Six Spice Fried Rice

There are a billion fried rice recipes and techniques out there. Many try to say that their way is the best or the most authentic. I'm going to tell you that my recipe is probably not authentic, nor is it the best. It is quite delicious, however, and can be made pretty damn healthy. Also this dish is CRAZY CHEAP, esp if made with frozen veggies.

The key to my recipe is in the marinade. This marinade came out of trying to make tofu taste good (I'm almost there!). It is quite simple and gives the rice a very complex flavor. Thus far I've just thrown a few spices into a bag with some spices, so it is mostly improvisation. Tonight is the first time I've actually measured the spices so I can get the ratio right on paper, but I'm sure it could use some tweaking. The ideal amount of marinade is where there is a tiny bit of liquid still at the bottom of the bag. Once the rice is cooking, instead of adding more soy sauce, you throw in whats left in the bag. I like to use about 1/2-3/4 cup of veggies and 1/4 cup of dry Bastmati rice for a single serving. This gives a nice and chunky rice, especially when broccoli is used.

While this still contains loads less salt than any meal from any fast food or chinese place, it is still pretty high in sodium, about 800mg per serving. You could reduce this by either using some oil instead of some or all of the soy sauce (though I cannot imagine fried rice without soy sauce) or maybe low sodium soy sauce.


2 servings

Marinade:
4 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese Five Spice Powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sugar/honey

1 1/2 cups uncooked/thawed vegetables cut into bite sized pieces

3/4 cups (dry) Bastmati rice
4 stalks green onions, cut into inch sections
2 Tbsp oil
dried red peppers to taste (I like 1 meduim sized per serving)
1-2 eggs

A few hours before, mix the marinade in a plastic bag. Add the vegetables, mix, and let sit in the fridge for a couple hours, or as long as convenient.



Cook the rice to al dente with whatever method you like best. You want to make the rice so the individual grains stay seperate. If possible, let the rice cool for a bit before starting to fry it.

Heat the oil in your largest skillet on 60% full. Once hot, throw in the hot peppers and let darken for a couple minutes. Throw in the onions and soften them for a few minutes. Scoop out the vegetables from the bag (keeping all excess juice at the bottom of the bag) and add to the skillet. Fry them for a minute or so to give them a little color.

Add the Rice and stir. I cook this for at least 3-4 minutes before I add the juices that are in the bag. Let the excess moisture steam away, then clear away the center of the skillet. Crack the eggs directly into the skillet. Scramble them with a fork until they are half-way cooked. At this point, mix the rice in together with the egg. The heat in the rice will cook the egg the rest of the way.



When you think the rice is just about done, spread it out on the pan and let sit for at least a minute, 2 if you can spare it. This will give the grains of rice on the bottom a delicious crust. Top with some freshly ground black pepper and mix one last time. Serve.


I marinated these green beans over night and I ended up with crisp beans bursting with sweet and savory goodness.


This was made with some frozen broccoli that I thawed. The marinade made each piece of broccoli quite succulent. This was with ~3/4 cup of broccoli and 1/4 cup basrmati rice (dry).

Valentines Day!

My girlfriend have now been going out for a year. On just our second date (which was Valentine's Day 2008) I casually invited her over to watch Young Frankenstein and make dinner. I made a simple pan-seared salmon served over some wilted spinach. Not too complex, but it passed the test!

This year, being more interested in cooking, I wanted to go all out. I know I don't need to make something super complex to impress her, but I wanted to do it for her and also myself. I ended up making a three course meal.

For the first course I made classic potato and pea samosas with mint chutney. Since I don't have a mixer and don't have a lot of room in my kitchen, I opted to use puff pastry dough instead of an authentic dough. I took the recipe from an Indian cookbook my girlfriend gave me for Christmas. The end result was very tasty, even with the jarred chutney. The recipe I used yielded a ton of extra filling, which I ate with my lunch today.



The main course was Chicken Cordon Bleu, green beans, and Mornay sauce. I used Gruyere for the filling and a 50/50 mix of Gruyere and Parmesan for the sauce. I decided to bake this (same with the samosas) because I didn't want to have a ton of oil to clean up in the morning and also didn't want the whole apartment to smell like a McDonald's. Plus I am not confident in my pan-frying ability. The end result was quite delicious, even though it was a little tough. I wish I had put the chicken under the broiler for a few minutes, however, as it didn't look as nice as I wanted.



