Indo-Chinese Vegetable Fried Rice

I hope you all had a wonderful summer. The school season has started and with my kids back to school, I have started to become more active with my blog. In the coming weeks, I will focus on some nutritious choices which can also be served for school lunches. This fried rice recipe is a great choice for my kids as it provides lots of veggies.

Serves up to 2 people
Preparation time:30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup of cooked rice
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 tbsp of chopped ginger
1 carrot
4 stems of beans
1/4 cup of shredded cabbage
1/2 of red bell pepper/capsicum
1/2 tsp of ground black pepper
1-2 tsp of red chilly sauce(Siracha Brand)
1 tbsp of vinegar
1 tsp of dark soy sauce
olive oil
salt as required

Preparation:

1. Chop the carrot, cabbage, red bell pepper and cut the beans in to tiny pieces.Cook the rice with 2 cups of water. Allow the rice to cool.
2. Add 1 tsp of olive oil to the pan, add ginger and garlic. Saute for a minute. 

3.Then add the veggies(carrot, beans, red pepper and cabbage) and saute for 3 minutes. Add black pepper and salt to the veggies and saute well for a minute.

 4.Now add the red chilly sauce, vinegar and soy sauce to the rice. Make sure the crunchiness of the vegetable remains.

5. Add rice and saute gently. Switch off the flame and close the lid. Let it steam for 10 minutes. Serve it with yoghurt or chips. Other options could be with vegetable manchurian.

Tofu masala

  Tofu is one of the best sources of proteins for vegans or vegetarians. The texture and color (particularly of extra firm tofu) makes it sometime close to paneer (cottage cheese) without the fat that paneer adds to the diet. In fact many of the Indian dishes with paneer can be made with tofu. I would admit that the taste is slightly different, but it still is a great option!

 

Serves up to 3-4 people
Preparation time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

400 grams of Extra firm tofu
1 large chopped onion
2 large chopped tomatoes
1 chopped red capsicum
1 tbsp of ginger
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp of red chilli powder(~spice level)
2 tsp of coriander powder
1 tbsp of butter
2 cloves
1 inch of cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp of cumin seeds
1/4 tsp of fennel seeds
1 tbsp of kasoori methi (dry fenugreek leaves)
4-6 cashewnuts
1 tbsp of milk
oil for frying
salt as required

Preparation:

1.Grind the chopped onion, ginger, garlic,red chilly powder, corriander powder together in to a paste. Then grind the tomatoes separately.

2.Cut the tofu in to small squares. Add of oil to the preheated pan and then shallow fry the tofu. Transfer to a plate and shallow fry the red bell pepper.

3.Add the butter, as it is melted add the cumin seeds, fennel seeds, garam masala( bay leaf, clovs and cinnamon). As the nice aroma comes, add the ground paste.

4.Saute well till the raw smell disappears.

  5.Add the tomato paste and saute them.

6.Saute for 20-25 minutes and add the fried tofu , bell pepper and kasoori methi and remaining salt to the pan. Bring it to boil. Grind cashew nuts with milk and add them.

7.Cook for a minute and Tofu masala is ready. Serve with roti/ rice.

Thattai

  Home made snacks are a common part of traditional Indian food. Thattai or Ota vadai is one of the snacks that is common in our household. For folks who are not familiar with this, you can relate to chakli (murruku) in terms of texture and firmness, but the flavor is slightly different due to the proportions of the underlying ingredients.

Ingredients:


2 cups of Rice flour
1/4 cup of urad dhal flour
1/4 tsp of asafoetida
1 tsp of red chilly powder(~spice level)
2 tbsp of butter (@ room temperature)
1 1/2 tbsp of Bengal gram
1 1/2 tbsp of urad dhal
1 tbsp of split peanuts
salt as required
oil for deep frying

Preparation:

1.Soak the Bengal gram dhal and urad dhal for 2 hours. Heat the pan and dry roast the rice flour for 4-5 minutes. Saute for a few minutes and transfer to the plate.

2.Dry roast the urad dhal flour for 2-3 minutes. Sift the rice flour and urad dhal well. 

3.Mix all the above ingredients asafoetida, red chilly powder, butter, Bengal gram, urad dhal and peanuts together and add the required amount of water to knead them into the dough. 

4.Make the dough a little soft. Heat oil in the kadai. 

5.Make a small ball out of the dough. Smear oil on the sheet and pat the dough in to a circle. Transfer gently in to the oil.

6.As they turn light golden brown, turn to the other side. Remove thattai from the oil and place it on the plate. Enjoy with evening tea or filter cofee!