Khichdi >> Kedgeree
The journey of a Rice dish from India to England
Kedgeree (also known as kitchery, kitchri or kichiri,) is a British colonial version of the rice-lentils dish popularly known as Khichdi ( खिचड़ी ) in Hindi.

Now the word khicṛī खिचड़ी is related to Sanskrit kṛsara कृसर ‘a dish of rice and Sesame seeds’.
Well today, a simple Indian Khichdi is a one-pot vegetarian dish cooked with rice (चावल), lentils (दाल) & some vegetables with some condiments like salt, turmeric, cumin seeds etc.

Like most of the dishes which fall into the category of Anglo-Indian cuisine, Khichdi has also been adapted and adjusted to the British palate, thereby evolving into Kedgeree.

This Kedgeree is usually made with the smoked fish gently curried and mixed well with rice and onions and eggs and parsley. In the Victorian era Kedgeree started out as an Indian breakfast dish somewhere around 14th century.

British travelers to India came to know of Kedgeree first as a healthy vegetarian dish but gradually it developed into the hybrid dish of smoked fish and eggs. Since smoked fish in various forms had traditionally been eaten as a breakfast in Britain,...

naturally Kedgeree was served for breakfast on Anglo-Indian tables. Later it was brought back to Britain by British colonials on their return from India.

But even before the arrival of British colonialists, in 1334 AD, the great North-African explorer & Arabic scholar Ibn Battuta (1304–circa 1377 AD) from Morocco visited India and commented about ‘Kishri’...

in his book Tuhfat al-anzar fi gharaaib al-amsar wa ajaaib al-asfar (A gift to those who contemplate the wonders of cities and the marvels of traveling). While describing about the grains and cereals of India, he mentions a rice-lentils dish which Indian used to eat at that time.

Kedgeree’s popularity in United Kingdom reached such heights that the famous British playwright W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) is thought to have said that ‘to eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day and with Kedgeree in it’. Well he meant 'Khichdi'