For dessert, I made her her favorite dessert, Bananas Foster. I followed a very simple recipe by Paula Dean, even though I wanted to use Alton Brown's recipe. I also had to comprimise with light brown sugar and light rum (I'd rather go all out on the cheese in the cordon bleu than the rum). I served it over Haagen-Daas vanilla bean ice cream and it really reduced us to a mass on the couch with only enough energy to turn on some Arrested Development and digest.

Indian Spiced Risotto

I love Indian food. It is probably my favorite cuisine. Now that my spice drawer is fully stocked, I can start cooking it. I've never had chicken biryani before and wanted to make something healthy, so I set off trying out Mark Bittman's recipe.

I now realize the importance of having all your ingredients ready when cooking. One of the worst feelings in the world is when you start cooking a complex recipe and you realize you don't have an integral part of it. I learned this first hand last night, when I had all the spices mixed in with the softened onions and discovered that I only had 1/4 cup of basmati rice left. I said a swear, since I thought I just wasted my last onion, a cinnamon stick and a bunch of spices. The only rice I had was aborio, which I didn't think would be good with the chicken. Since I had some stock simmering, I was poised and ready to try making risotto. I had low expectations so I poured myself another glass of wine and set off.

The end result was exquisite. The spices were super complex and in the perfect quantities. There were clear notes of cardamom, cumin, cinnamon, ginger and a hint of cloves in each bite. I had never heard of an Indian risotto and I'm sure I'm not the first to make it, but I am posting it anyway.

Indian Spiced Risotto
1 1/2 Cups Arborio Rice
6 Tb of butter
1 large onion (Diced)
2 Tb freshly minced ginger
4+ cups of simmering vegetable/chicken stock + 1/2 cup white wine mixed in
6 cloves
4 black cardamom pods
7 white/green cardamom pods
1 4" cinamon stick
1 tsp freshly ground cumin
1 tsp freshly ground Tellicherry peppercorns (or to taste)
pinch of turmeric (for color)
salt, to taste (I only added a little salt when softening the onions, the stock/broth had plenty)

Start to simmer the stock and wine mixture. If you're using bouillon or store-bought stock, I recommend throwing in some parsley, an onion quarter, and a carrot or two to brighten it up.

Melt 2 Tb of the butter in a large skillet (I used a 12" saute pan) on medium heat. Cook the onions until translucent and are tender and slightly sweet. Add the ginger, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, and cloves and cook for another minute. Throw in the rice and stir it around for a minute or so to coat. Add the remaining spices.

Turn the heat to medium high. Add the stock 1 ladle at a time, waiting for the liquid to evaporate before adding the next ladle. Do this for 20-30 minutes, tasting after about 15. You want to cook the risotto just until al dente. You may not use all the stock, and you may need more, depending on your stove. Once the rice kernels are tender, remove from the heat and add the remaining butter. Remove the cloves and cinnamon stick. The cardamom pods are edible, but you can remove them if you wish. Garnish with chopped cilantro and some freshly ground/shaved cinnamon.

Mushroom Risotto

Last night we made Mushroom Risotto with a half cup of reconstituted Porcini and a half cup of reconstituted Shiitake. The color came from a ladle of the reconstitution water.



With the dish we drank Dogfish Head Raison d'Extra. This beer had syrupy mouth feel with the taste of prunes and a dull, drawn out alcohol burn in the back. It was a perfect complement to the earthy, savory risotto. The dish was brought out of the deep woods with a bright, fresh parsley garnish.

Corn Bread 1

One day, I realized that I had almost no baking experience. I opened my copy of "How to Cook Everything" and looked for something I could break. I stumble across corn bread and my mouth begins to water, and my stomach begins to growl. Since I had all the ingredients I set off!

Unfortunately, this corn bread was no good. It was pretty flavorless. Since I remember my dad making awesome corn bread once or twice, I knew I could do better. Instead of taking the easy route and just asking my dad how he makes his, I decided to embark on a quest to make the perfect corn bread.

One of my favorite food blogs that I follow is Casual Kitchen. I love their simple recipes and tips on cooking frugally. CK's corn bread recipe was the second one I tried and I was very impressed. It is a sweeter corn bread, which may have some southern folks turning over in their graves, but it is a good starting point. Tonight I decided to improve slightly on recipe by using bacon fat. Also note that I used regular Quaker corn meal instead of the good stuff. I need to find the good stuff before I can use it.

