Mixed Fried Rice with Kung Pao Chicken

Kung Pao chicken is one dish that won our hearts in the first try itself, in a nearby restaurant. 

Me, being myself, wanted to recreate it at home. I just went by the taste, and added the ingredients I felt, were in that dish. And the result was this tasty, home-made kung pao chicken. Loved it..we all!! 

Ingredients - Kung Pao Chicken

To Marinate

Boneless chicken, cut into small pieces - about 300g

Salt - as per taste

Pepper powder - 1 tsp

Soy sauce - 1 tsp

Half egg (optional)

Corn flour - 1 tsp

For Sauting

Big onion - 1 medium, cubed

Garlic - 2 cloves, crushed

Capsicum - 1 small, cubed

Roasted Cashew/Peanuts - handful

Kashmiri chilly powder - 1 tsp or dried red chilly - 2

Spring onions - 2 tbsp, for garnishing

Soy sauce - 1 tbsp

Rice vinegar - 1 tbsp

Chicken broth/ water - 1/2 cup or 1 cup if you need more gravy

Sugar - a pinch

Dried red chilly (Kashmiri) - 2

Method

1. Marinate the chicken pieces with ingredients mentioned and keep them for 10 minutes.

2. Heat oil in a pan and fry them (in med-high heat) till the chicken pieces are cooked. (When you cut the chicken with a wooden spoon/spatula, it should not be reddish inside. Do not cook them for too long as then it will dry and will not be juicy any more). Keep them aside.

3. Make a concoction of broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar, salt & sugar. Keep aside.

4. Heat a pan, add oil. Add dried red chilly. Saute till it turns the oil red. If you are using unroasted cashew/peanuts, add at this stage and saute till they turn crisp.

5. Add cubed onions and saute for not more than 30s (you need them crisp). Add the garlic and bell peppers and saute for another 30s. Add peanuts / cashews (if using roasted ones). Add kashmiri red chilly powder if you need more colour.

6. Add the sauce mixture. Let it boil. Add the cooked chicken. Let the gravy thicken. Adjust salt. 

7. Switch off the stove and sprinkle from spring onions.

Ingredients - Mixed Fried Rice

You can follow the recipe as in Vegetable Fried Rice. In addition to veggies, you can optionally add stir fried chicken, egg, shrimps.

Cooked cooled rice - 4 cups (refer recipe here)

Egg - 2

Chicken, cut into small pieces - 1/2 cup

Shrimp - 1/4 cup

Salt - as needed

Pepper powder - about 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Method

1. Beat egg well along with salt and pepper. Adding a tsp of water to this will help in beating the egg really fluffy.

2. Marinate chicken with salt and pepper and keep for 10 min.

3. Marinate shrimp with salt and pepper and keep for 10 min.

4. Heat a pan, add oil. Add chicken pieces (med-high heat) and fry till cooked (not reddish inside). It wont take more than 4 minutes, keep stirring. Drain oil and keep aside.

5. In same pan, fry shrimps till cooked. Again, this will not take more than 3-4 minutes. Ensure stirring to avoid burning. Remove and keep aside.

6. In remaining oil, add the beaten egg. Wait for 10s and then scramble them lightly. Once cooked, remove.

7. Add all of these into the rice and mix gently.

Vegetable Fried Rice

Fried rice is an easy rice dish, provided you are fast in cutting the veggies. If not, then you'll have a hard time. I make sure we have fried rice atleast once a week, its a good way to make my kids eat veggies. They do ask for second and third helpings. Normally I make mixed fried rice, with the addition of scrambled egg, chicken, shrimp, sausages etc...depending on whatever is in hand. But now due to Lent, we had to settle for the pure veg version.

