From My Rasoi #6: For the Love of Rice (Part I)
July 2, 2006 | Filed Under From My Rasoi, Rice, Food Blogging Events | Leave a Comment
I chose RICE for June’s food theme. It’s global and versatile. Almost everyone eats rice — vegans, vegetarians, meat eaters, and even those who are gluten intolerant. One can also use rice flour as well as the grains.
Part of Meena’s rules for the event dictate that one can submit recipes that are Indian or non Indian in flavor. Our fellow food bloggers have presented an interesting array of ‘rice’ dishes.
Here is the lineup:
Risotto Tricolore from Cream Puffs in Venice
In support of Italy in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Ivonne waves
the “proverbial Italian flag in the form of the rice dish” Risotto Tricolore.
Inarizushi from Kafka na Praia
Karen prepares rice mixed with vegetables, Japanese style.
Paneer Biryani from Hooked on Heat
Meena prepares an enticing-looking Indian recipe for
Biryani (a one pot rice meal) with Paneer (cottage cheese).
Vangi Bhath (Eggplant rice) from Vineela’s Cooking
Vineela shares a delicious-looking Indian eggplant-rice recipe.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Rice from Rice and Noodles
Mae presents another delectable-looking one pot rice dish,
topped with tiger prawns.
Jeera Rice with Peas from Myriad Tastes
Lera cooks up an “aromatic and appetizing Indian rice dish.”
Fish Biriyani from My Workshop
RP makes a tasty-sounding rice dish with King fish.
Thai Basil Fried Rice from Is it EDible?
Ed turns left over steamed rice and Thai basil into a filling first-class meal.
Vegetable Biriyani from Samayal
Sudhav shares a lovely-sounding vegetable rice dish
she learned from her mother-in-law.
Soya Chunks-Vegetable Pulao from
Sailu’s Indian Food Andhra Recipes
Sailu makes a healthy rice recipe using soya chunks,
mixed vegetables and fried bread cubes.
It’s a meal that her husband and son ask for seconds!
Sakharbhaat from Happy Burp
Vaishali prepares this mildly spiced sweet rice dessert,
which is her father’s favorite birthday treat.
Mango Rice from Cascading Flavours
Ramya creates this mouthwatering-sounding mango rice recipe,
which is served with roasted peanuts.
BisibeleBath from Indian Potpourri
Indianadoc presents this “hot and spicy medley of
vegetables, dal and rice.”
Easy Biriyani from En Ulagam
For potluck occasions, Revathi always falls back on this rice recipe, in which a bunch of mint is used.
Time to start a new post. Please go to the next post below for a continuation of the FMR #6 contributions. Thanks!
Paz
From My Rasoi #6: For the Love of Rice (Part II)
July 2, 2006 | Filed Under From My Rasoi, Rice, Food Blogging Events | Leave a Comment
A continuation of the FMR contributions:
Moongdal - Rice Baath from Ruchi
Madhu shows us how she makes this flavorful-sounding rice dish.
Wild Rice Salad from A Veggie Venture
Alanna shares with us a family favorite salad consisting of enticing flavors
Saffron Rice from Kitchen Wonders
Sumitha shows us how she uses saffron to make a lovely-looking rice dish.
Rice Pudding with Raisins from
Cook (Almost) Anything at Least Once
Haalo makes a luscious-looking Moroccan rice pudding that packs a lot of flavor.
Palaya Saadam (Old Rice) from En Ulagam
In addition to the Easy Biriyani dish featured above, Revathi makes a second savory dish — soaked rice mixed with curds, pearl onions and curd chillies
Channa Pulao from Sugar and Spice
Priya makes a tasty and filling-looking rice dish
with ingredients that include Basmati rice and chickpeas.
Pasipparuppu Sadam from Nila’s World
Nila shows us how she makes this quick, high protein meal of lentil rice.
Puristic or Pragmatic: Risotto from The flying Apple
Angelika loves risotto and shares two delicious-looking rice dishes with us:
1- A steaming risotto made with the first chanterelle mushrooms of the season and
2- a Jerusalem Artichoke risotto with seared scallops.
