Roasted Garlic Vegetables and Brown Rice

Ever since I stumbled on the secret of making a sauce out of roasted garlic, I have used this trick many, many times. I usually make a pasta dish but figured one day that it would probably go well with rice as well. The best thing about this dish is that you can use any kind of vegetable and you will still get a delicious tasty dish.





The Lovely Wife had bought some brown rice and I decided to serve this dish with it. The irony of brown rice is that in days of yore, it used to be eaten mainly by those who didn't have enough money or who were sickly. Nowadays, where most of us are more health conscious, we realise that brown rice is actually much healthier than white rice and is in fact more expensive now. Funny how things work out!

This is how I made the vegetables.

Ingredients
1 tsp oregano
200 g mushrooms - sliced
1 stalk celery - chopped
1 stalk leek - chopped
2 zucchini - sliced
200g spinach - blanched and chopped
2 tomatoes - chopped
2 red capsicums - cut into large squares
1 large bulb garlic
Black Pepper
Method
Cut the end of the garlic and then place the garlic bulb in a small dish. Pour about a teaspoon of olive oil over it and roast in a 200C oven for about 20 mins till soft. Squeeze the cloves of garlic out of their skin and process to make a paste.

Fry the oregano till fragrant. Add in the mushrooms and cook till juices are released. Add in the leek, celery and zuchini and cook till just tender. Add in the spinach and tomatoes. Pour in the garlic paste and mix well. Finally toss in the capsicum and cook till slightly tender. Serve with brown rice

The brown rice has a nice nutty flavour and a nice bite to it. It went really well with the vegetables and it was a most satisfying meal. The Lovely Wife rates this as one of her favourite dishes and I like it too. I also have to admit that with this kind of dish, you really don't need meat to enjoy it. Then again, maybe some meat may make it better...

More about Dinner for the girls...

I posted in my previous post about how The Lovely Wife had a few of her old school mates (nothing old about them though so I guess I should reword that) Ex school mates over for dinner. I didn't take pictures of all the food as I've posted about most of them before.

Lynn however, did take pictures and I am sharing her pics here! It also gives me a chance to be lazy and not write too much of a story as sometimes pictures are better than words!

Thanks Lynn for the photos!

The rice tarts - still in their moulds. I should really have taken them out while they were still hot as some of the rice stuck to the bottom and it didn't hold its shape up as well as they did the last time.




The Peppers that I had to bake in a muffin pan so that they stood up properly! I'll post the full recipe and more pics soon.





The Olbigatory Salad - compliments of The Lovely Wife...



The Chicken Pie that was very well received. The Lovely Wife still says this is one of her favourite dishes. Somehow, I find that it seems to taste even better the next day. It certainly cuts better after a night in the fridge!





And Dessert was featured and explained in the last post as well! Come back again anytime girls!

Mediterranean Rice Tartelettes - Royal Foodie Joust

It's Royal Foodie Joust time again!! The Royal Foodie Joust is hosted by HRH Jenn, The LeftOver Queen and if you still haven't heard about it or don't know what it is, all I can say is Get With It - this is probably one of the most awesome cyber cooking competitions!

This time around, the ingredients were chosen by the winner of the May Joust - my friend Nuria over at Spanish Recipes and they are:
Bacon
Rice
Tomatoes

Seems quite simple but the difficulty here really is that there are so many options available! My first thought was to make stuffed tomatoes but that would be too simple. Then I thought about a bacon based Briyani but decided that I had already gone along those lines for a previous joust.

What to make, what to make? Then it hit me as I was driving my car.




I remembered a picture I had seen once when I was browsing cookbooks in a bookstore of a tart made with rice. Then I thought of filling the tart with eggplant, mushrooms (gotta have mushrooms!) and bacon and topped off with tomatoes. The picture in my mind looked really good and even though I wasn't quite sure how I would make the tart, I let the picture in my minds eye lead me on!

This is what I did.

Mediterranean Rice Tartelettes - makes 10 tartelettes
Ingredients
1 cup rice
2 eggs - beaten
Salt
8 rashers back bacon - chopped
1 large eggplant - cut into large pieces
3 tomatoes - sliced
2 tsp basil
200g button mushrooms - halved
2 tsp oregano

Method
Cook the rice and let cool. Add in the beaten eggs and mix well ensuring egg is incorporated. Season with salt. Set aside.
Degorge the eggplant by placing the cut pieces in a colander. Sprinkle with salt and let stand for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, fry bacon till cooked. Set aside
Fry basil and tomatoes together till slightly soft. Set aside
Fry oregano with mushrooms till cooked. Set aside.
Rinse eggplant and then pat dry. Fry till tender. Set aside.

