Khichdi-ish Biryani

I have a very big jar of split mung beans which I bought to make the Korean pancake dish called Bindaetteok. I don't know why I didn't make the connection earlier, but it occurred to me yesterday that split mung bean must be common in Indian cuisine too. I love legumes and my family love Indian food. So... I googled for a few dishes and found that split mung beans (called Moong Dal in India) is commonly used to make a risotto like rice dish. I was at first going to follow one of the recipes I found faithfully. But as it turns out, I made mushroom and chestnut risotto for lunch today and so another wet, creamy rice dish no longer appealed to me. But I wanted dal and rice still. So this morphed into a biryani sort of dish. Since I usually cooked 2 cups of bastmati rice using 3 cups of water I figured, 4 cups for 2 cups of rice plus lentils is more or less correct. It was. I think I'll fry some green beans on the side next time and it would be a complete meal. It was delicious.

2 cups basmati rice

1 cups split yellow lentils 

1/3 cup ghee (or oil, or butter)

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp coriander seeds (optional)

2 tsp black mustard seeds (optional)

1 large onion (or medium if that is all you have), chopped

2 to 3 tsp grated ginger (it isn't that important to be all that precise, I used a nice knob of ginger and that was about 2 tsp worth)

1 tbs turmeric (less if you don't like the pasty flavor of turmeric. I was generous with it because I love a brilliant yellow rice and because turmeric is good for us)

1/2 tsp asafetida (optional)

1 plum tomato, chopped

1 bay leaf

4 1/2 cups of water

salt to taste

Chopped up coriander for final garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse and then soak the rice and lentils for 30 minutes if you have time. 

In a medium size oven proof medium size pot, melt ghee over medium heat. When pot and ghee is hot, add the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and black mustard seeds. Let it sizzle for 10 seconds or so to release the flavors. Add onion and ginger and stir around to mix. Fry and stir to keep onions and spices from burning. Add the turmeric, asafetida, bay leaf, chopped tomato and stir to mix. If mixture looks too dry, add more ghee or oil. Add the rice and lentils and stir to mix. Add the water and salt. Cover and bring to boil. Watch it, you don't it to boil over. Once it starts to bubble in the pot, put the whole pot (with cover on) into the oven and let it continue cooking in there for another 30 minutes or so. It should be done after 30 minutes. If not, cover and stick it back into the oven for another 5 minutes. If rice looks too dry or not done. Add another few tbs of water, but not too much or you will end up with a proper Khichdi.