Vegetable Fried Rice - Chinese Style

What is different about fried rice as compared to regular pulav. My little girl calls it while biryani rice. She is partly correct. The idea is that it is a little mildly flavoured compared to our pulav, unless ofcourse you are talking about Schezwan fried rice.

So here is a quick easy way to make Veg fried rice. I some times add egg scramble and convert it into egg fried rice.

Recipe
Ingredients Rice - 1 cup, cleaned and soaked

Following Vegetables - totaling to 1cup
Carrots - finely diced
green peas
Bean - thin slices
Finely sliced onions.

Spring onions for garnishing
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper to taste. 

Method Cook the rice with a little salt and oil and allow it to cool down. It is better to cook it in the pan instead of using the cooker. The rice grains will separate easily when cool. Separate the rice grains and keep aside.

Fry some oil in a large bottomed heavy pan. Add the vegetables, a little salt and pepper and stir fry until cooked. If you want to cook the vegetables in water you could do that and reduce the oil added. 

When the veggies are cooked, add the rice and mix well, tossing around every few seconds. Sprinkle some pepper to taste. 

If you wish to make egg fried rice, use the same procedure and add scrambled eggs to the rice while mixing with vegetables. 

Garnish with spring onions.

Serve hot with soy sauce, tomato sauce and Vinegar dressing.

Verdict Simple, quick and easy fried rice. You can make some chinese style vegetable gravy to go with this too. Watch out for the next recipe.

Coconut-milk rice (Thengai-paal saadam)

A typical childhood tantrum... "Amma whats for lunch today?" Whatever the answer is, "Amma, make something else. I am bored of eating this all the time". Mind you, no matter what the dish is, the reply would be the same. There are very few exceptions. I was no different when I was growing up. Mom was tired of my fussy eating habits, but she never gave up. Eventually when the child is hungry, he/she does eat whatever is available. I am experiencing the same with my little girl. 

This was a very time-consuming lunch dish that mom used to make when we have guests over or on special occasions. I did not appreciate the effort and would think why does mom no change her menu at all, until I stated making it myself. It is an elaborate process of extracting coconut milk, frying the onions, spices and vegetables and then mixing them with the rice and cooking the rice. 

Ingredients:  

Rice - 1 1/2 cups 

Coconut - 1, freshly shredded 

Onions - 1, chopped 

Green peas - 1/2 cup 

Diced Beans and Carrots - 1/2 cup 

Cloves - 4-5 

Cinnamon - 1/4 stick, crushed 

Cardamom - 2, crushed 

Ginger - 1 tsp 

Green chillies - 2, slit 

Salt - to taste 

Water - See Note 1.

Oil - for frying 

Coriander - for garnishing

Method: 

Wash the rice and keep it aside. 
Shred the coconut and with very little water, blend the shredded coconut in a blender until smooth. Strain the coconut blend and extract the water. This is the first coconut milk extract. You can use the dregs a couple of more times with a little water to extract the coconut milk a second and third time. The coconut milk extract the second time is less concentrated than the first and the third extract is even less concentrated than the second. You can mix the three extracts and keep aside; measure the coconut milk quantity.  

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. When they start to splutter, add the onions and fry until they turn pink. Add the vegetables, ginger, green chilies and fry until the raw smell is gone. Keep the vegetables aside.

Drain the water from the rice, add a little oil and fry for a few minutes. Add the coconut milk and when it comes to a boil, add the vegetables and stir well. Add salt. If the quantity of coconut milk is not sufficient for the rice, add some water to make up for it. 

Cook the rice, garnish with coriander leaves and ghee. Serve hot with raitha or any other vegetable side dish. 

Note 1: 

One coconut usually yields, 1.5 - 2 cups of coconut milk.

Usual water proportion for rice is as follows: 

Pressure cooker: rice : water = 1 : 2. 

Sometimes older rice takes more water, then you need to add 1/2 cup more water for every cup of rice.

Open pan: rice : water = 1: 3. 

Verdict: Extracting the coconut milk is the time consuming part. I have not tried using the packaged coconut milk extract. I should try it sometime. Otherwise the blend of coconut milk and the spices is heady and extremely addictive. 