Ingredients

Rice (any good variety) - 2 cups
Garlic - 2 cloves, crushed
Chopped vegetables  - 2 cups (you can use veggies like beans, carrot, greenpeas, cabbage)
Spring onion - 2 strands, separately chop the white bulb and the green part.
Salt - as needed
Pepper powder - 1 tsp + 1 tsp
Sunflower oil - 1 tbsp
Rice vinegar - 2 tsp
Soy sauce - 1 tsp
Oyster sauce - 1 tsp
Sesame oil - 1 tsp











Method

Tip : The important step is to have cooked, "cooled" rice in hand. Best will be to use cooked and cooled rice from day before. Make sure it's been kept in fridge overnight. If you dont have cooled rice, then cook the rice and then cool it by spreading in a thin towel / large plate and keep it under the fan. Once its cooled, keep it in the fridge for atleast 10 min. You can do the chopping meanwhile.

1. Cook and cool the rice
2. In a wide-mouthed pot, add a tbsp of vegetable oil. Add the crushed garlic. Let it saute for 10s.
3. Add the chopped white bulb (of spring onion) and saute for 10s.
4. Add all the veggies, half of green part of spring onion and saute till they are cooked and soft. Sprinkle salt and pepper.
5. Add the cooled rice and mix thoroughly.Do a taste test and add more salt if needed.
6. Sprinkle rice vinegar, soy sauce and mix gently.
7. Switch off the stove and add the oyster sauce and sesame oil. Mix gently and thoroughly so that the seasoning coats well on the rice. Garnish with the remaining chopped spring onions.

Vegetable Pulav

One of my quick-fix lunch menu, when I am really short of time. It comes together in less than 20 min, and you really do not need many side-dishes. A pickle and raita / curd tastes great. The coconut milk adds a delicate yet rich flavour to the rice.



Ingredients

Basmati rice - 2 cups, soaked in water for half hour and then drained
Chopped vegetables - 2 cups (beans, carrots, green peas, cauliflower etc)
Coconut milk - 2 cups (extracted from half coconut, medium consistency)
Water - 2 cups
Salt - as needed
Big onion - 1 small, thinly sliced
Garlic - 2 cloves, crushed
Ginger - 1 inch piece, crushed
Green chilly - 2 slit or Red Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp



Masala 
Cardamom - 2 nos
Cloves - 3
Cinnamon - 2 pieces
Bayleaf - 1
Star Anise - 1

Ghee - 1 tbsp



Method

1. Heat a deep bottom pan. Add the ghee.
2. When ghee is hot enough, add the masala items. Let them splutter.
3. Add sliced onions, ginger-garlic and chilly (if using)
4. Let them saute for a while, till the raw smell is gone. If using red chilly powder, add at this stage. Add the coriander powder too and saute till raw smell leaves.
5. Now add the chopped veggies. Saute them for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle from salt at this stage.
6. Add the drained rice and mix together with the veggies. Add coconut milk and water. Adjust the salt. Close with a lid and lower the flame to low (lowest possible).
Cook till the rice is done. Once the rice has absorbed all the liquid, slowly fluff with a fork.

Enjoy with a Raita & Chutney and some pickle.

Jeera Rice

Ingredients

Long grain basmati rice - 2 cups
Shajeera  /Caraway seeds  -3 tbsp
Salt - as needed
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Hot water - 4 cups
Thinly sliced big onion - 1/2 cup



Method

1. Soak the basmati rice for atleast 10 minutes,drain and keep aside.
2. In a wide mouthed pan, heat the ghee. Add the onion sliced and fry till they are brown. Drain and keep aside.
3. Add the caraway seeds and let them splutter. Now add the drained rice and stir lightly for about 5 minutes.
4. Add boiling water & enough salt to the rice, stir gently and keep it closed till the rice is cooked well.
Garnish with fried onions and serve!

Tomato Coconut Rice

This is another one-pot rice dish and a quick lunch-box preparation when you are short of time in the morning. It pairs well with raita and pickle.