Assembly.
Place rice into tart moulds and bake in a preheated 190C oven for about 15 mins. Place eggplant, then bacon, mushrooms and cover with a slice of tomato. Return to oven and raise temperature to 200C. Bake for another 20 mins. Allow to cool slightly before unmoulding. Garnish with some celery leaves if desired.

The picture I had in my mind had a mushroom half sitting on top of the tomato, but since there was enough mushroom to go into the tarts, I thought it best to keep the mushrooms under wraps!


I was kind of worried as to how to unmould the tartelettes but as they cooled, the tarts pulled in a little and whatever parts remained stuck to the sides were easily removed by sliding a sharp knife in between the mould and the rice. The tarts unmoulded very nicely and kept their shape.

The Lovely Wife had invited her parents over for lunch and so these tartelettes became the appetiser and I had more taste testers that usual. The first tartelette was tasted by The Lovely Wife and she declared it as very good. My son then had a proper tartelette and he enjoyed it immensely. My In-Laws really loved it too and were rather surprised that I had used rice for the tart shell.




I must say that the tartelettes were very delicious too! I think the mix of flavours of tomato, bacon, egpplant and mushrooms complemented each other really well and the rice tart shell gave it a lovely finish. Then again, as Nuria says, anything with Bacon in it is good and I just have to agree with that!



This is definitely something that I will make again although I might vary the fillings. This joust was a lot of fun so thanks once again to Nuria for choosing these great ingredients and of course to Jenn for hosting this great event!

Savoury Glutinous Rice

This recipe was featured in the food section of one of our local newspapers and The Lovely Wife wanted to try it. The recipe is from Amy Beh - one of Malaysia's well known cooks and author of many cookbooks.




The Lovely Wife made two versions of this - one with Chicken and one with Pork. It turned out really well indeed and tasted a little like the Fried Rice in Lotus Leaf that is served at Chinese Restaurants - especially during Weddings. It also tasted very much like Loh Ma Kai! That's why I photographed it just like how Loh Ma Kai is served.




This is the recipe as per Amy Beh.

Ingredients
400g glutinous rice, soaked overnight and drained dry
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp chopped shallots
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp dried prawns, soaked and chopped
150g pork belly, diced
3 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked and shredded

Seasoning
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
Salt to taste
1 tbsp sugar
1½ tbsp thick soy sauce
½ tsp pepper
80-90ml water

Garnishing
Some fried shallot crisps


Method
Wash and drain glutinous rice, then steam for 35-40 minutes.
Heat oil and sesame oil in a wok. Fry shallots, garlic and dried prawns until fragrant. Add pork belly and mushrooms and fry well.
Add the steamed glutinous rice and seasoning to mix. Toss and fry until the rice is dry. Dish out and serve with a sprinkling of shallot crisps.





The Lovely Wife's parents came over when we served this and no one could believe that it was home made. I wouldn't have either if I hadn't had seen her make it herself - it was that good!

This is now a favourite of The Lovely Wife's to make and of course a favourite of ours to all enjoy!

Vegetable Paella

I'm a meat man and to be honest, in all the years that I have been cooking, I have rarely ever bothered to make anything vegetarian. However, all that changed when we became very close friends with a Vegetarian! Although her husband is a meat-eater, like the rest of us, I now take special care to prepare Vegetarian dishes for her. More often than not, when we invite them over for dinner, I make everything vegetarian with just make a small meat dish as a side to assuage the meaty requirements of the rest of us! :)
That was what led me to make this Vegetable Paella.

Paella is actually the name of the vessel used to cook the dish. Apparently, Paella is the Valencian name for Frying Pan and also has roots in Latin, French, Italian as well as Mexican Spanish. A true Paella is made with Saffron. The meat, vegetables or seafood is cooked and then water added to which the rice is added and then cooked. That anyway is how I have read it is supposed to be made.

I cheat of course. I think it is too complicated to boil rice to get a nice consistency. So this is what I do.

First, I make the rice in the rice cooker, but I reduce some of the water to make sure the rice is really, really grainy - and maybe a little undercooked. I usually use Basmati rice to get extra flavour and fragrance.

Then I stir fry carrots, capsicum, , eggplant, celery and mushrooms with lots of garlic, oregano and rosemary. I add in some water and let everything cook up nicely, extracting the flavours from the vegetables.

Add in the cooked rice and mix well, allowing it to 'steep' in the juices and absorb all the flavours. Keep adding enough rice till the mixture is grainy and not mushy.



And there you have a Vegetarian Paella. Maybe not the true way it is supposed to be made but it turns out great anyway!

