Malai Jhuro Khichuri Recipe – Traditional Durga Puja Khichuri

The Malai Jhuro Khicuri Recipe is an offshoot of our heirloom cult classic “the Jhuro Khichuri”. My dida or grandma was known far and wide for her Jhuro Khichuri recipe. Her Jhuro Khicuri was less of the ubiquitous mundane mushy yellow thing you may know of, and more of an exotic pulao. The grains would just bloom to perfection speckled with dried fruits and nuts, sweetened with grated coconut, perfumed with warm whole spices, and then stewed in a heady concoction of the best ghee in town and freshly pressed coconut milk. And this Malai Jhuro Khichuri would always be cooked in bell metal vessels, probably that too lent this dish a flavor of its own.

Malai Jhuro Khichuri Recipe

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Now talking about the grains, the rice used would be the small grained aromatic Gobindo Bhog that baba or dadu would bring home from the grocer after a fair amount of research and investigation tracing the origin of the produce. The dal too was of two kinds, the mung dal and the chana dal, again picked after severe scrutiny. There was a sense of immense fulfillment and flourish amongst the men in being able to source just the right ingredients for the malai jhuro khichuri recipe for dida.

I think I have written about this before too, the earliest memory I have of my grandma’s house was that of her pantry, a tiny room which also doubled up as her puja room. There was an wooden bed frame in there without any upholstery and held various pots, pans, sacks and jars. Underneath the bed, at any given point of time one would find at least 20 unhusked coconuts picked from the trees around the house. Dida would take out one in two to three days, and get someone helping around the house to husk it for her. She would break it open very carefully while catching the water from it in a bowl. The fresh coconut water would be poured in glasses and handed to the grandchildren whoever happened to be around. The usage of coconut in our heirloom recipes is very significant quite understandably and that’s the inspiration behind this Malai Jhuro Khichuri Recipe too.

Any rice-based dish be it a pulao or a khichuri, would need some kind of a stock or as they say in Bengali “aakni” traditionally. In the case of this dish, the aakni used in the original recipe is the second pressed or repressed thin coconut milk. However, I always cook this with tinned coconut milk for obvious reasons. This particular Khichuri does not use any turmeric and hence white in color to a certain extent. The whole spices, ghee and the coconut milk along with a fair amount of mustard oil contributes to the heavenly alchemy in play for this dish.

I remember my dida would often use the word “mulam” in her conversations in her heavy Bangladeshi accent. This word would mean something soft and dainty almost like a feather and comes from the Hindi word “mulayam”. And whenever I try to imagine what I feel like with a spoonful of this khichuri in my mouth, it is this word that comes to my mind to describe that luxuriated feel of something rich and delicious yet with such a heavenly aftertaste.

This is now my go-to recipe especially if I am cooking a religious or a ceremonial meal. As Durga Puja is almost here, I can’t wait to make it again and I would definitely urge you to step up your normal khichuri with this Malai version here. You will love it!

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For all those of you trying to get a context, khichuri is essentially a porridge made with rice and lentils and is offered to the deities as a meal/bhog amongst Bengalis.

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