粽子 (zòngzǐ) are sticky rice dumplings. They're the tetrahedral ones that you see wrapped in bamboo leaves and tied up with string. They are made with glutinous rice, can be savoury or sweet, and are traditionally eaten during 端午节 (duānwǔ jié) or Dragon Boat Festival, which occurs sometime between late May and mid-June each year.¹

Unlike "real" 粽子, this version is not wrapped into individual bamboo leaf packets before steaming or boiling. Instead, all of the ingredients are mixed together in a leaf-lined steamer basket. This gives you all of the same flavours without going to the effort of making individual dumplings.

I didn't have any dried bamboo leaves on hand and I did have a surplus of lettuce. So I just ended up using that to line my steamer basket. This did not, of course, impart any of the traditional bamboo flavour to the rice, but it worked just fine to prevent the rice from sticking to its cooking vessel. And we still got to enjoy all of the other flavours in the rice. So, all-in-all, I'd call this a success. Even if not necessarily a super traditional one.

Lazy Zongzi Rice

Slightly adapted from The Woks of Life

Ingredients

Rice

• 1 1/2 c. uncooked glutinous (sticky/sweet) rice
• 8-10 dried bamboo leaves
• 1/2 c. shelled raw peanuts (without skin)
• 3-5 Chinese sausages, sliced thin
• 3-4 green onions, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt

Pork Belly

• 450g pork belly², cut into 1cm dice
• 2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. white peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Place the rice in a large bowl with enough water to cover by at least 2-3cm. Cover and soak for at least 6 hours or as long as overnight.
2. Soak the bamboo leaves for at least 3 hours (or overnight).
3. Soak the peanuts for 1 hour, then boil for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, combine the pork belly, light soy, salt, dark soy, wine, sugar, and white pepper and mix well. Cover and chill for 1-2 hours.
5. Drain the rice and the peanuts.
6. Combine the rice, peanuts, Chinese sausages, green onions, soy sauce, and salt and mix well.
7. Line a steamer basket with some of the bamboo leaves.
8. Place a layer of rice over the leaves, followed by a layer of pork belly. Repeat once more.
9. Cover the last layer of pork belly with the remaining bamboo leaves.
10. Place the steamer basket into a pot/steamer over cold water.
11. Cover, bring to a boil, and steam for 60-90 minutes. Or, if pressure steaming, cook on high pressure for 45 minutes with a 10-minute natural release.
12. Keep warm until ready to serve. (Rice will harden when cooled.)

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¹ Meaning that I even managed to make this dish at a vaguely seasonally appropriate time! ^Back
2 The original recipe only called for 225g of pork belly, but I had extra, so I used it all and just scaled up the marinade accordingly. I liked these proportions, but feel free to use more or less as you see fit. ^Back

I had intended to make some "lazy" steamed zongzi rice for dinner last night. But I forgot to put the rice in to soak. So that particular recipe had to be bumped to tonight and I needed to pick something else to make for dinner yesterday. Luckily I had another recipe queued up that was much quicker and easier to make. All that's required is a quick stir-fry of some pork belly with ginger and mushrooms, then just add a bit of sauce and water and stir in some rice and green onions. Easy peasy!

I reduced the shiitake mushrooms slightly for my rendition because I had a huge pile of cremini mushrooms in the fridge and liked the idea of using a mix. I also tossed in the last couple of handfuls of baby spinach. It was really enough veg for the amount of rice, but at least it was something and at least it used it up. If I'd been thinking, I would've thrown in some peas as well, but it didn't occur to me until too late. Maybe next time.

Photo goes here.

Pork Belly and Mushroom Rice

Slightly adapted from The Woks of Life

Ingredients

• 1-2 Tbsp. oil
• 1 Tbsp. minced ginger or ginger paste
• 250g pork belly, cut into 1cm dice
• 4-5 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced (soaking water reserved)
• 6-8 cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒)
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 3/4 c. mushroom soaking water
• 1 c. fresh or frozen peas (optional)
• 4 c. cooked rice
• 1-2 scallions, chopped

Directions

1. Heat wok over medium heat.
2. Drizzle in oil and swirl to coat.
3. Add ginger and stir-fry for a minute or two.
4. Add pork belly and increase heat to medium-high. Stiry-fry until pork starts to get crispy (3-5 minutes).
5. Add the mushrooms and stir-fry for another 3-4 minutes.
6. Reduce heat to medium-low and add the wine, sugar, light soy, dark soy, mushroom soaking water, and peas (if using).
7. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.
9. Add the rice and green onions and mix very well.
10. Serve as-is or topped with a fried egg and a bit of Laoganma.

Okay, so, I am apparently not entirely with it today and forgot the egg on my loco moco! Very sad. I mean, it was still tasty, but the egg is a key component and, when the dish is this simple, it makes me extra sad to have left it out. Whoops! My apologies for the goof. Definitely fry up an egg and add it if you're making this dish for yourself.

We had some leftover burger patties sitting in the fridge, so I didn't make the patties from scratch for this one. Go ahead and make patties according to your preferred recipe if you're doing this from scratch. But, otherwise, whatever you've got is fine. You'll miss out on some of the pan juices by cooking the burgers separately/ahead of time, but other than that, it's really not a problem.