Fish, Vegetable and Rice Casserole

I've often wondered what exactly constitutes a casserole. I was led to believe that a casserole was a meal that was fully cooked in an oven - that is with no precooking allowed. I've learnt over the years though, that a casserole is actually the name for the 'container' used to cook AND serve it in. It is also a most versatile dish - both as in dish the meal and dish the container (Ha Ha!)

You can make a casserole by pre-cooking some ingredients and then finish it off by baking or mix up all the raw ingredients and then cook it in the oven. So, really, anything and everything that is cooked and served in a casserole dish, qualifies as a casserole! I bet I've only served to confuse you more....

But hey, to paraphrase Shakespeare, "That which we call a casserole, by any other name would taste just as delicious!"


My first exposure to casserole was this fantastic Macaroni Tuna Pasta that my mother used to make. We all thought it was a pasta dish but Mom called it a Tuna Casserole. And that was when I first learnt of such a word.

I've learnt to make Mom's Tuna Casserole (I like to think I've improved on it!) and I'll probably post about it another time. This post though is about a Fish and Rice Casserole that I tried out for the very first time recently.

Often, I find that I need to come up with a new recipe simply because the kids are hungry and the fridge is not quite as well stocked as we thought it was. That was basically what happened recently!

I had some frozen Dory Fish and some carrots and broccoli. There was also some tomato and half a block of cheddar. So, I decided to throw them all together and make a Fish and Rice Casserole.

As usual, no real recipe but more of a guideline. That's how I like it as I think the best food is when you experiment and play around with the ingredients.

2 cups rice - washed
3 cups water - for cooking the rice
1 large onion - sliced
4 cloves garlic = chopped
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sage
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
800g Dory Fish - cubed
1 small head of broccoli - cut into small florets
2 medium carrots - diced
2 large tomatoes - thinly sliced
200g Cheddar cheese - grated
Black Pepper
Salt

Method
Cook the rice in a rice cooker or in a pot over the stove.
Sautee the onions and garlic together with the Oregano, sage, rosemary leaves and Black Pepper. Add in the cubed Dory and season with some salt. Mix well and allow to simmer until Dory is cooked. Add in the carrots and simmer till carrots are soft then add in the broccoli. Mix well. Season with more salt and pepper as required.
Add the rice into the pan and mix well. Spoon into a rectangular casserole dish and press down, smoothening the top. Cover rice with half of the cheese and then cover with the sliced tomatoes. Sprinkle remaining cheese over tomatoes and bake in a preheated 190C oven for about 20 mins or till cheese is melted and tomatoes are slightly wrinkled.


The kids really enjoyed this dish (the food and not the container -Ha Ha!) and the Lovely Wife kept asking what I had done to make it so tasty. I think the secret is simply that the flavours from the vegetables and fish all meld together so nicely and it soaks into the rice as well.

Beef Kheema

This is one of my all time favourite dishes and also one that has a long history to it. Mum used to make her own version of this when I was younger and she called it a Minced Meat curry. She used to make it with minced beef and diced potatoes and we would all enjoy eating it with rice. The next day, we'd fill slices of bread with the leftover mince curry and polish it off!

Needless to say, when I went off to Uni, this was one of the dishes that I would often cook. I changed the recipe somewhat and added tomatoes as well as frozen mixed vegetables to it whilst omitting potatoes. I used to love this dish so much that almost everytime it was my turn to cook, I would cook this. As a result, my flatmates used to call me the "Mince Meat Man" although they used to enjoy this dish as much as I did!

I remember when I was in my Final year. It was just before mid term exams which meant that we were smack in the middle of Winter with cold, wet nights. We were all busy studying through the night and at about two in the morning, my flatmate walked into my room and annnounced that he was 'feeling hungry' and asked if I was too. We considered driving down to the local 24hr food outlet but decided that we wanted something hot and spicy; something that would 'comfort' us at this late hour when our minds were numb with too much studying. I suggested making some Kheema and my flatmates eyes lit up. He cooked up a large amount of rice while I quickly whipped up my Kheema. We sat in front of the gas fireplace and delighted in the steaming hot rice and spicy hot Kheema. Truly comfort food indeed!


The beauty of this dish is that it is an all-in-one dish with meat and vegetables in it. It's also extremely versatile in that you can eat it with rice, bread or even noodles. In fact, often times, we would eat the leftovers with instant noodles for a quick snack or even a meal the next day.