Curried Rice and Red Lentils from Kalyn’s Kitchen
Kalyn makes a great-sounding Indian-inspired flavored rice dish
from one of her favorite cookbook authors, Mark Bittman.
Please go to Part III (below) for the conclusion of the From My Rasoi #6 entries. Thank you!
Paz
From My Rasoi #6: For the Love of Rice (Part III)
July 2, 2006 | Filed Under From My Rasoi, Rice, Food Blogging Events | Leave a Comment
Khichudi from Ahaar
Mandira shares a traditional Bengali dish that her dad would request on rainy days.
Vegetable Pulao from Akshayapaatram
Priya describes this fried rice recipe as “a Savior dish,” in which you can use as many vegetables as you desire. You also have the option of making it as spicy or mild as you want.
Brown Rice with Chickpeas, Onion,
Mustard Seeds and Roasted Tomatoes
from Lucullian Delights
Ilva prepares this healthy rice meal from simple ingredients listed in the title.
Risotto ai funghie prezzemolo from What’s for lunch honey?
Meeta makes a tantalizing-looking dish of risotto with mushrooms and parsley. She also has a wonderful idea for foodbloggers participating in this event to also share the types of rice that they use their kitchens. I’ll start my list here: Basmati rice, Forbidden rice (Black rice??), Jasmine rice and White rice. You can post your “rice list” in the comments section.
Kedgeree from Tomato
Ed prepares this lovely-sounding dish that his mother
used to make, which he has now refined.
Risotto con Ossibuchi from Saffron and Peppper
Saffron writes this dish of risotto and ossibuchi is not a typical summer dish but is very tasty.
Wajik from Pusiva’s Culinary Studio
Puspha uses gutionous rice, coconut milk and palm sugar to make a mouth-watering dish.
Sutlac from Rustic
Betul shares her recipe for a delicious-looking Turkish Burnt Rice Pudding
Pongal from Mahanandi
Indira makes a luxurious-looking rice dish with
roasted dal, roasted cashews, cumin and peppercorn
Rice and Toor Dal Patties from Flavour Ride
Flavour Ride shares a family favorite recipe.
[No Photo]
Green Rice from Chef Michele’s Adventures
Michele makes her rice casserole for holiday or potluck meals, as side dishes or stand-alone meals. Unfortunately no photo is available for her dish, but we can use our imagination.
On a rice-cooking roll, I made a second rice dish from a Latin based recipe.
Our next FMR guest host for the month of July is Revathi of En Ulagam. Let’s head over there to see what food celebration theme Revathi has picked for us!
Paz
REMINDER: From My Rasoi #6: For the Love of Rice
June 28, 2006 | Filed Under From My Rasoi, Rice, Food Blogging Events | Leave a Comment
Theme: For the Love of Rice
Come on, join us! See here for the rules.
Jollof Rice
June 27, 2006 | Filed Under From My Rasoi, Rice | 3 Comments
Click on photo for larger image
Jollof rice is a common rice dish eaten in West Africa. The main ingredients consist of rice, vegetables, stewed tomatoes, beef or chicken, and seasoning.
Many add their own preferred ingredients to make their dish extra special. Some add chile pepper, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, ginger, cinnamon, curry powder. Others use beef or chicken stock/broth or Maggie cubes, tomato paste. An assortment of vegetables like bell pepper, string beans or green beans, green peas,carrots or cabbage are used. A few add prawns or shrimp (fresh or dried). Cooks can garnish the rice with fresh parsley, cilantro, lettuce, or a hard boiled egg.
I grew up eating a lot of jollof rice. I’d eat it at home, a friend or relative’s home. I eat it for lunch, dinner, or at a party on celebretory occasions. My aunt Toshie used to make the best jollof rice I’ve ever remembered tasting. She was an excellent cook and baker . If you ask anyone in my family about her, they always mention her food, including her jollof rice.
Despite my lifetime-jollof-rice-eating experiences, I’ve never prepared it before. You see, I’m a jollof rice-making newbie. Now that I’m into cooking, I would have loved to learn my aunt’s secret to making the best jollof rice. Unfortunately, she’s no longer around.
