Two impromptu rice recipes

I was inspired with these on those typical weekday evenings when I was back from work and not wanting to eat the usual daal chawal but still include rice in the dinner menu. Very helpful when you have small quantities of left-over raw vegetables or even left-over cooked rice.

Basil rice on the lines of Risotto

Ingredients:

Rice 1 cup (serves 2)

1 medium tomato, 1 small onion, 2 cloves of garlic, a handful each of chopped french beans and capsicum. Sweet corn and/or sprouts if you will.

Ghee or olive oil

Seasoning:

1/4 tsp each of dry basil and thyme, 1 tsp red chilly pepper sauce, 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, 1/4 tsp sugar (optional) & salt to taste

Fry the garlic, onion, capsicum and vegetables with ghee/butter/oil. Add soaked rice to the pan and stir fry for 4-5 minutes so the grain is light; this results in the rice not being sticky. Add the seasoning, warm water so the rice cooks faster, and pressure cook.

Voila!

Rice, Indian Chinese style

This one is not spicy at all. I was a little hesitant while making and even while eating this dish.

Ingredients:

Rice 1 cup (serves 2)

1 small onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup chopped capsicum

Cooking oil or butter

Seasoning:

Red chilly sauce and Soy sauce used in Chinese dishes, 2 and 1.5 tsp respectively. Freshly ground pepper - optional. Salt to taste.

Fry the garlic, onion, capsicum in butter/oil and add rice to the pan. Add the seasoning, warm water and pressure cook.

I didn't have Soy sauce when I first made this so I used lime juice instead. The kitchen was out of green grocery provision then. So didn't have any other vegetables to add. Sounds very minimal, but tastes pretty good.

Mango dalia (broken wheat) dessert

Dalia (broken wheat) 1 cup

Mango pulp 3/4 cup

Brown sugar/jaggery 3/4 cup

Milk 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence 2-3 drops

For serving:

Cream (optional) 1 tbsp 

Thinly sliced almonds/pistachios/cashews/walnuts

Cook the wheat in a pressure pan with plenty of water. Blend the mango pulp and milk together in a blender. Heat a pan/wok and add the cooked broken wheat to it. You could optionally add 1/2 tbsp of ghee/butter to this. Add the sugar/jaggery to the wheat and let dissolve on low heat. Take off the heat and add mango pulp to the wheat, adjusting the quantity depending upon how sweet you want the dish to be. Add the vanilla essence.

If you have vanilla sticks, soak one of them in 2 tbsp of hot milk for 10-15 minutes. Remove the stick, wash and dry before storing away for reuse. Add the milk to the mango pulp.

To Serve:

The dish could be poured in bowls, topped off with whipped cream and nuts and served right away. Alternatively it could be cooled in the refrigerator for around 30 minutes before serving. The dish could lose moisture if refrigerated for long, so watch out for that.

The dish would go very well with vanilla ice cream, but being hard on the body as it is, ice cream is not my personal choice.

Alternatives:

Mango pulp could be replaced by crushed pineapple, banana or other pulp from suitable fruit. You don't want to heat the dish once the fruit is mixed in if you care about its nutrient value.

Tawa Kachori

For the stuffing:

Besan            1/2 cup

Onion 1 large

Saunf, amchur powder, garam masala powder           1 tsp each

Garlic paste     1 tsp

Turmeric powder  1 tsp

Sesame seeds 2 tsp, roasted and coarsely ground

Coriander 1 tbsp chopped, optional

Cooking oil for the stuffing and for shallow frying. Salt to season

For the cover:

Wheat flour     2 cups

Besan (gram flour)/semolina 1/4 cup

Asafoetida       1 tsp

Cooking oil     2 tsps

Heat 1/4 tbsp oil in a pan and fry onion and other filling ingredients for 4-5 minutes. Take off the heat and let cool slightly. Add a few tsp of water to the mixture and shape out small balls out of it. Refrigerate until the cover dough is ready.

Knead dough out of the ingredients for the cover. Roll out small lemon sized balls out of the dough and flatten so that they form ovals of 1-inch radius, not more than 0.75 cm thick. Place the filling on the dough and spread out, leaving a margin from all sides. Close and form ball-sized shapes, flattening and rolling evenly between your palms. Shallow fry on a pan using oil as required.

Serve hot with tomato ketchup/green chutney/kokam chutney/date chutney/curd mixed with any one of these chutneys or any other innovative accompaniment you've cooked up! These kachoris are lighter on your system as compared to the traditional deep-fried version.

Tomato chutney, Chennai style.

Tomato chutney, Chennai style

This is something my aunt from Chennai makes every time she visits us in Pune. This chutney is cooked well until water from the tomatoes is evaporated, making it something that can last for 8-10 days when refrigerated.

