Thai Pineapple Fried Rice (Khao Pad Sapparot)

Blogging Marathon#64: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Mega BM Bookmarked Recipes 

Dish: Pineapple Fried Rice from Mireille 

For Day 2 of bookmarked dishes I have a sweet, sour and spicy Thai Pineapple fried rice from Mir's blog. I have seen pineapple fried rice recipes on any food blogs but I wasn't sure how the sweetness of the pineapple would taste in a savory rice dish. So never tried to make it at home before.

But when I saw Mir's dish, I wanted to give it a try. I had all the ingredients on hand and my husband was travelling so I took a chance and made it for myself. I have to say I really liked this dish. The sweetness from the pineapple is actually complemented by the spicy curry powder and the saltiness of the soy sauce.

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Vietnam -- Crispy Rice & Mung bean Pancakes (Bánh Xèo)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: V for Vietnam

Dish: Crispy Rice & Mung bean Pancakes (Bánh Xèo)
We are visiting Vietnam today. Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia and is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest and Cambodia to southwest.
Vietnamese cuisine features a combination of 5 fundamental taste elements/ senses: spicy, sour, bitter, salty and sweet which sounds much like Indian tastes as well. Traditional Vietnamese cooking uses lot of fresh ingredients, minimum use of oil and relies on herbs and vegetables. Vietnamese food is considered as one of the healthiest cuisines worldwide.

Last month's Vegetarian times magazine had a whole spread of Vietnamese dishes and I knew right away that it is going to be Vietnam for V. These rice and mung bean pancakes sounded very similar to Andhra Pesarattu and the stuffing with mushrooms and bean sprouts sounded really interesting to me.

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Malaysia -- Vegetarian Curry with Coconut Milk

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: M for Malaysia

Dish: Vegetarian Malaysian Curry with Coconut Milk
We are going to the Malaysia today. It is located in Southeast Asia. The country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. The population can be broadly divided into 3 ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese & Indian. Most of the Malaysian dishes have strong influences of all these countries.
One of my very good friends is from Malaysia and I asked her help in picking a recipe. She suggested couple of dishes that required procuring ingredients typical to Malaysia. Then I asked her Malaysian curry recipe and she sent me the recipe and then even made it for us. I planned on clicking her curry, but it was all gone so quickly that I didn't get a chance to take pics.

Then I found another Malaysian curry recipe that was slightly different from my friend's version. I double checked with my friend and after getting her nod of approval, I made this curry with freshly made curry paste and coconut milk.

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Korea -- Miso Soup & Joomuk Bap (Vegetarian/ Vegan Recipes)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: K for Korea

Dish: Korean Miso Soup & Joomuk Bap
We are staying in Asia and visiting Korea today. I knew from day 1 that I would be doing Korea for K, since I live in a town that has a very high Korean population. We have a Korean grocery store in town and most of the stores have signs in Korean.
I hardly cook Korean food at home even though I have full access to all the Korean veggies, spices and other ingredients. I don't have much knowledge of Korean cuisine and I thought this is a good opportunity to give some Korean dishes a try.
I was under the impression that all of the Korean dishes have meat in them. But there are a lot of Korean dishes that are actually vegan. Buddhist temple food is completely vegetarian and/ or vegan. I found an amazing Vegan Korean blog called Vegan 8 Korean and they have some awesome Korean dishes. I have tried a few Korean dishes already, check those out here.

I made Korean Miso Soup that uses Korean Miso paste called Doenjang. But a good substitute would be red or brown miso paste. I found quite a few recipes that used anchovies and fish sauce, but I skipped them and used some vegetarian options instead. Most of the ingredients were bought specially for this recipe.

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Veg Noodles

It's already the 4th day of our Blogging Marathon. I'm enjoying myself doing this everyday and I'm sure my son's happy too since I'm asking him what he wants to eat, so I can make him something and post it on the blog too (since the theme I've chosen for the marathon is "kid-friendly" dishes).

For today's lunch, I steered him toward noodles since I wanted to make some myself. I asked him "Do you want some noodles for lunch today??", he cheered and said "Noodles, Noodles!!", so there we have Veggie Noodles for lunch.

My 3 year old likes to slurp on noodles, he starts to slurp and blow with his mouth even before putting the spoon in his mouth. I make him "Maggi" noodles occasionally and really like the new "Atta noodles" that Maggi came up with. The seasoning sachets have dehydrated veggies and one pack makes for a quick meal for my little one.

