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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Indonesian Nasi Goreng for #Food of the World

We are going to Indonesia this month's #food of the world event. I made a very simple Indonesian dish called 'Nasi Goreng'. Nasi Goreng literally means 'fried rice' in Indonesia and it is simple rice dish spiced with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), shallot, garlic and chili and is accompanied by other ingredients like egg or other protein.

Nasi Goreng is stronger and spicier compared to Chinese fried rice with the addition of kecap manis and other spices. It can be eaten at any time of the day and many Indonesians eat it for breakfast. It is also a popular choice for late night supper served by street vendors.

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Schezwan Fried Rice with Vegetable Manchurian (Indo-Chinese Recipes)

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Combo Dishes
Dishes: Fried Rice with Manchurian

For Day 2 of combo dishes, I made this super popular Indo-Chinese combo, Schezwan Fried Rice with Vegetarian Manchurian.My husband loves ordering manchurian whenever we go out to Indian restaurants and he keeps asking me to make it at home too. But I keep postponing because manchurian are typically deep fried and I try to keep away from deep frying as much as I possibly can.
So when I saw this combo on Valli's list, I knew it was time to try these delicious dishes and I did not deep fry the manchurian either. I used my paniyaram/ appe/ aebleskiver pan instead. It worked like a charm and I was able to make some yummy vegetable manchurian.

To go with the manchurian, I made some vegetable schezwan rice. This is spicy fried rice made with veggies and schezwan sauce. Bottled schezwan sauce is available in stores but it is quite simple to make at home, most of the ingredients are readily available in the pantry.

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China -- Vegetarian Shanghai Fried Rice

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days

Country: C for China

Dish: Vegetarian Shanghai Fried Rice

So after trying 2 dishes from South America (Argentina & Brazil), we are travelling all the way to Easten Asia, to China. C for China was an obvious choice for me. Being in the apparel retail industry for as long as I did, I've had a lot of interaction with China and lot of Chinese too.
I went to China 8 years back for business and had a chance to try the local Chinese dishes. Traditional Chinese food is very different from the Chinese food we get in both India and the U.S. Both of the Indo-Chinese and American-Chinese dishes are highly customized and cater to the local palate.
Chinese cuisine is highly diverse and varies between the provinces. Styles and tastes are varied by class, region and ethnic backgrounds, A number of different styles contribute to Chinese cuisine but perhaps the best known and most influential are Cantonese, Shandong, Jiangsu and Szechuan cuisines. These styles are very distinct from one another due to factors such as availability of ingredients, climate, history, cooking technique and lifestyle.

I had so many Chinese dishes in mind that I wanted to try and I even asked one of my close Chinese friend to give me few recipes too. She told me few simple salad recipes, but that was before we went on India trip. At some point in the middle, I remembered this Shanghai Fried rice that I ate in Shanghai and I decided to make this simple fried rice for today.

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Vegetarian Kimchi Fried Rice (Kimchi Bokkeumbap)

Blogging Marathon# 37: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Street Food from Around the World

Dish: Kimchi Fried Rice from Korea

My theme for this week's Blogging marathon got me very very excited. It is Street Food from around the world. Learning about the different dishes that are served as street food from various countries was very interesting and there are so many dishes that I wanted to make at home. But since we are posting for only 3 days, I had to narrow down my search to 3 dishes. Hopefully I can make the rest of my bookmarked dishes some time soon.
For the first day, I made Korean street food -- Kimchi Fried rice.From what I've read online, Koreans make fried rice with overripe kimchi that needs to be used up. I personally love fried rice because it s a great use of leftover rice and there are infinite variations to come up with.

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Vegetarian Xacuti

Blogging Marathon# 26: Week 1/ Day 1
Theme: Goan Cuisine
Dish: Vegetarian Xacuti with Meatless Meatballs

Today we start Blogging Marathon# 26 and my theme for this week is "Goan Cuisine". The only dish that  I have tried from Goa is the Vegetable Vindaloo. So when I saw this theme, I decided to try more dishes from this cuisine.

When I think of Goa, I think of scenic blue seas, beautiful churches and lush greenery. All this from watching a ton of Indian movies because I'm fortunate to visit this paradise on earth yet. Hopefully one day we can make this trip. When I think of Goan cuisine, I think of seafood and meat, because from movies like Saagar of the coast, the Portuguese colonization and the Christian population. But what I didn't know that there are vegetarian dishes that are unique to konkani region.

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Scallion Fried Rice

Time for another edition of Blogging Marathon. Today we start the 20th edition of Blogging Marathon and my theme for this week is "Cooking with Onions". Onions happen to be the most used veggie in my kitchen, not unusual for Indian cooking. But I don't usually make dishes ONLY with onions, they are generally part of the dish but not the entire dish itself (if that makes any sense). 

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Spicy Thai Fried Rice with Sugar Snap Peas

Fried rice is my go-to dish on days when I’m dog tired to cook anything and also when I’m trying to clean out the fridge. This is one such recipe and it tasted pretty good.

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice – 1½ cups, soaked in water for at least 15 mins
Lemon Grass – 2 tbsp finely chopped (from fleshy mid section of about 2 stalks)
Sugar snap peas – 1½ cups, finely chopped (I used frozen) Green beans can be substituted
Green Peas – 1 cup
Baby Corn – 14 oz. can, drained and rinsed
Shallot – 1, medium chopped
Green Chilies – 4, thinly sliced
Ginger – 1” piece, grated
Garlic – 1 clove, minced
Thai Red Chili Sauce – 2tbsp
Soy sauce – 1tbsp
Asian chili sauce – 2tsp (optional, I used Sriracha chili sauce)
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Cook rice and let it cool completely.
  
• Heat 2tbsp peanut oil in a large sauté pan; add shallots, ginger, garlic and lemon grass and sauté till nice and fragrant about 2-3 minutes.
  
• Add sugar snap peas and baby corn; cover and cook till they are tender about 5-7 minutes.
  
• Now add Thai red chili sauce, hot sauce and soy sauce; stir fry for a minute.
  
• Add thawed peas and stir fry for couple of minutes until heated through.
  
• Finally add the cooked rice and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
  
• Add scrambled egg or baked tofu to make it a complete meal.

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.