Rice and Easy Recipe
We use quite a lot of rice for our everyday cooking. It is relatively quick and easy to cook (even easier with those wonderful sachets of pre-cooked rice and grains) but also because we enjoy it and, of course, it keeps for yonks in the cupboard without taking up too much space. The main thing to remember with cooked rice is that any left over it should be frozen quickly, or refrigerated, then cooked through again very thoroughly the next day, as it can cause food poisoning.
That said, fried rice is so delicious anyway, and as a child it was one of my very favourite suppers. My mother, having lived in the Far East, used to cook am excellent one, complete with the fried egg topping.
If, like us, your tomatoes are now growing abundantly in the garden, you might like this recipe for Tomato Fried Rice courtesy of Cyrus Todiwala – an interesting addition to a meal, or the basis of a meal in itself with meats, egg or fish added.
Ingredients
500g Tilda Pure Basmati Rice
1kg Tomatoes
2 medium sized white onions (halved, cored and very finely sliced)
4-6 cloves
1 piece of fresh ginger
5-6 peppercorns
3 cloves
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 litre hot water
2 tbsp fresh coriander
salt (as desired)
Method
Take a saucepan or a casserole large enough to hold all the tomatoes at one time as well as the rice when cooked
Wash and halve or quarter the tomatoes and add to the pot
Place on the cooker on a high heat & add approximately 500ml of hot or boiling water and boil for eight to ten minutes
Meanwhile in a mortar and pestle make a paste of the ginger & garlic and add to the tomatoes
Either purée the tomatoes or pass through a strainer. A stick blender will purée it fine even with the skin.
Heat the oil in a small pan or kadhai or wok and gently brown the sliced onions.
Meanwhile wash and drain the rice in a strainer.
Remove half on a kitchen towel and to the pan add the peppercorns, cloves.
Add the rice and sauté the rice with the onions and the spices for two to three minutes
Add all of this into the pureed tomato with the ginger and garlic purées and return to the fire.
Add another 4-500ml of hot water, salt and cover the pot lightly
As soon as boiling commences, stir well and see if anything is stuck at the bottom.
Scrape the edges with a spatula to clean the sides, cover the pot now tightly and reduce the heat
Let the rice cook on a low heat now for fifteen to twenty minutes, Stir occasionally if only to prevent sticking at the bottom
When rice is cooked either remove and serve with the browned onions and coriander sprinkled on the top or blend the fried onions and chopped coriander into the rice.
Tomato rice will also taste good cold served with yoghurt.
The Seasoned Gastronome