Ingredients

Rice  - 2.5 cups

Ghee or oil - 1 tbsp

Spices

   Bay leaf - 1

   Cardamom - 1

   Star anise - 1

   Cinnamon - 1" stick

   Clove - 2

Salt - as needed

Grated coconut - 1 cup

Tomato - 3 big, chopped roughly in chunks

Water - as needed, see notes below

Method

1. Soak the rice in plenty of water for atleast 10 min. Drain it.
2. Grind the tomato in big jar of the mixer, and keep it aside. This will be around 2 cups.
3. Grind grated coconut with some water (around 1/2 cup) in the same jar and keep aside. This will be around 2 cups. If you have enough time, you can use coconut milk instead of ground coconut.

Note : Measure the amount of tomato and grated coconut mixture. For 2.5 cups of rice, you'll need around 6 cups of liquid. So for the remaining amount of liquid, add water. In this case, add around 2 cups of water.

4. In a wide-mouthed vessel, add ghee / oil and add the spices. Stir in between, wait for about 30 seconds.
5. Add the drained rice and stir gently in ghee. Let it fry for about 30s.
6. Add the ground tomatoes, coconut and required amount of water. Close tightly with lid and let it cook in the lowest flame.



It will take about 12- 15 minutes for the rice to cook. After around 10 min, open the lid and check if the rice is cooked. If yes, fluff the rice gently with fork, switch off the stove. After this, do not close the lid tightly.

Serve it with some raita and pickle.

Carrot Rice with Challas

I am always in look out for quick one-bowl rice recipes, as my husband prefers home-cooked lunch and he has to leave home sharp at 6:45 in the morning for work...thanks to Dubai traffic. So you can imagine my kitchen on a normal day morning.. the breakfast, milk, tea, coffee need to be ready 6:15 am and lunch box to be ready by 6:45. I also have to pack 2 tiffin boxes for the kiddos..and no junk items allowed in the school. So that's a lot of work in the morning, but atleast satisfied that the family is eating healthy stuff.

The carrot rice is one easy recipe, which I accidentally discovered one day when I had to prepare lunch in 15 min and all I had as curry/sidedish was a carrot thoran. So I just cooked some white rice and mixed with the thoran. From then on, carrot rice has been my trusted partner on very busy mornings. You can have it along with Challas or simply curd and pickle. Its simple, yet delicious and healthy. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

Carrot - 1 big, chopped fine (I just popped it into the food processor, and pulsed twice)
Big onion - 1 medium, finely chopped
Green chilly - 2, finely chopped
Garlic - 1 clove, finely chopped
Ginger - 1 inch piece, finely chopped
(Again, I used food processor for chopping onion, chilly, garlic and ginger..all will be done in a matter of seconds!!)
Curry leaves, parsely - optional

Basmati rice / Jeerakasala rice - 2 cups, soaked in water for 10 minutes and drained
Hot water / water - 4 cups

Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp



Method

1. Heat oil in a deep bottom heavy pan.
2. Crackle the mustard.
3. Add the chopped onion, ginger, garlic, chillies. Saute them till the raw smell goes.
4. Add the chopped carrots. Saute for couple of minutes.
5. At this point, if you want to spice up your dish, you can add chilly powder.
6. Add 4 cups of water, and allow it to boil
7. Add salt.
8. Once water boils, add the drained rice, stir gently and cover and cook on the lowest flame. The rice should be cooked in about 10-15 minutes' time depending on the variety of rice you are using and also on the soaking time.
9. Once cooked, and all the water evaporated, remove the lid and fluff up the rice with a fork. Do not close the lid fully as it will over cook.
Your healthy, delicious carrot rice is ready!!

Challas

If you haven't tastes this salad yet, you are definitely missing out on something!! Trust me..you really are missing out!! It is such a tasty and healthy salad which can never go wrong. Try it for yourself and see.

I think this was authentic salad used Syrian Christians long back, before the salad with curd took over. As per our tradition, we do not use curd along with meat or fish dishes. So in earlier days, for weddings and other functions, this challas was served along with meat cutlets.