Loco Moco

Slightly adapted from Ono Hawaii Recipes

Ingredients

• 2-3 burger patties
• 2 Tbsp. butter, divided
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• handfull or two of sliced mushrooms (optional)
• 1 c. beef or chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. tomato sauce/ketchup
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2-3 eggs
• 1-1 1/2 c. cooked rice
• 1-2 green onions, chopped

Directions

1. If the burger patties are uncooked, fry them up in the pan first.
2. Once the patties are cooked through, remove from pan and set aside.
3. Melt 1 Tbsp. of the butter in the pan.
4. Add the onion and cook until softened.
5. Add the mushrooms (if using), cover, and cook until they release their liquid.
6. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered, for another 3-5 minutes.
7. Combine the stock, soy sauce, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and cornstarch and mix well.
8. Add it to the pan with the onion and cook until thickened.
9. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
10. Melt a little butter in a separate pan and fry the eggs until desired doneness.
11. Put ~1/2 c. of hot cooked rice in each bowl.
12. Top the rice with a burger patty and a generous quantity of the gravy and a fried egg.
13. Garnish with green onion and serve.

I adjusted the ratios somewhat for this one. We had twice as much chicken as the recipe called for, so I doubled the marinade and bumped up the rice slightly¹. However, we were a bit light on mushrooms, so they were scaled back a bit. And we'd just harvested a bunch of silverbeet (chard) out of the garden a couple of days ago, so I didn't want to try to take any more yet. This left me trying to swap in frozen chopped spinach. Which was fine, but I didn't want to overdo it, so I just put in a relatively small amount.

The final result was tasty, but I do think that it would have been better with more mushrooms and greens (and a bit more salt). All of these changes are reflected in the write-up below.

Ginger Rice with Chicken and Mushrooms

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 4 skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp. dark soy sauce²
• 2 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒)
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp. Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 Tbsp. oil (optional)
• 1 onion, chopped (optional)
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
• 2 c. jasmine rice
• 4 c. water
• 400-500g Swiss chard (silverbeet) and/or kale, chopped
• 250g mushrooms (preferably a mix of shiitake and cremini), sliced
• 2-3 green onions, sliced

Directions

1. Combine chicken, ginger, oyster sauce, soy sauce, wine, sesame oil, and five-spice powder and mix well. Set aside for 10-20 minutes.
2. If using onion and garlic, heat the oil over medium heat and sauté until softened (3-5 minutes).³
3. Add the rice, water, greens, mushrooms, and chicken (along with all of its marinade) to the pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook until rice is tender (15-20 minutes).
5. Remove from heat, fluff rice, and allow to stand, covered, for 10 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with green onions and serve.

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¹ Not double. I just nudged the rice up by 1/3. But, honestly, for the amount of everything else that I had in the pot, it might've been better not to scale the rice up after all. It was tasty this way, but definitely could've used more mushrooms and greens. Which the recipe write-up reflects. ^Back
2 I used light soy here because the recipe didn't specify and it was what I had easily to hand but, having tasted it, I think that dark soy (or a blend of dark and light) would work better than light alone. ^Back
3 The original recipe didn't call for any onion or garlic and I didn't use any this time. But, having tasted it, I think some more aromatics would go nicely, so I've added them to the recipe as an optional extra. ^Back

This was okay, but not amazing. It made a decent side dish to go with our braised chicken. But I did feel like it wasn't as flavourful as I would have liked for a dish full of umami-rich fungus.

I was disappointed to find that the only mushrooms it contained were in the stock. You make a stock with a mix of fresh and dried mushrooms, then strain it and throw away the solids and use only the broth in the rice. I wanted there to be actual mushroom in my mushroom pilaf, so I used some ready-made mushroom stock and then thickly sliced the fresh mushrooms called for in the stock and put them into the pot with the rice instead. Possibly I should have added the dried shiitakes as well!

As far as other changes go... I doubled the broccoli. Both because that's how much broccoli I had and because I wanted it to be more vegetable-y.
I also omitted the chickpeas. Not because I had intended to. But because I misremembered whether or not I had canned chickpeas in the pantry. And, by the time I realized that I was all out, it was too late to cook any from dried. So, I just skipped the legumes for this rendition. If I end up making this again at some point though, I will try to make sure I add them though. I think it would be a nice way to make it a bit more substantial.

And one change that I didn't make, but wish I had: reducing the liquid called for. The recipe calls for 2 1/2 c. of stock, so that's exactly what I used. But I found that my rice came out much too wet. I ended up having to give it an extra 10 minutes in the oven with the lid off just to try to dry it out a bit (and finish cooking the broccoli). Next time I'd try making it with just 2 c. of stock (and reducing the cooking time slightly).

