Rice is the staple food of India and is consumed as the main dish during meals. Among the Naga tribes inhabiting Nagaland and Manipur, rice is sometimes cooked in the form of a porridge or khichdi commonly called galho. But what distinguishes galho from a regular khichdi is that it can be prepared using fresh vegetables like mustard leaves, fermented ingredients like bamboo shoot, and even fresh or smoked meat.
Today, I will provide the recipe and method for preparing a rice porridge using duck meat. The same recipe and method can be used for chicken and pork, but the only thing one needs to keep in mind is that the cooking duration is different for each meat. It takes lesser time to cook chicken than pork. But the duck meat takes longer than pork because the texture of the meat is hard. The following is the recipe and method for preparing duck-rice porridge.
Ingredients:
For every kilogram of meat use 100 grams of rice
One large onion sliced finely
Two thumb-sized ginger
Full medium sized garlic
Half teaspoon of turmeric powder
One raja chili or king chili
70 ml of mustard oil
Fresh coriander
Method
Soak the rice in water for about 30 minutes
Heat the oil until it is smoking a bit
Fry the onion first till it develops a light golden texture
Add ginger and garlic (here you can a little salt to avoid charring)
Once the onions, ginger and garlic are fried properly, add the duck meat and fry it for about 5 mins. Add turmeric powder and the raja chili.
After it is thoroughly fried, add about a litre of water and boil the meat for about 30 minutes with the lid covered.
In 30 minutes, the meat must be half cooked, and right around this time add the rice and stir it properly. Here it is imperative to note that one has to keep stirring the pot so that the rice does not settle at the bottle of the pot and get burnt. The best way to avoid burning is to add a small amount of water every few minutes and keep stirring. The more one stirs the pot, the better the texture of the final dish.
A home reared duck would take about 1 and half hour to be thoroughly cooked. A farm duck would take about ten minutes lesser than the home reared duck to prepare. This dish is served hot all through the year. It is simple yet delicious. Let us know in the comment section if you would make it at home.
About the author: Boniface G Kamei belongs to the Rongmei Naga tribe of Manipur, India. He is currently a research scholar at the University of Hyderabad.
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