Kheema is really the Hindi word for Minced Meat but has also become the generic term for a Minced Meat Curry. This is my recipe:

600g Mince Beef or Mutton
300g frozen Mixed Vegetables (Pees, Carrots, Corn)
2 medium-sized Red Capsicums
4 Large Tomatoes - quartered
1 Large Onion
3-4 cloves garlic
a little ginger, chopped finely
6 Cloves
2 - 3 Tbsp Curry Powder
¾ Tbsp Chilli Powder
1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
cooking oil
Salt to taste


Method
Slice onion into thin slices and chop garlic and ginger. Dice Capsicum and thaw frozen vegetables. Lightly fry onions with garlic, ginger, black pepper and cloves until onions are soft.
Add in Curry powder and Chilli powder and fry till fragrant. Be careful not to burn the mix.
Add in tomatoes and mix well. Add in a little water if needed.


Continue cooking till a nice paste is formed.
Add in Mince and cook well.


Add in Capsicum and frozen vegetables
Continue cooking, stirring frequently. Add a cup of water and cover pan. Simmer for a further 10-15 minutes then remove cover, mix well and cook till most of the water is evaporated.



Coincidentally, the topic of the Monthly Mingle this month, hosted by my friend Meeta over at Whats for Lunch Honey is on Comfort Food. Although Kheema is great with plain white rice, it TRULY becomes Comfort Food when served with Yellow Rice or what I call Fools Saffron Rice.

Saffron Rice or Yellow rice is traditionally served instead of white rice for festivals or special occasions. Somehow, the food seems to take on an expensive and exotic twist when Yellow Rice is served.

I call this Fools Saffron Rice because it is an easy way of making fabulous, tasty, yellow rice in a rice cooker that can easily pass off for Saffron Rice – fooling most people!!

3 Cups Rice
4 ½ Cups Water
1-2 Tbsp Butter
2 handfuls Raisins and/or cashew nuts(optional)
6 cloves
2 tsp Turmeric powder


Method

Wash the rice well and place into the rice cooker.
Add the water, butter, cloves, turmeric powder and raisins/nuts (if using)
Mix lightly then turn on the rice cooker.
When rice is cooked, quickly stir the cooked rice to ensure all ingredients are mixed well.



Although I prefer Minced Beef, this dish is just as lovely made with Minced Lamb or even Minced Chicken! (I think my US friends would call Minced Meat as Ground Meat!)

I hope you all like this dish as much as I do!

Chicken Pilaf / Briyani

Hail the Queen! Jenn, the Leftover Queen, organises a monthly Royal Foodie Joust where 3 ingredients are selected by the previous months winner. This month, the 3 ingredients were selected by last month's winner, Emeline of Sugar Plum. She chose to challenge us with :
Pomegranate
Mint
Pistachios

Interesting choice of ingredients and something that me ponder long and hard over what to make. Should I go savoury or should I go sweet? I decided to take the path of a Savoury dish and made a Chicken Pilaf or some would call it a Chicken Briyani.
But first some history.....

What is the difference between a Briyani and a Pilaf. And for that matter, what's the difference between a Pilaf and a Pulao? Well firstly, Pulao is of Persian origin while Pilaf is the Indian name for the same type of dish. So basically, Pulao and Pilaf are the same thing.
Briyani (some spell it Biryani) and Pulao/Pilaf are a little different. Pulao is supposed to be where the meat and rice are stirred and cooked together. Briyani is supposedly where the rice and meat are layered and then baked in a special pot.
So, I'm not really sure what this dish should be because I cooked the rice and meat separately, but then stirred them together before baking it for a while. I guess that because I didn't the meat and rice, this would technically be a Pilaf.
Maybe I should just make it east and call it an Indian Paella!! Funny though isn't it how Pulao, Pilaf and Paella are all rice dishes with meat and cooked similarly (not the same, just similar).
So, how did I make this Chicken Pilaf? Well, having never attempted this dish before and faced with the challenge of using all the three different ingredients, as usual I winged it! This is what I did.

Ingredients:
3 cups of basmati / fragrant rice
4.5 cups water
2 tsp turmeric
5 cloves
2 bay leaves
sprinkle of salt
3 handfuls of Fresh Pomegranate Seeds (1 fruit provides more than ample seeds)

1 large onion
1 clove garlic
1 inch ginger - ground into paste
500g Chicken Breast
3 tsp currypowder
1 tsp chilli powder
8 mint leaves - chopped
3 tsps yoghurt
1 large eggplant - cubed
150 gm brown mushrooms - sliced
100 gm Pistachios - chopped
Black Pepper
Salt

Method:
First, cut open the pomegranade and removed the seeds. Set aside. As you can see, my daughter was a real helper and she enjoyed removing the seeds!



wash the rice and then lightly fry the turmeric, cloves and bay leaves in some oil. Add in the rice and mix well till fragrant. Place rice in a rice-cooker or pot and add in two handfuls of pomegranate seeds. Cook the rice in a rice cooker (or stovetop) with the 4.5 cups water.