Ingredients

Big onion - 1 small, sliced

Green chilly - 1, slit

Thick coconut milk - 1 cup

Vinegar - 1 tbsp

Salt - as per taste

Mashed potato - 2 tbsp (optional)

Grated carrot - 1 tbsp (optional)

Method

Take the sliced onion in a bowl and add salt and vinegar. Mix up these three thoroughly with your hand and squeeze the juice out. So that will leave you just with onions, with all unwanted juices removed. Now add the thick (yes, it should be really thick to get the authentic taste..I used 2 cups of loosely pasked grated coconut to get 1 cup of milk) coconut milk and add salt if more is needed.

Add the slit green chilly.

If you want to make the salad little more thick, you can add the mashed potato.

Also if you want to make it a bit more colourful, add some grated carrots.

There you are!! Enjoy your meal...

Quick Fried Rice

Ok...I have just got 30 minutes before my son comes back home for lunch, and I haven't yet prepared lunch!! Checked the fridge...have got little bit of prawns curry (only 5 pieces and some gravy left), yesterday's beef curry (3 small pieces left - after I sent lunch for hubby), some french beans and just 1 egg left. Have to do something very quick...checked for rice..have 1.5 cups of basmati rice left. Immediately put for soaking. Meanwhile I worked on the veggie, chopped them really fine. After 10 minutes of soaking, immediately boiled the rice. It got ready in another 10 minutes while chopped the prawns and prawns to smaller pieces. Kept the cooked rice under fan so that it gets cooled fast..In another kadai, immediately added some oil, added the chopped veggie, prawns & beef with a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. When they were almost crisp, they were removed to one corner of pan, the egg  was added, immediately sprinkled with salt and pepper. They were fried too. Mixed everything again together. Checked the rice, its cold now..so added them to the kadai. Thorough mix...tasted...it tasted bland...so added the prawns gravy (whatever was left) ..tasted..oops..I forgot to add more salt, pepper and even forgot the soy sauce..added them..mixed up.. tasted ..it could still be better ...checked the fridge...got Nando's Lemon n Herbs sauce (I somehow dont like adding tomato sauce to fried rice as it makes the entire dish red) ...added generously... mixed up..tasted ...WOWWW.... Switched off the stove, closed the pan with the lid for the amazing flavours to set in and ran down to pick up my son...
That was one of the best fried rice I have ever tasted...

I really think we moms becomes creative and the best comes out of us when we are under pressure.. So here goes my "Fried Rice in 30 minutes" recipe.



Ingredients

Basmati rice - 1.5 cups
Water - 3 cups
Salt - as required

Cooked Prawns (I used curried) - 1/2 cup
Cooked meat (beef or chicken) - 1/2 cup
Veggies , chopped - 1/2 cup (carrot, beans etc)
Egg - 1 (you can add upto 2)
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Lemon and Herbs sauce - 3 tbsp (I used Nando's)
Salt & Pepper - as per taste

Method 

Soak rice for atleast 10 min. Then cook the rice with double the amount water, add some salt too. Once cooked, keep it for cooling. Meanwhile, heat a wide mouthed pan (big enough to hold rice), add some oil (ideally, gingelly oil). Once the oil is hot, add the veggies and sprinkle some salt and pepper. Let them get crisp. Keep it aside. Now add prawns and meat. Remove them from oil once crisp. Scramble egg into left-over oil, sprinkle salt and pepper immediately and scramble well. Once egg is cooked, keep it aside. In the remaining oil (add more oil if there is not enough left), add the cooled rice, give it a good stir. Sprinkle salt and pepper. Now add the fried items that were kept aside. Give everything a nice mix. Add the sauces, and thoroughly mix again. Check for salt. Once everything is mixed well and taste is ok, keep the pan closed with its lid for sometime. This allows for all the flavors to set in.

You can either have it just like that or serve with some chinese side dishes.

