command. The girl is generous and kind and serves Huggi to needy. This triggers the neighbour's jealousy. The neighbour steals the Huggi Akshaypatra but does not care much about the commands. She commands it to start whence Huggi starts to overflow. But she does not know how to stop!!! Alas.. first the Huggi fills up her kitchen and then the whole house and then the village that she would have to be rescued by boat :) Then the actual owner of the Akshyapatra turns up, now knowing where exactly her Akshyapatra was and commands it to stop!

Yeah! when ever i make Huggi, eat Huggi, think of Huggi, I kinda of start imagining a girl in a boat rowing across a pool of Huggi! How funny. Who ever wrote the story. But then I love the story for precisely being funny!! Ah! Stories, I love them, much more if they have to do something with food.

Here is a simple Huggi recipe. Huggi is similar to Khichdi/Pongal. My baby son loves it. In fact we have been making Huggi more often than usual for this reason. It is indeed a great baby-friendly food. Try it with your young one.

Rice           1 Cup
Split Moong Dal    1/2 Cup
Water          9 Cups
Black pepper 1 tsp
Jeera               1.5 tsp
Ghee               2-3 tbsp
Curry Leaves      a handful
Green Chillies      4-5 (optional )
Coconut                3-4 tbsp grated (optional)
Mustard seeds      1/2 tsp
Turmeric     a generous pinch
Hing a dash

Method :

1. Wash rice and moong dal in several changes of water, combine it with 9 cups of water in a pressure cooker and cook till done, about 2 whistles.Set it aside to cool.
2. Crush pepper and Jeera roughly till the pepper breaks down into two pieces and not more; set it aside.
3. Once the rice mixture is cool, Heat ghee in a pan throw in the Mustard seeds, hing, curry leaves, pepper, jeera, turmeric saute till fragrant. If using coconut and green chillies, throw them in now. Saute till fragrant. Turn off the heat. 
4. Pour the mixture over the cooked rice and dal. Mix well. Bring it to a simmer and adjust salt. Serve immediately.

If serving a young one, avoid chillies and use whole pepper instead of pounded pepper.