Cut chicken into large cubes. Season with salt, pepper and ground ginger paste. Sautee Onions and garlic and then add in curry powder and chilli powder and cook well being careful not to let it burn.

Add in sliced mushrooms and cook till tender then add in the eggplant. Continue to cook adding in some water if necessary. Add in 2/3 of the chopped mint leaves and continue to simmer.


Once rice is cooked, mix the rice together with the cooked chicken. Place chicken pilaf into a casserole dish and garnish with remaining mint leaves as well as chopped pistachios and another handful of pomegranade seeds. Cover with foil and bake for about 20 mins in a 180C oven

The result was a really tasty Chicken Pilaf that the kids and wife really enjoyed. The pomegranate gave the pilaf a light fruity taste every time you bit into one while the pistachios offered a lovely crunchiness. The mint had that nice subtle flavour that went really well with everything else.



I really enjoyed the Royal Joust this time around. Thanks to Emeline for the interesting choice of ingredients!

Baked Pizza Rice

6 hungry mouths to feed. Limited time. Limited ingredients.

This was the dilemna that I was faced with last Saturday (6 Oct). We had all woken up early and my lovely wife had made Waffles for breakfast. It was such a lovely day to just laze around that we didn't even go to the market to do our usual weekly grocery shopping.

I was chilling, waiting for the Focaccia dough to proof while the kids and the wife went out to play at the nearby park. The kids were extra hungry after their run around in the park and then my wife's niece and nephew came over as well for us to 'babysit' them for a while.

"What are we doing for lunch?" I asked my lovely wife.

"Can you whip up some pasta? There's some sausages and chicken breast. And you still have some cream."

"There's some bacon too." I reminded her.

"Or why don't you make a casserole."

Rummaging around in the fridge, I realised there were no vegetables either except for two carrots and some tomatoes (tomatoes qualify as a fruit and not a vegetable but I shan't go into that now....!). Peering into the pantry, I found a can of stewed tomatoes and a light bulb went off in my head.

Chicken, sausages, bacon, carrots, tomatoes, cheese. Sounds like the ingredients for Pizza! Add in some rice, treat it like a casserole and I've got Baked Pizza Rice. And that's exactly what I did! I contemplated going out for mushrooms but I was just too darned lazy.....

Ingredients:
2 cups rice
2 chicken breasts
4-5 sausages
8 slices back bacon
2 large carrots
4 cloves garlic
4 large tomatoes
1 can stewed tomatoes
2 onions
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Basil
Black Pepper
Salt
3 slices cheddar cheese


Method
Wash and cook the rice. Meanwhile, cut the chicken into cubes. Season with salt and pepper. Slice the sausages into rounds, cut bacon into small pieces and dice carrots. Chop garlic and slice onions. Heat some olive oil and sautee the garlic and onion with some black pepper, oregano and basil (about a tsp each or according to taste). Add in the sausages and cook well then add in bacon and chicken. Mix well until cooked. Add in sliced tomatoes and continue to cook until tomatoes are tender. Add in stewed tomatoes and let simmer until mixture thickens. Season with Salt. Add in rice a little at a time and mix well. You can reduce the amount of rice depending on how much liquid is in your mixture.
Spoon rice mix into a casserole dish and press down until firm. Sprinkle with freshly chopped dill. Cover with cheddar cheese strips or grated cheese and bake in a preheated 190C oven for about 20 mins.




The kids really loved this dish and I must admit it turned out rather delicious.

In my house, I know that I've hit on a winner when my son rubs his tummy and goes "Mmmmmm". This time he went one step further and did an impersonation of a Television advert. Dont ask me where he learnt it but it went something like this (said in a muffled, gruff voice)

"Look at this picture. New! Pizza Rice. Very yummy and good for your health"

That's my son - a riot all by himself! But I can't complain or say anything coz we all know where he gets his craziness from - his Daddy......

Herbed Rice

Ingredients
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary
3 cups long rain rice or basmati rice
4 1/2 cups water
Olive oil
Salt

Method
Wash the rice well and set aside. Sautee the garlic, oregano and rosemary till fragrant. Add in the rice and stir well, ensuring the rice grains are nicely coated with the mix. Remove from heat and place into a rice cooker. Add in the 4 1/2 cups of water and cook.
Note: Cooking in a rice cooker is so easy and simple. If you dont have a rice cooker, follow the same method except add in the rice and water into a large pan and cover. Cook on medium heat till water evaporates. Make sure rice doesnt over cook or burn.