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.