For the chutney

Tomatoes 5-6 large

Red chillies 4

Black pepper corns 4 or 5

Garlic(optional) 2 cloves

Fenugreek seeds 4 or 5

Salt to taste

For the garnish (tadka)

Cooking oil 1/2 tbsp

Mustard seeds 1.5 tsp

Asafoetida 1 tsp

Deseed tomatoes and chop them roughly into large pieces. Red chillies should either be roasted for 3-4 minutes, or soaked in water for 20-25 minutes so they grind easily. Blend all ingredients in a food processor to form a smooth paste. Heat 2-3 tsp cooking oil in a pan and add the tomato mixture to it. You should have added the salt at some point before this. Cook on a low flame for 25-30 minutes without covering the pan. How long tomatoes need cooking depends upon the moisture content they have and the quantity of the chutney. 

The chutney needs babysitting and has to be stirred from time to time. Once the water evaporates oil begins separating from the tomatoes. Cook for 5 minutes after this point and then take it off the flame.

Heat half tbsp oil and add the mustard seeds first to it, followed by the asafoetida. You could optionally throw in a bit of turmeric powder in the oil. Blend this in with the chutney and allow to cool.

This goes very well with dosas, idlis, appams, parathas, bread etc.

Two variants of raw mango chutney - with red chilly and with coconut

Variant #1

Raw mangoes             2 small-sized ones, peeled, deseeded and grated

Red chillies            3 or less

Black pepper corns      4

Cumin powder            2 tsp

Coriander seed powder   1 tsp

Jaggery about 1 tbsp, cut in small pieces

Salt to taste

Roast the red chillies mildly on a pan for 3-4 minutes and let aside to cool. It is advisable to remove the seeds from red/green chillies since they are known to increase uric acid in the body. Grind all ingredients together in a food processor. Adjust the jaggery, salt and chillies according to your preference.

Variant #2

For the chutney:

Raw mangoes             2 small-sized ones, peeled, deseeded and grated

Red chillies            4 or less

Fresh coconut 1 tbsp, grated

Jaggery or sugar 1 tbsp

Ginger 1/2 inch

Garlic 1 or 2 cloves

Salt to taste

For the tadka:

Fenugreek seeds 4 or 5

Asafoetida 1/2 tsp

Cooking oil 1 tsp

The red chillies could be substituted with red chilly powder in this case. Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until a smooth paste forms. Heat the cooking oil and add the fenugreek seeds first before the oil is very hot to prevent them from turning black. Throw in the asafoetida and blend the oil in the chutney.

Sprout toast

For the stuffing:

Sprouted moong         1 cup

Green chilly           3 pieces

Cumin powder           1 tsp

Besan (gram flour)     1 tbsp

Lemon juice            2 tsp

Cooking oil            1 tbsp

Coriander              finely chopped, 1 tbsp

Brown bread or any healthy bread you can get hold of.

Roughly grind the sprouts and mix all the ingredients in it. Grease a shallow pan with oil/butter/ghee and put it on the heat. Cover one side of a bread slice with the stuffing and heat it face down on the pan. Spread stuffing on the other surface, flip the slice and press until it is brown in color.

Mmm. I'm hungry.

Quick dalia upma with or without a microwave

Dalia (broken wheat)    2 tbsp cooked

Tomato                  1 medium, de-seeded

Spring onion            1 sprig

Moong sprouts           2 tbsp steamed

Green chutney           2 tsp (you could use either mint or coriander chutney)

Grated fresh coconut and finely chopped coriander for garnishing

The dalia needs to be (pressure) cooked before it can be used for this dish. Add dalia, sprouts and tomato juice to a hot pan, cover and let cook for 5 minutes. Take off the heat, add chutney and garnishing, mix well to serve.

If you prefer the microwave, mix all ingredients except for the garnishing and steam in the oven for about 5 minutes.

If you don't feel inclined towards making a chutney for this dish try adding either green chilly sauce/red chilly pepper sauce/hot and sweet tomato sauce/red chilly powder instead.

For the coriander/cilantro chutney:

Cilantro            1/2 bunch, fresh, finely chopped

Black pepper corns  4-5

Lemon juice         2 tsp

Ginger              1 inch

Garlic              1 or 2 cloves 

(Personally I don't prefer garlic but it adds very good flavour to the dish)       

Green chillies      2 

Roasted peanuts     10-12 

(Peanuts are optional. Could alternatively be replaced by fresh coconut)

Salt to taste.

Grind all ingredients together in a food processor until a smooth paste is formed. Add water to adjust consistency if it becomes too thick.

Two quick and easy soups - almond and chilled tomato lemon

Almond soup

Ingredients:

Water           10 cups

Ginger          ½ inch

Indian bay leaf 1 leaf

Onion           1 medium-sized, chopped

Cinnamon        1.25” piece

Cardamom        1 clove

Almonds         10-12, soaked in water for 4-5 hours

You could choose to prepare almond stock to stock in the refrigerator – mix all ingredients with the water and boil until it reduces to about 8 cups in measure. To make soup out of this, add a little bit of powdered roasted almond, rice or corn flour for thickening and season with salt and pepper to the stock.

Chilled tomato lemon soup

Ingredients:

Tomato         1 large

Spring onions  1 small sprig

Lemon juice    from 1 lemon

Curd           ½ a cup

4-5 mint leaves, salt and sugar for seasoning

Finely chop the tomato after de-seeding and the onion. Run all ingredients through a blender with 5-6 ice cubes and strain before serving.