Cabbage Rice

Not many folks are fond of cabbage at home. They feel it has a pungent odour, pungent taste and does not have much value. But I beg to differ. Cabbage is a wonderful vegetable. It is a rich source of Vitamins C and B2 (riboflavin). It can be used in diet programs for a low calorie diet. And it can be made very tasty!

Ingredients:
Cabbage, small - 1 (typically 2 cups of shredded cabbage)
Rice - 1 cup (150 ml rice measuring cup)
Onions, medium - 1
Green chillies, slit - 2-3
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves - 1 bunch
Cashews - 6-7
Ginger - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Bengal gram - 1 tsp
Urid dal - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves, chopped coarsely - 6-8
Oil - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp - for garnishing
Coriander leaves - for garnishing 

Method:
Clean and shred the cabbage and keep aside.
Cut the onions and slice the green chillies. Keep aside.
Clean the coriander bunch.
Soak the cashews in hot water for 10 minutes.
Grind the coriander leaves, cashwe, ginger and salt into a thick paste using very little water.
Cook the rice separately and allow it to cool down. Add a tsp of oil to rice, to keep the rice grains separate, and avoid clumping as the rice cools down.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel. Add mustard, urad dal and bengal gram.
When the dal turns golden brown and the mustard starts to splutter, add the onions, chillies and garam masala. Fry for a few minutes.
Add the shredded cabbage and fry until the cabbage feels soft and cooked.
At this stage add the ground coriander paste.
Keep frying until a nice aroma comes.
Finally add the cooked rice and gently mix until the cabbage mix and the rice are well combined. 

Verdict: For those who do not like cabbage, this rice is a pleasant surprise. It is very tasty with none of the pungent taste or odour of the cabbage. My mom avoids cooking cabbage until the last possible day, when there are either no other vegetables left or when the cabbage will go bad if left in the refrigerator. But to prepare this rice, she is more than willing to pick up the cabbage from the fridge :)

Cauliflower Biryani

The first few days of marriage are quite tough for both the lady and the man. For the man, he needs to be politically correct when he gives her, his much sought out opinion on her clothes, food she has so lovingly prepared, etc. For the lady, the nervousness, cooking something for him and hoping it will be to his taste, and reading the man's reactions or lack of it, small gestures and non-verbal signs for his likes and dislikes, can be overwhelming.

It was with such apprehension, that I made this Cauliflower biryani during the first few months of marriage. I had looked up this recipe on Mallika Badrinath's "100 Vegetarian Rice Varieties". And I was so nervous about whether he would like it or not. He is not a major rice-eater, but he does not mind rice for lunch; that is his loving gesture to me. So I was very pleased when I noticed that he loved this preparation and had cleaned up the plate. Always a sign that the menu was upto the mark. It took me a couple of tries to get it perfect, but now this has become a much loved lunch dish at home. It is a breeze to make. 

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1 small or medium

Basmati rice - 1 cup (150 ml rice measuring cup)

Onions (medium) - 2, cut lengthwise in thin slices.

Green chillies - 2, slit  lengthwise

Turmeric powder - 1 pinch 

Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp

Amti masala - 1/2 tsp 

Salt - to taste

Yoghurt - 1/4 cup

Water - 2 cups

Oil - 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves - 1tbsp - chopped for garnishing

Ghee - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Wash and clean the cauliflower. Heat water in a sauce pan to a little hotter than lukewarm, and add a pinch of salt. Cut the cauliflower into small flowerettes. Rinse the flowerettes in cold water and remove and then drop them into the warm water. Let the flowerettes stay in the warm water for 5-10 minutes. Rinse thoroughly, drain the water and keep the flowerettes aside.

2. Soak the Basmati rice in two cups of water for 15 minutes.

3. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed large cooking pan. 