Corn Bread, from Casual Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups white flour
3/4 cup corn meal
4 Tablespoons sugar
5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg
1 cup milk
4 Tablespoons melted bacon fat

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375F.
2) Sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl.
3) Beat the egg with the milk and add to the dry ingredients. Quickly add the bacon fat and stir with a rubber scraper until ingredients are combined well.
4) Spread the batter into a buttered 9-inch pie dish.
5) Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes, or until it is lightly browned around the edges, or until a fork stuck into the center of the pan comes out clean. Serve hot.

Serves 4-6.



This iteration was even better than my last one. There was a slight taste of bacon in it and was excellent drizzled with clove honey.

The next time I make corn bread I am going to do a more southern style corn bread. Mostly corn meal and no sugar. I will also calibrate my oven before then, as I think it's slightly too hot. After 28 minutes, the top was golden brown and delicious but the bottom was a little too crispy.

By the way, this corn bread is AMAZING with split pea soup...

Garam Masala "Red" Lentil Soup

So for my first post I am going to do something that I hope to do a lot through-out the hopefully long life of this blog: try something new. I have never made lentils and am new to soups, so why not try my hand at both?

First of all, let me tell you about the place I buy spices. A couple years ago, a place called The Spice House opened in my hometown. My dad told me it was good and he was quite right. It is a decent sized shop that is lined with large jars of spices. This store may be one reason that I got into cooking. Many recipes that I wanted to make required spices that I did not have. Buying them from the grocery store was far too expensive. Fennel seeds at the store were $4.99 for a tiny plastic shaker. At the spice house they were less than $1 for an ounce. I now have an entire drawer (I'd rather spend my money on ingredients than a spice rack) devoted to spice house spices. I now laugh in the face of those recipes that call for cumin seeds!

The website is rather handy. It makes finding spices easy, and often the spice page contains recipes that use this spice. I found this recipe from the entry on Garam Masala. While did buy the Garam Masala spice mix, I decided not to use it. I have all the constituent parts so might as well grind the spices myself. After all, with this recipe the spices are the star player.



Here is the recipe, which include some changes I made from the original recpie here.

Garam Masala "Red" Lentil Soup

• 2-1/2 cups dried chana dal (I decided to use the lentils I had on hand)
  
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (medium)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne chile pepper
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 6 cups water
• 2 cups chicken stock

Whole Spice Mixture (Grind these before adding)

• 1-1/2 teaspoons whole coriander seed
• 1 teaspoon Tellicherry peppercorns
  
• 3/4 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1-1/2 inches cinnamon stick (or 3/4 tsp of good quality ground Cassia cinnamon)
  
• 1 large black cardamom pod
  
• 4 cloves
  

In a bowl soak lentils in water to cover by 2 inches 1 hour and drain in a fine sieve. Be sure to check for pebbles or other debris.

In a 4-quart heavy saucepan cook onions in oil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Stir in salt and spices and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Stir in lentils, water and stock and simmer until lentils fall apart, about an hour. (Old lentils may take longer to cook.) Let soup cool slightly.

Transfer soup to a blender in batches and puree (use caution when blending hot liquids), transferring to a bowl. In a pan heat soup over moderate heat, stirring, until hot and season with salt if necessary.

Clearly, this soup is not red. This is because I had bought chana dal a few days prior, and did not see the need to buy a different kind of lentils. The only change I had to make because of this was that I had to simmer the soup for much longer. I still think it maybe could have used another 20 minutes or so, as I kept coming across some gritty bits of what was supposed to be a creamy soup. I added a dollop of Greek-style yogurt, which while interesting, it distracted from the spices. I also used chicken stock instead of broth, since I had made homemade stock a few days prior.

The spice combination was quite good. The complexity of these spices only became even more apparent the next day. Overall, the soup was a success, and should push me into trying new soups and lentil dishes.

Abstract

Abstract:

• I will delve into Indian cuisine
• I will learn how to bake
• I will cook others' recipes and comment on them
• I will update this blog regularly (I hope)
• I will find the perfect cornbread
• Most importantly, I will expand my culinary knowledge and become a better cook