The recipes in this post are the result of a lot of Internet searching! When Bhags of Crazy Curry announced North Eastern food as the theme for RCI, I was quite interested. For one thing, I have been fascinated by the sheer beauty of that part of the country that I’ve seen in books and on TV. The North Eastern states of India are home to some of the most beautiful orchids in the world.
After going through the many search results, most of which were sketchy and largely repetitions of each other, what I realised was that non vegetarian food forms the bulk of their cuisine. And I had never heard of many of the ingredients used in those recipes.
We refer to the different states of Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh by putting them together as one entity, but each state has its own particular separate identity.
My search for vegetarian recipes from these states led to my discovery of two blogs, Anthony’s Kitchen and Monica Gi Chakum, with some Manipuri vegetarian recipes.
I chose to cook the Manpuri Khichdi and Ootti from Anthony’s blog. As he hadn’t given very exact measures for some ingredients, I have put down what I used. I didn’t have any pictures to refer to either. Otherwise I have stuck to his recipes.
Manipuri Khichdi and Ootti (GF, V)
Ingredients
For the Manipuri Khichdi
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1/4 cup tuvar dal
- 1 onion small , finely chopped
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 2 tbsps peanuts , skinned
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 3 pods bay leaves cardamom chillies each of , cloves and red ,
- xbc tsp turmeric powder
- to taste salt
- 2 tbsps ghee
For the Ootti
- 1 1/2 cups peas white
- 1 onion big , finely sliced
- 1 1/2 ginger u201c , finely chopped
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 3 - 4 chillies red
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp cooking soda
- to taste salt
Instructions
- Manipuri Khichdi : Cook the rice and dal till done but firm.
- Heat the oil and ghee, add the peanuts and sautxe9 till golden. Now add the bay leaves, cardamom, cloves, red chillies and cumin. Stir a couple of times and add the onions, sautxe9ing till golden and soft. Add the turmeric powder, stir, and then add the cooked rice and dal. Salt as required. Take off the heat and mix everything, gently till well coated with the onion and spice.Serve hot.
- Ootti : Soak the peas in water for about 5-6 hours and cook till done but firm. Put the peas into a pan, add one cup water, salt and the cooking soda. Bring it to a boil. There will be a lot of froth from the soda! I have never cooked (baked, yes) with cooking soda and it seems to make the peas a bit mushy.
- In another pan, heat the oil and add the bay leave, cumin and chillies. Just sautxe9 and add the ginger and onion. Saute till onions are brown. Pour this into the peas and mix well. Serve hot.
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
This is great Aparna..Looks amazing.. and i am glad you liked it..I am sorry about the measure.. I never cook by measure.. lol.. just use my finger..
Hi Aparna! I’m so glad you posted this great khichdi and ooti pair. If I had more patience I would have liked to make the same for RCI. Maybe some weekend, now that you have inspired me, I shall :)Looks SO delicious!
I miss out on most events as well/ Aparna..Like what you have made here….
What if you missed RCI – its a beautiful dish.There’s something for you on my blog. Do check it out.
looks lovely aparna…..sounds like a lovely warm wholesome meal for the family to enjoy.
So sweet and amazingly prompt of you to visit my place,aparna :)Seems I have to catch a real lot with all these wonderful posts of yours!..great going!..Hugs!Bharathy 🙂
Manipuri khichdi looks yum aparna..good effort..!!
I hace hear so much about khichidi, but never had them and Ooti is also new to me.I gave a miss for RCI this time, was lazy to searche for recipe 🙁
YUM! This RCI has been the toughest so far for everybody which is great, makes us think and learn!:))
Never tried anything quite like this but it looks delicious!
i love anytype of khichdi..thanks for sharing Manipuri version. Ooti is new to me too. Thanks for sharing this recipe
I so agree with you about the north-eastern states. Each one has its own taste and tradiotion. Loved the khichidi recipe.
Yes, the states in north east are meat lovers…..nice khichadi….why don’t you send it for the RCI…i haven’t done the round up yet
I don’t know anything about the Northeastern cuisine , glad to learn a little bit from all the RCI entries… Kichdi looks delicious Aparna!
and i always thought ootti can only mean the name of a place 😀
I love all the different textures and spices in this dish, Aparna.
Nice khichidi aparna! :)) I too need to catch up with the events! 😀 About blacknightshade , you can learn every name in google search! 🙂
nice! i am not very familiar with the cuisine in northeastern part of India. i paricularly enjoyed Ootti. Doesnt seem to have a lot of spices in it and yet it sounds delicious!
Looks so delicious! I wish I dared to make it one day:)
Thanks for the recipe, Anthony. Appreciate your approval. Traditional cooking is always with a pinch of this and a handful of that, so no problems. Linda, you’re kidding. And all the cooking you do? But do try this out. Tastes real good. Thanks everyone for coming on my partial culinary discovery of the NE. The most difficult part was finding something to cook.Thanks, Simran, for passing on the award to me.True, Asha.Thanks Bhags, for considering this post way past the deadline. Have sent it on to you.:)So did I, Nags:DNot too many spices, the a&n, so its a bit different but nice. The spice in the Ootti comes from the red chillies!
Good picture and recipe! Just saw the same combo at Priya of live to eat:)
Phew I got this made in time! And (I made the rice dish) it was SO SO SO good! I’m really glad I was introduced to your blog! The post is located here:http://thespicedlife.blogspot….