4. Fry the onions and the green chillies for about 30 seconds.

5. Add the Cauliflower flowerettes and fry for a few minutes. 

6. Add the asafoetida, and a pinch of turmeric powder. and continue frying until the cauliflower is almost tender (5-8 minutes)

7. Drain the water and keep it aside. Add the rice grains, and fry until the raw smell is gone.

8. Boil the 2 cups of water that we drained in step 7, and add to the rice, cauliflower mixture.

9. When the water comes a boil again, add the curd.

10. Mix well, and add salt.

11. Add the chilli powder and amti masala and mix well. Please refer to this post for "Amti Masala".

12. Cover the vessel with a heavy lid, lower the flame to sim and allow the mixture to cook well for 5 minutes.

13. Keep watching, and ensure that the biryani is dry, but the bottom layer does not start crusting

14. Add the ghee, mix well and garnish with coriander leaves.

15. Serve hot with raita and papad.

Bisi Bele Bhaath

I was introduced to Bisi Bele Bhaath at a family friend's wedding when I was very young. I was not familiar with Kannada then and I did not understand what the word meant, but I loved the taste of it very much. This Rice item, Poli (Holige) and Padhir Peni are a must have in some weddings. When I moved to Bangalore, I realized that this is a specialty dish here and found out that it means "Hot Dal Rice" or "Soodana paruppu saadam". I wonder why they did not include the word for vegetables in this name... Anyways, that is exactly what this dish is: wholesome healthy and heavy on your palette, extremely delicious and at the same time very easy to prepare. Now that is not a very easy combination is it?

Heres how you can make it very easily:

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Toor Dal - 3/4 cup

Potatoes - 1, diced

Beans, cut - 1/2 cup

Carrots/Beetroot, diced - 1/2 cup

Grean peas/Lima Beans/Toor beans - 1/2 cup

Capsicum, sliced - 1/2 cup (optional)

Tamarind paste - 1/2 tbsp or Tamarind Juice - 1/4 cup

Salt - to taste

Bisi Bele Bhaath powder -  3 tbsp (I use MTR)

For the tempering:

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - 10

Oil - 1 tbsp

Ghee - 1 tbsp  + some for garnishing

Cashews - 10

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:

If your vegetables are very fresh, the kind that gets cooked very easily in a kadai, without the need for pressure cooker, then you need to cook the vegetables separately. Cook the vegetables in tamarind juice or tamarind paste diluted with 1/4 cup water. 

Soak the rice and dal for 20 minutes and then cook it in the pressure cooker with excess water. If your usual rice to water ratio is 1:2, then make adjust the rice+dal to water ratio to 1 : 3. For the above recipe, you would need 5 1/4 cups to 5 1/2 cups of water.

If your veggies need pressure cooking and you are sure they will not get mashed, then you can add the veggies to the rice and dal and boil them together. In that case, add the tamarind juice at a later stage.

In a heavy bottomed vessel, add the oil and the mustard and curry leaves and allow the mustard leaves to splutter. Add the boiled rice and dal, and the vegetable mixture and mix until combined. In a small bowl add salt to water as required and mix it up.  Add the Bisi Bele Bhaath powder to the salt water. Pour this mix into the rice, dal and veggie mix in the kadai and mix until well combined. I you had not cooked the veggies with tamarind juice, add the tamarind juice at this stage and allow it to simmer well for 5 minutes or more mixing continuously. Add more water if required to make it a little pasty/slightly runny. You need to ensure the taste of raw tamarind does not show up. Garnish with Ghee and coriander leaves. In a small tadka kadai, fry the Cashews in ghee and garnish just before turning off the flame. Serve hot, topped with Bhoondi, mixture or chips. I usually serve with Raita and Papad.

Verdict: This is one of my options for a one bowl rice on weekends when I want to spend as little time in the kitchen and yet have something delicious to serve at the table. Chop the vegetables and you are practically done. The above quantity serves 4-5 people easily.

Spinach Rice

The first year of marriage was a bittersweet one ;). I was very nervous trying out newer dishes and used to look for hints and signs from hubby dear to figure out his feedback. He hardly says anything, whether he likes the dish or not; he would not even mention that salt is too less/more until I tasted and figured it out myself. So I used to be careful and apprehensive about my cooking all the more. Often, I used to be stuck for mixed rice choices then. I was so strongly against making rotis for lunch, so it has to be rice, and rice-dal-rasam-vegetable is too boring. So when I traveled to Chennai once that year and was killing time before my flight back to Bangalore, I dropped into Landmark and was browsing through the culinary section. I came home with 3 lovely books from Mallika Badrinath - a 100 recipes each for tiffin, vegetable gravy and rice dishes. The best thing I love about her recipes is the precision. She never writes "Fry for a few minutes", the way I write ;). She would word it like, "fry for a few minutes until the raw smell goes and there is a nice aroma" or "fry for a few minutes until the gravy starts sticking to the bottom of the pan". And she gives a glossary of food names, in various languages.