I had some roasted vegetables in the fridge that I used in this dish which made making the noodles a snap, everything got done in about than 10 minutes (not including the time to boil water for noodles). If you don't have roasted veggies, simply sauté the veggies of your choice until crisp tender and proceed with the recipe.

Ingredients:

Hakka Noodles - 1 pkg

Red Onion - 1 small, thinly sliced

Cabbage - 1 cup, thinly sliced (quarter of a medium sized cabbage head)

Roasted vegetables - 1 cup (I roasted Zucchini, Japanese eggplant & red pepper in a 425°F oven for 30-35 minutes with some salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar)

Soy sauce - 2tsp

Sriracha sauce (red chili sauce) - 1tsp (or per taste)

Ginger - 1" piece, finely grated (I use a microplane to grate it really fine)

Garlic - 2 cloves, minced

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Cook noodles according to package directions; drain well and spread on a plate. Mix in some oil to prevent sticking and set aside.
• Heat 2tsp peanut oil on medium-high flame in a large wok; add ginger and garlic and stir-fry for 30 seconds.
• Next add onion & cabbage and stir-fry until the veggies are crisp tender, about 3-4 minutes.
• Add the roasted veggies, sauté for another minute.
• Add soy sauce, chili sauce, salt and the cooked noodles. Stir-fry for another minute or until the noodles are heated through. Serve hot.

Don't forget to check out what the other Marathoners are cooking up in their kitchens.

Azeema, Bhagi, Champa, Sowmya, Gayathri Anand, Gayathri Kumar, Harini, Jay, Kamalika, Mina, Meena, Padma, PJ, Priya Mahadevan, PriyaSuresh, PriyaVaasu, Rujuta, Saraswathi, Savitha, Shanavi, Smitha, Srivalli, Suma,Usha,Veena.

Penang Curry & Parippu Vada

Zlamushka of Burnt Mouth has chosen Jai and Bee's Jugalbandi for this month's Tried and Tested event. Thanks Zlamushka for accepting my late entry.. I made two recipes from Jugalbandi.

• Penang Curry: Followed the recipe to the T, except that I used red and green peppers instead of yellow pepper. I religiously followed the advise and doubled the recipe for the curry paste and froze it.

• Parippu Vada: Again followed recipe to the T, except I used curry leaves and coriander leaves as suggested by Bee. Yummy.. yummy.. yummy.. is what I can say.. We had our vada with tomato chutney.

Tofu and Broccoli Fried Rice

It has been a little hectic getting used to the baby’s daycare and my work schedule. It is going to be even more hectic for the next couple of weeks with my husband off on a business trip. I’m taking it one day at a time. I generally think of at least 2-3 weeknight meals ahead of time. But now I leave it to my little prince to think and decide what mommy should do.

Yesterday he was very cooperative and slept on his way back from day care. I let him sleep in his car seat and started prepping for my fried rice. Well I couldn’t complete the whole dish before he woke, but at least it gave me a head start. I made some extra pesto for a future meal in the next two weeks. Recipe is from here.

This is how I made it:
Ingredients:
For the Asian Pesto:
Ginger – 2” piece, chopped
Garlic – 3-4 cloves
Cilantro – 1 ½ cups, roughly chopped
Raw peanuts – ½ cup
Red chili flakes – ½ tsp
Sugar – 1tsp
Soy sauce – 5tbsp
Rice vinegar – 1tsp
Toasted sesame oil – 2 tbsp
Onion – 3 tbsp chopped (I used half of a very small onion)

Other Ingredients:
Cooked Brown Rice - 3 cups
Extra firm Tofu – ½ of 16 oz. block, cubed
Onion – small, thinly sliced
Broccoli – 1 bunch, cut into florets (about 3cups),
Carrots – 2 medium, chopped
Frozen shelled edamame – ½ cup
Salt and Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Grind the pesto ingredients to a smooth paste with very little water.
  
• Microwave broccoli, carrot and edamame with little water till tender but not mushy.
  
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a pan, add tofu and stir fry till they turn golden brown. Add the boiled veggies, ¼ cup pesto and brown rice. Mix well, season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!!
  

* I think the Asian pesto would taste good in any stir-fry as well.

* I left my veggies in the mw for a little longer than I wanted and my broccoli completely mushed up on me when I added to the rice (you can see that in the pic). Well, right now I’m just glad that I’m having my dinner without hearing the baby cry in the background.