I found a number of recipes on the internet and finally chose one from epicurean.com. I adapted the ingredients to the ones commonly used in my household (and other Ghanaian households). For example, the epicurean ingredients called for using cooked smoked ham. However, we’ve never used ham in the jollof rice we eat. Instead, we use corned beef. It’s either some kind of meat or corned beef. No one I know (or no Ghanaian I know) prepares jollof rice with ham. It’s rarely eaten and definitely not made with jollof rice.
In place of cabbage and green beans as the epicurean recipe calls for, I used frozen mixed vegetables. I know a lady who only uses green peas in her jollof rice.
Lastly, this recipe calls for using cinnamon. I’ve never heard of using that in jollof rice. But I used it and it worked. It didn’t take away from the authentic taste of the food. Later, I asked my mother about the use of cinnamon and she gave me a look as if I was crazy and where did I get that idea? I didn’t tell her I’d added the cinnamon.
My jollof rice-making adventure went well. I encountered a slight problem when I used more water than the recipe instructions. This caused my rice to come out softer than I would have liked. However, my rice still tasted very good. Next time, I will use one cup of water instead of two. And I will put the chicken aside while the rice cooks and add it back to rice later.
While I cooked, the rice set off a wonderful aroma in the kitchen that prompted me to do my happy-cooking-kitchen dance (also known as the Snoopy dance.) Yes, the rice turned out well indeed. Not bad for a newbie!
I plan on making more jollof rice from now on and experimenting with the recipe till I get it just right!
This post is my contribution to the 6th From My Rasoi Food Event. The food theme is rice and the deadline falls on June 30. If you’re interested in participating, there’s still time. You can read more about it here.
Paz
Jollof Rice
Ingredients:
2 cup Water I would use 1 cup instead or 1 -1/2C
3 lb chicken — cut into 8 Pieces
2 16oz cans stewed tomatoes
2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black pepper
3/4 cup Cooked smoked ham — cubed I used a can of corned beef, instead
1 cup Uncooked rice
1 large Onion — sliced
3 cup Cabbage — shredded I used frozed mixed vegetables, instead
1/2 lb Fresh green beans — Quartered And stems removed OR 10oz pack frozen beans
1/4 tsp Ground cinnamon (unheard of ingredient in jollof rice but it worked for me)
1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper
Directions:
Pour water into a large pot. Add the chicken, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Cover; bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in the ham, rice, onion, cabbage, green beans, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until the chicken is fork-tender and the rice is cooked, 25-30 minutes.
Yield: 8 servings
Note: I would remove the chicken before adding the rice and cooking it. I think the chicken added more water to the dish and made the rice too soft. I would return the chicken to the rice when it’s almost cooked.
REMINDER: From My Rasoi #6 - For the Love of Rice
June 21, 2006 | Filed Under From My Rasoi, Rice, Food Blogging Events | Leave a Comment
Theme: For the Love of Rice
Venue: The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz
Deadline: June 30, 2006
On the Menu: Any rice recipe you’d love to show off! You can concentrate on Indian or non-Indian flavors. See here for details. This is fun! Come on, join us!
Paz
REMINDER: From My Rasoi #6 - For the Love of Rice
June 10, 2006 | Filed Under From My Rasoi, Rice, Food Blogging Events | Leave a Comment
Theme: For the Love of Rice
Venue: The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz
Deadline: June 30, 2006
On the Menu: Any ‘rice’ recipe you’d love to show off!
* * * * *
Meena of Hooked on Heat has decided to have her fellow food bloggers share the hosting duties of her monthly From My Rasoi (FMR) event. So, this month of June, I have the pleasure of hosting.
‘Rasoi’ means ‘Kitchen’ in Hindi. A place where most of us spend a great deal of time making things that would feed and comfort our loved ones and ourselves. The Indian kitchen never closes down, there is always something cooking up (literally)!
Meena’s rules:
1. You can concentrate on Indian or non-Indian flavors. Food should be enjoyed in any form. So take your pick and cook up anything! Anything you want! No barriers, no conditions, no limits!!!
