February 18, 2009

Tried my Fried Rice?

Sometimes nothing is more comforting than a one-pot meal. Ask my friends and they'll tell you that all these rice varieties are my specialty. So I thought I'd share this fast fast meal with the sparing few who don't know how to go about it.

Ingredients
1. Cooked rice - Basmati gives the whole dish a special texture and fantastic flavour. But if you don't have it or are not in the mood for it, just cook rice the way you'd normally do unless your 'normally' is soggy.
2. Veggies - use your imagination once more! Here I've used diced onions, brinjals, red capsicum, peas, beans and radish, yes, radish. It lends an unparalleled taste to the whole dish. Give it a try! Of course you could use just about anything else too - carrots, zuchini, asparagus and what not. That's the best part about this dish - the liberty of ingredients. And that's why this meal for me is almost always a last-minute choice.
3. Oil
4. Mustard seeds and jeera seeds, salt, red chilli powder for seasoning, and coriander leaves for the garnishing.

How?
1. As simple as can be! Heat a spoon of oil in a pan and allow crackling of mustard-jeera seeds. (If you want, you can add garlic, green chilli at this step. I wasn't in the garlicky mood today n hence skipped it).
2. Once the seeds sputter, add the veggies in this order - onions first, red capsicum and beans next, radish-brinjals and peas last. Add salt and simmer at medium-high with the lid closed for 5-7 minutes till the veggies become all lack-lustre indicating they've cooked.
3. Add the red chilli powder to taste. You can add turmeric if you want a yellowish hue to your rice.
4. Once the veggies are done, add the rice little by little while making sure to blend it in with the veggies as you go along. And this works best when the rice is separate-separate (udhiri udhiri). Garnish with washed, chopped coriander leaves.

And voilĂ ! It's simple... easy to cook (less than 20 minutes overall once you have your veggies ready - shortcut method: break open a pack of frozen veggies) and absolutely delicious.

Serve with yogurt/potato chips or both. Bon appetit!

13 comments:

Vidhya said...

ummmm..am missing ur egg fried rice.. :) Having been J's roommate I vouch for her expertise with rice dishes..

Jaya said...

Thanks di for the show of support. :P Other try try and try :)

Radhika said...

Oh wow wow wow. It looks DIVINE. Love the photo too! Gosh I have to make a list of all your recipes I need to try. But I think for the ease of preparation this one makes the top of the list. Kudos to you!

Krish said...

Wow Ms J. You impress me everyday. Love the picture too. And as it's a one pot meal and easy, I for one am surely gonna give it a shot n report back.

Jaya said...

Hehe, thank you all. Do give it a shot and report back n needless to say, keep visiting!

Gandalf said...

The wine silk adds a great touch to your picture. Looks lovely. Looks like a cooking avalanche or maybe you've only just become regular at sharing. Either ways it's great. Nice stuff.

Anonymous said...

Yummmmmmyyyyyyyy...

Jaya said...

Gandalf n Nithya - Thanks! And be sure to try it and come back here.

Anonymous said...

:)
parungo !!
evolo peyar queue ae nikkirathu...
restaurant turandhe ahanaum ..

Ramya Venkat said...

looks very colorful n yummy.. will try for sure.. :)

Anonymous said...

wow

chole, uthappam, friedrice...u r husband is lucky...

chole and tamarind..interesting combination should try making it like how you have mentioned...


i m drooling :)

K

Jaya said...

Karmanna -> Viraivil thorandhu ungala invite panren :D

Ramya -> Absolutely give it a shot n report back!

K -> Thanks for visiting. And please try out the chole and lemme know what you think.

Anonymous said...

Looks like you finally decided to "present" your stuff well. Looks great!

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