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.

Moroccan Lentil Salad… errrr Soup

So I start out making a salad and it ends up becoming a soup, is that weird or did it ever happen to you too?? I borrowed this North African cookbook from the library and have bookmarked a few recipes to make for the A.W.E.D-Morocco event currently going on my blog.

I wanted to make this simple and easy sounding Lentil salad, I pressure cooked the lentils and must have put too much water while cooking that it became a soup but it tasted pretty good, so I decided to post it anyway. I used sprouted whole masoor dal, but any kind of lentils would be good in this recipe.

I'm giving recipe as is from the cookbook, I pressure cooked the lentils in about 3 cups of water and it was too watery. I'm not sure if the proportion given here is correct or not. I'm going to try soon and update the recipe.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Table: North Africa by Kitty Morse
Ingredients:
Lentils – 1 cup
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Tomato – 2 medium, seeded and diced (I used canned diced fire roasted tomatoes)
Garlic – 2 cloves
Coriander leaves – ¼ cup, chopped
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Ground cloves – ¼ tsp
Ground cumin – 2tsp
Paprika – 1tsp
Cayenne – ¼ tsp

Method:

• Rinse and clean the lentils.
  
• Combine lentils, 5 cups of veggie stock or water, onion, tomatoes, turmeric, tomatoes, garlic and ground cloves in a pot. Bring the mixture to the boil; lower the heat to low and simmer for 20-25 minutes until all the water is absorbed and lentils are completely cooked. Turn off the heat.
  
• Add ground cumin, paprika, cayenne and salt and mix well. Serve hot or warm.
  

This is a very flavorful dish with all the different spices. I served the soup with some store-bought pocket-less pitas for us and some whole-wheat couscous for my son. It tasted even better for lunch the next day, very filling too.

Tomato & Cheese Tart

Why does summer go so fast and winter seems to linger foreveeeeer??? But I’m not complaining, I like fall (and even spring), get to see the gorgeous changing colors. I hope we can take some time and visit some scenic place with beautiful fall colors. Are you reading this Mr. H??

Anyway coming to the recipe, I watched Ina Garten make it on FoodTv in the afternoon and I made it for our evening snack that same day. This is probably the first time ever that I made a recipe so quick after watching the show. The only change I made was the type of cheeses used, Ina used parmesan & feta; I used asiago & mozzarella. For the original recipe, click here.

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten’s Back to Basics
Ingredients (makes 4 5” tarts):
Puff pastry sheet – 1, thawed according to pkg instructions
Onion – 1 large, thinly sliced
Garlic – 2-3 cloves
Thyme, fresh – 1 tsp
Tomato – 1 medium, cut into thick slices
Asiago cheese – ¼ cup, grated
Mozzarella cheese – 2 tbsp, grated
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
  
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a skillet; add onions and garlic and sauté on medium flame until lightly caramelized.
  
• Add thyme, salt and pepper and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
  
• In the meantime, open the puff pastry on lighly floured surface and roll it into 11”x11” square (approximately). Using a 5” round plate (I used a small steel plate) as your reference, cut the pastry into 4 circles with a sharp knife. Place the circles on a parchment covered baking sheet; then score a ¼” border around each pastry circle, this will create the slightly raised edge to the tart once baked.
  
• Prick the pastry inside the scored line with a fork and sprinkle 1tbsp asiago cheese in the inner circle.
  
• Place ¼ of the onion mixture in the center (inner circle), sprinkle mozzarella cheese and place a slice of tomato in the center of each tart. Sprinkle the tomato with salt and pepper. Finally using a peeler, make big shards of asiago cheese on top of the tomato.
  
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Serve hot or warm.

Quick Weekday Breakfast: Swiss Oats

I don't like making elaborate breakfasts on a weekday morning. The maximum I can do is toast some bread and make peanut butter & jelly sandwich or a nutella sandwich (which is my absolute favorite). So 90% of the time, our breakfast consists of bread in some form or the other. On the other 10%, I take a small bottle of soymilk with me to work to have it with cereal (I have a ziplock bag with cereal always at work for breakfast or snack time).

When I saw this recipe on Zonya Health Bite on PBS, I wanted to make it right away, its so easy that there is zero cooking or microwaving time. The effort you put into it is EATING it. I'm going to make it sound a little bit more complicated than it really is, just so I can feel better posting this r.e.c.i.p.e. :-D (Its like filling some extra pages in your exams, so your teacher thinks you have answered the question right!!!!!!)

Ingredients (1 Serving):
Old Fashioned Oats - 1/2 cup
Soy milk (any milk would work just fine) - 2/3 cup
Honey or Maple sugar - to taste
Ground Cinnamon - pinch
Berries
Dried fruit/ Nuts
Method:

• Night Before: Mix oats and all the other ingredients in a small bowl. I mix them in the same container I'm going to take to work (less clean up). Cover and refrigerate.
• In the Morning: All you do is take the oats out of the fridge, add fresh fruits (berries or bananas) in summer or dried fruits and nuts in winter. Mix well and take to work. By the time you are ready to eat, oats are cold but not tooth-aching so and the fruit release their sweet juices and its almost like having a dessert for breakfast.
• All this should technically take less than 10 minutes total, 5 minutes each at night and in the morning, but the end result is soooo yummm..
  

Soaking the oats overnight makes them soft and delicious almost similar to cooked oats but without the gloppiness and of course the cooking time. Do try these uncooked oats recipe, I'm sure you'll fall in love with them.

PS: I have updated the A.W.E.D: Morocco announcement with the logo. Please check it out and don't forget to send your entries by Oct 2nd.