Curd Rice

This is one dish that I always make in a haste...or rather I make this when I am hard pressed for time in the morning rush and I have no other option but to pack a quick lunch for my husband. Trust me...its easy and tastes great with pickle and pappad.

I am sure that my method of cooking curd rice is NOT the authentic way of making it, as the curd rice we have from Tamilian restaurants here in Dubai tastes quite bland. So I spice it up by adding some chillies, dried chilly & ginger. Also I garnish it with urid dal and sometimes with channa dal which gives something to chew on.

Ingredients

Cooked white rice, cooled - 2 cups
Curd - 2 cups
Salt - as per taste

Seasoning

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urid dal - 1 tbsp
Small onion - 3-4, thinly sliced
Grated ginger - 1 tsp
Green chilly - 2 , sliced
Dried chilly - 2
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Oil - 1 tbsp

Mix the cooked, cooled white rice with well beaten curd and add enough salt. Keep it aside.

Heat a pan, add oil. Once hot, crackle mustard seeds and then add the urid dal. Stir till the dal turns brownish. Now add small onions, grated ginger, green chilly, curry leaves & dried chilly. Let them get sauteed well till the onions turn brown and slightly crisp. Turn off the stove and add the seasoning to the curd rice. Mix well and transfer to the lunch box.

Sambar Rice

Friday...a lazy day in Middle East..As usual we went to the park early in the morning...the kids played as much as they want..then the men headed off to the swimming pool..while the women wandered around the park..my daughter babbling about every bird and squirrel that passed by...And by noon, we are back home, all energized.

Friday is one day that I feel so lazy about ccoking...mainly because its the day hubby is at home and rather than spending time in kitchen its much better if we can chat and watch TV. But somehow I was all in the mood to cook, and there comes the suggestion.. "I feel like having some Sambar rice with curd". I was more than happy...no need to cook too many dishes, just make Sambar & rice and mix up all together..

I am unsure as to whether this is the authentic way of making sambar rice. We love it this way and it tastes heavenly with curd...can be had either for lunch or dinner, also makes a super lunch box item. 

Ingredients

Toor daal - 1 cup

Vegetables (cleaned, washed & cut in desired shape) - 2 cups (its better to avoid lady's finger & drumstick while making sambar rice)

Sambar powder - 3 tbsp (I use Brahmin's)

Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

Tamarind - size of a lemon (soaked in some water for 10 min and extract the juice)

Salt - as per taste

Turmeric powder -  a pinch

Small onions - 3-4

Tomato - 2 (cleaned and diced)

For tempering

Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida powder - 1/2 tsp

Dried chilly - 2

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Sambar powder - 1 tsp

White rice - 2 cups (I used Jeerakasala rice)

[Clean rice under running water and cook the rice till its half cooked. Keep it aside]

Method

Wash and clean toor daal under running water. Pressure the cleaned dal with 3 cups of water, a pinch of turmeric powder and salt. Cook till its done (I normally cook for 1 whistle on high flame, and 4 whistles on low flame). Let the pressure gets released. After that, open the lid and smash the dal.

Meanwhile clean and cut all the veggies. Heat a kadai, add 1 tbsp of oil. Once hot, add the small onion and the veggies. Let is saute for a while. Sprinkle some salt. Now add 2 tbsp sambar powder and saute till a nice aroma comes. Add the tamarind extract and the diced tomatoes. Saute till tomatoes starts to lose its shape. Now add the sauteed veggies to the cooked dal, add some more water if required. Add the half cooked rice also to this and cook till the veggies and rice and cooked well. 

Tempering

Once sambar and rice is cooked well, take another pan and heat 1 tbsp of coconut oil. Once hot, crackle mustard seeds. Add dried chilly, curry leaves and saute for a while. Now sprinkle the sambar powder & asafoetida powder and immediately switch off the stove. Stir in this to the sambar - rice mixture. Keep it closed for sometime for the flavours to set in. 

Serve it hot with some thick curd and pappad!!