Indian rice

Rice is nice isn’t it? (Rhetorical.)

Put a scoop of butter and a glug of oil into a saucepan. Add a good tablespoon of garam masala. Fry for a bit.

Add some mixed veg from the freezer. Stir for a bit.

Add 50g rice per person. Measure this rice in cups so you know how “big” it is. Stir it round a bit.

Then add 2.5x as much boiling water as there was rice, cover and simmer for 12-15 minutes ish, or until cooked.

Ideally, as it’s rice you shouldn’t poke it too much, but if it looks like it is drying out then add a bit more water. The aim is that you won’t have to drain it at the end, just spoon it out.

Season with salt and black pepper, and squeeze a bit of lemon juice on if you are feeling posh.

Optional: stir in some dessicated coconut, sprinkle with flaked almonds.

Goes well with curry, or just a spoon of thick yogurt. Mmm!

Flat breads

Or is it flatbreads?

I had to make a curry from leftovers and thought I would excite it up a bit with some homemade breads.

As follows (makes 4):

Ingredients
75g strong bread flour
50g wholemeal flour
Dollop milk
Pinch salt
1tsp sugar
1/4 egg (yes I know, but you can always scale it up and make 16. Or do what I did and make egg fried rice with the remainder.)
Spray oil and butter as required

Making it
1. Mix all ingredients except the butter and oil.
2. Mix some more.
3. Knead. It’s a very sloppy dough – you’re best to oil the surface fairly liberally and slap it around quite a lot, probably for about 10 minutes.
4. Cut into four pieces, roll into balls and rest in an oiled, covered bowl for a bit. This can be left overnight if you like.
5. Flour a surface this time, and roll out into frying pan sized, thinnish rounds/squares (depending on your rolling pin skillz).
6. Spray some oil and chuck a lump of butter into a hot pan. Fry the breads on both sides. Stack under foil to keep them warm. Refresh the oil and butter between breads a bit like pancakes.

These are lovely and work out about 120 calories I reckon (disclaimer: guesswork!). The recipe is adapted from what was described as a Thai roti flatbread but they don’t have much bread in Thai cuisine so I’m not sure how authentic this is. It’s like a delicious chapati (sp?) – try it!

(It isn’t like a delicious chaplain which is what the iPad is desperate to correct it to.)