I love spinach dishes... Keerai-paruppu is one of my favourites with hot steaming rice... So this recipe from a Mallika Badrinath cookbook, immediately captured my fascination. This is a regular dish at home.

The original recipe in her book states the following:

Ingredients:

Palak (spinach) - 1 bunch

Rice - 1 cup

Green peas - 1 cup

Small Onions - 1 cup

Tomato - 1 medium sized

Green chillies - 2 large

Garam masala - 1/4 tsp

Cashews - 6-7

Salt -  to taste

Oil - 1 tbsp

Oil for rice - 1 tsp

Method:

Wash the rice and green peas. Cook the rice and peas, in an open vessel with a tsp of oil. The oil will help keep the rice grains separate. Let it cool down and keep aside.

Wash and chop the spinach coarsely. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed vessel and add the small onions and fry for a few minutes;

Remove 6-8 onions and keep it separate for garninshing. Add tomatoes, garam masala, green chillies and cashews to the remaining onions and fry.

Add the chopped spinach and fry for a few minutes, until the raw smell goes. Allow this to cool down. Grind this mix with required salt and very little water.

Mix the cooked rice with this paste, keep on low flame for 5 minutes; Garnish with small onions, and fried cashews. Add a spoon of ghee. Serve hot with Raita.

After the first few attempts, I made some modifications to this recipe.

If small onions are not available, I use the regular onions. I make the spinach paste and keep it aside. It stays good in the refrigerator for even a week. I cook green peas (microwave for 5 minutes). I add hot rice and mix it at the table. So this is like a keerai thokku.

Avarekaalu (Mochcha kottai) Vegetable Rice

The mochchai kottai or avarekaalu as known in Bangalore, just floods the markets twice a year, in the months of December-Jan and once again from June-July. We make various dishes with this tasty bean. Hubby dear just dreads that season ;), he expects to find avarekaalu every day for two weeks at a stretch... So I limit the use of it in our dishes... But nevertheless, we make the most of it when it is available, don't we not? I decided not to bore hubby dear with more and more gravy dishes made out of mochchai kottai. So instead I decided to use it in the regular vegetable rice recipe. I pretty much followed the same ingredients and method as in this recipe, just substituting green peas with mochchai kottai.

 Verdict: If you like mochchai kottai then this vegetable rice is simply irresistible :). This is a must cook dish now in the mochchai season ;). The good news is even hubby dear who is not really fond of this bean, did not mind it one bit.

Simple Vegetable Pulav

Carrots, beans, green peas and potatoes are a boon when you want to make a healthy vegetable main course really quick. I plan a pulav or bisi-bele baath once over the weekend for lunch. It takes only half-an-hour preparation and a lot fewer dishes to wash, compared to a traditional sambhar, rasam and poriyal lunch.

Here is the recipe:

Large onion, sliced - 1

Carrots, Beans, Potatoes, chopped - 1 1/2 cup

Green peas - 1/2 cup

Ginger - 1 tbsp

Garlic - 1 tbsp

Green chillies (slit lengthwise) - 2

Chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp

Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp

Jeera or Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 tbsp

Coriander and mint leaves for garnishing.

Rice - 1.5 cups (standard measuring cup for rice, not the 240 ml US measuring cup)

Wash the rice well and add 3 cups (rice measuring cup) of water. Don't count the vegetables and add extra water, else you end up with over cooked rice. 

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed vessel. Add the onions and all the vegetables, fry for a few minutes until the raw smell is gone. Add the ginger, garlic paste and all the masala powder and continue frying for a few minutes. Add the soaked rice and the water mix well, taste the water and ensure the flavours are as per your choice (salt, chilli etc). Adjust the spices if you desire and close the cooker. Allow two-three whistles (the normal time to cook plain white rice) and turn it off. 

Garnish with mint and coriander leaves and serve hot with raita.

The spices and flavours are mild in this preparation and hence very much suitable for children. Except for the time taken for chopping vegetables, the recipe hardly requires any preparation time and is perfect for a quick main course meal.