2. All you have to do, is come up with a recipe to share based on the announced theme. It can be anything and in any form, shape or size, sweet, savory or even drinks! Special points shall be given to those who share a story with their recipe. Is there a childhood memory attached, a family tradition, or just something you associate with, whatever it is, we want to hear about it!
3. E-mail me (pazcooks AT yahoo.com) the link to your post by the last Friday of the month (June 30, 2006), and I will post a write-up of all the entries.Paz
From My Rasoi #6 - For the Love of Rice
June 1, 2006 | Filed Under From My Rasoi, Rice, Food Blogging Events | Leave a Comment
Meena of Hooked on Heat has decided to have her fellow food bloggers share the hosting duties of her monthly From My Rasoi (FMR) event.
‘Rasoi’ means ‘Kitchen’ in Hindi. A place where most of us spend a great deal of time making things that would feed and comfort our loved ones and ourselves. The Indian kitchen never closes down, there is always something cooking up (literally)!
The hosting duties include coming up with a theme for the event. With that in mind, my subject matter for this month’s FMR event is: RICE.
Rice is global and versatile. Almost everyone eats it – vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters; even those suffering from celiac disease (gluten intolerant). One can also use rice flour as well as the grains.
So, let’s see what you come up with for this rice theme.
Paz
Meena’s rules:
1. You can concentrate on Indian or non-Indian flavors. Food should be enjoyed in any form. So take your pick and cook up anything! Anything you want! No barriers, no conditions, no limits!!!
2. All you have to do, is come up with a recipe to share based on the announced theme. It can be anything and in any form, shape or size, sweet, savory or even drinks! Special points shall be given to those who share a story with their recipe. Is there a childhood memory attached, a family tradition, or just something you associate with, whatever it is, we want to hear about it!
3. E-mail me (pazcooks AT yahoo.com) the link to your post by the last Friday of the month (June 30, 2006), and I will post a write-up of all the entries.
My Dhaba’s Tandoori Chicken - From My Rasoi #3 & WHB #21
February 24, 2006 | Filed Under From My Rasoi, Weekend Herb Blogging, Food Blogging Events | Leave a Comment
I recently made My Dhaba’s Tandoori Chicken recipe for my family. They loved it. Another first time recipe preparation for me, it became another winner! Yay!
The recipe is fairly simple, so that a beginner like me can follow it without any problems. The only hard part (not really hard) was to remember to prepare the chicken ahead of time. I had to remember to start early in order to allow the chicken to have time to marinate (a minimum of two hours) before cooking.
The ingredients were easy to find, and as a matter of fact I already had most of them and didn’t need to go searching through different stores for them — something I usually do.
I made a spice mixture out of ginger, garlic, onions, cinnamon, salt, garlic, red chili, cumin, black pepper, coriander, turmeric, nutmeg, and paprika. What an impressive list of spices. There was a party going on in the bowl as I mixed them together!
According to the instructions, I covered the chicken with the spice mixture and yogurt, and sprinkled it with vinegar.
The marinated chicken before it goes into the oven
After it marinated for the minimum amount of time, I put it in the oven.
I garnished the prepared Tandoori Chicken with red onions, tomatoes, lemons, and one of my favorite fresh herbs — cilantro leaves — and served it with rice.
It was a delicious meal, made with love and those who ate it loved it. I didn’t hear one word of complaint.
Thanks, My Dhaba, for the delicious recipe, which you can find here.
I’m submitting this recipe to the From My Rasoi # 3 event. The theme for this month’s event is: “A way to one’s heart is through their tummy!” The participants are asked to make a dish (Indian) that their loved ones would love — Cooking for love!
Also, I’m submitting this same dish for the Weekend Herb Blogging #21 event. It contains tomatoes, and fresh cilantro leaves.
Paz
A plate of My Dhaba’s Tandoori Chicken and rice
You can find the list of scrumptious meals for this event on Hooked on Heat!
*One can blog about herbs, plants, vegetables, or flowers for Weekend Herb Blogging (WHB). To see the list of other interesting WHB posts, go to Kalyn’s Kitchen, Sunday.
