Easy to Cook Rice Dishes

This one is for spicy Khichri. It is eaten as a breakfast dish in England as Kedgeree. Khichri means a rumble tumble jumble of each and every ingredient in your kitchen. This is also a very popular warming up breakfast during freezing winters in North India. It has to be served boiling hot, straight off the cooking range.
Ingredients.
Spices:
1 TbS coriander seeds,
2 inch stick of cinnamon,
one teaspoon cardamom seeds,
two red chillies,
one bayleaf,
one table spoon turmeric powder,
one teaspoon aniseed,
one teaspoon salt
All these spices are ground together and made into a powder.
Two tbs desi ghee (clarified butter). two cups Rice , 2 cups mung lentils and 2 table spoons vegetable oil
Vegetables -
2 large sliced onions, two medium potatoes cut in to one inch cubes, 2 tomatoes.

Add the spices to four cups of water in a small saucepan. Bring this to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain the liquid and preserve it.
Melt half the ghee in a pan and fry half the onions, and all the potatoes until they are light brown.
Add the tomatoes and fry the mixture for three minutes.
In a large sauce pan melt the remaining ghee and fry the rice and Dal together stirring constantly for about two minutes.
Add the spiced water and vegetables into the pan. Cover-up the pan and let it simmer for the next 15 minutes. By this time, the grains pulses and vegetables are cooked and tender.
While the khichri is cooking, heat the oil in the emptied vegetable Pan. Fry the remaining onion pieces in it.
Uncover the khichri and fluff it with the fork to let the steam escape. Spread it upon a heated platter, and scatter the fried onions on it. Serve with yoghurt.
Serves 6-8 very hungry people.

Special play-off pilaff. Non-vegetarian .
This rice dish was normally eaten after a game of polo. Or any other vigorous exercise .

Spices :
Six cardamom pods,
three inch stick of cinnamon,
eight whole cloves,
one tea spoon salt,
one Tbs sugar.
2 bay leaves broken into pieces .
Four inch pieces of fresh ginger root,
2 onions,
2 cloves of garlic. These are peeled and finely chopped .
One table spoon ghee.
5 table spoons vegetable oil
3 cups best quality basmati rice.
half-a-Cup plain yoghurt.
meat from 3 chicken breasts cut into thin slices

Place half the ginger and the garlic , salt, and onions yoghurt in the food processor and grind them. Grind the spices to a powder and add it to the ground mixture of vegetables. Final grinding to mix the spices and the vegetables.
Place that chicken meat into a bowl and marinade it in the pureed mixture.
Place it into a fridge for two hours to let the mixture get absorbed.
Fry the rice, together with the remainder of the ginger until the rice is opaque.
Now add six cups (double the quantity of rice) of water, cover the pan and bring to a boil.
As soon as the water boils, uncover the pan and add the marinated chicken. Let this rice pilaff simmer until all the water is finished.
Turn off the heat, cover the mouth of the pan with a slightly wet cloth to absorb the steam. Cover the cloth and the mouth of the pan with a heavy lid before serving.
Transfer the contents of the pan to a serving dish and garnish with some leftover chicken pieces, coriander, tomato and onion slices.