When I was pregnant with my first daughter, there was one food that I craved above everything else. Kichee. It makes no sense as to why I was craving this. It’s simply a rice flour dumpling flavoured with cumin, black pepper and green chillies. I think it was the sticky, comforting consistency that gave me so much satisfaction.
It’s not something I could make for myself at the time because the smell of green chillies would send me into a long coughing fit and give me nausea. My Aunt Sushila would see my car pull into my mother’s driveway and within 30 minutes she’d bring over a plate of steaming hot kichee for me. Handy having her live just across the road!
It’s been a favourite ever since and I’ve never really experimented with the recipe until now. I’m finding that black peppercorns aren’t settling well with me at the moment so I’ve been making kichee with just the green chillies and cumin. But last week I picked a very large bunch of wild garlic. There is a place I fell upon by chance which seems to have remained hidden from other foragers and I got a little carried away with my picking. It works very well chopped into dhal but as I had an inkling for kichee yesterday I thought I’d try it out with that too. It worked a treat! There is a very nice, subtle wild garlic flavour but it’s the colour that most impressed me. The dough was a vibrant green which wasn’t impacted by the steaming process.
The recipe is incredibly simple so these are a wonderful item in your Biting Biting repertoire.
Wild Garlic Kichee
Notes
This recipe makes about 16

Biting Biting – Wild Garlic Kichee with Red Chilli Flakes and Olive Oil for Dipping
First time that I heard about this. But it actually looks so good and yummy! 🙂
Why thank you!
I’ve not come across these before but you’ve persuaded me to give them a try. 🙂
My husband cannot stand kichee usually but even he admitted defeat with this Flavour!
Sounds Yummy!! I love Khichchu too! Its a winter staple in Vadodara and streets are flooded with push carts selling it. My Mother in Law makes a wonderful version at home, but I love gulping down a plate of this when I am out doing errands!!
I wish we had those push carts here in London 🙁
Ms Roe, please let me know if you run training classes. It would be useful. I think your recipes are great. Dipak.
Don’t think I’ve ever had kichee, is the flavour a bit like mochi? Love the way the wild garlic has coloured the kichee!
It’s a lot like mochi on consistency but not flavour. The flavour is like poppadums!
The wild garlic has given this such a nice colour. Wild garlic seems all the rage at the moment – I think I need to get on board.
I’ve never heard of kichee but they look like perfect comfort food. Love this green colour and I bet the wild garlic adds an amazing flavour.
I love that green too. I’m so glad the cooking process didn’t steam it out