Mushroom and Broccoli Brown Rice Pilaf

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Stock

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 225g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 7g dried shiitake or porcini mushrooms
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
• 4 c. water

Pilaf

• 2 c. mushroom stock (from above)
• 2 Tbsp. dry sherry or white wine
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 225g cremini mushrooms, thickly sliced
• 1 c. brown basmati rice
• 1 Tbsp. fresh thyme (or 1 tsp. dried)
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1-2 heads broccoli, cut into florets
• 1 c. cooked chickpeas
• 1/2 c. cashews, toasted
• 1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes

Directions

Stock

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and cook until browned (10-15 minutes).
3. Add the fresh and dried mushrooms, celery, peppercorns, and water and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for ~40 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool for ~1 hour.
6. Strain. Discard solids.
7. Set aside 2 c. of stock for the pilaf. Reserve the rest for another use.

Pilaf

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Stir the sherry/wine into the stock and gently warm the mixture over low heat.
3. Melt the butter over medium heat.
4. Add the onion and cook until softened (4-5 minutes).
5. Add the mushrooms and rice and stir to coat.
6. Add the thyme, salt, pepper, and warm stock and bring to a boil.
7. Cover and transfer to oven. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30 minutes.
8. Add broccoli and cashews, cover, and bake until broccoli is tender (10-15 minutes).
9. If your cashews are untoasted, you may spread them out on a small baking sheet and place in the oven for the last 10 minute of baking.
10. Stir in the cashews and pepper flakes and serve.

I really liked the pears with this pudding. And the coconut was nice. Although I didn't feel it came through as strongly as I would have liked. The pudding was also very thick. I ended up thinning mine out with milk before eating it. It was good though. We all enjoyed it. I just wonder if it might be improved by using slightly more liquid or less rice during the preparation. That said, adding the milk after the fact also worked fine, so it wasn't a big deal either way. Although, now that I think about it... we also ran out of pears well before we ran out of pudding, so maybe less rice would be the way to go. That way there'd be a better pudding-to-pear ratio and the pudding would hopefully have a somewhat looser consistency. Something to try for next time.

Coconut Rice Pudding with Gingered Pears

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kate Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 1 c. basmati rice¹
• 1 c. half-and-half (10% MF), divided
• 3 c. milk
• 1 (~440mL) can coconut milk
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 1/2 c. unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut
• 2 pears, peeled and chopped
• 1"/2.5cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Directions

1. Combine rice, 1/2 c. of the half-and-half, milk, coconut milk, sugar, and salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until rice is very tender (~30 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and spread coconut out on a lined baking sheet.
4. Toast coconut in oven until golden (3-5 minutes). Set aside to cool.
5. Toss pears with ginger and brown sugar and set aside for at least 20 minutes to macerate.
6. Stir remaining 1/2 c. of the half-and-half into the pudding.
7. Serve topped with pears and toasted coconut.

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¹ The original recipe called for 1 1/2 c. of rice, but, as noted above, this seemed like a bit too much, so I've scaled it back here. ^Back

Tamatar Biryani (Tomato Biryani)

I keep skipping over this simple biryani because it isn't very nutritionally complete on its own. It's basically just rice and tomatoes, so it really needs to be served with some other curries to round out the meal. Luckily, I was feeling up for making a couple other curries today, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to finally check this one off.

I tried to do it in the InstantPot as it seemed like it should work well and make life a little easier. Unfortunately, every time the pot tried to get up to pressure, it'd give a "burn" notice and I'd have to stop it, scrape up all the stuck on bits that were starting to burn on the bottom, add a bit more liquid, and start again. Next time I'll just do it on the stovetop and hope that that works better.

Tamatar Biryani

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. white basmati rice¹
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1/4 tsp. whole cloves
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 2 cinnamon sticks (~7cm long)
• 2 blades mace
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 1 tsp. ginger paste
• 4-5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2-3 fresh green Thai, finger, or serrano chilies, halved lengthwise
• 1 small (~400mL) can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Rinse the rice, drain, then cover with fresh water and let stand at room temperature for ~30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, melt the ghee over medium-high heat.
3. Add the cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, and mace and sizzle for 30-60 seconds.
4. Add the onion and stir-fry for 5-7 minutes.
5. Add the ginger, garlic, and chilies and cook for another minute or so.
6. Add the tomatoes, salt, and turmeric and simmer, uncovered, for ~5 minutes.
7. Drain the rice and add it, tossing to coat.
8. Add the water, stir once or twice, and bring to a boil.
9. Cook (without stirring) until water has evaporated from the surface and craters appear in the rice (5-8 minutes).
10. Stir once, cover, and reduce heat to low.
11. Cook on low for another 8-10 minutes.
12. Turn off the heat and allow the rice to sit on the hot burner, still covered and undisturbed, for another 10 minutes.
13. Uncover, fluff with a fork, sprinkle with cilantro, and serve.

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¹ I actually think this would be really nice with brown basmati, but, of course, that would require making adjustments to the liquid quantities and cooking times. Which is doable, I just don't have the wherewithal to figured out the changes right now. Something for next time perhaps... ^Back

Lunch time rolled around today and TF and I were both feeling ravenous. Unfortunately, we didn't really have any leftovers in the fridge. And no bread or other quick and easy lunch options. We were considering having some sort of ramen. But I decided to take a quick look through the egg book before resorting to instant noodles. Luckily I ran across this recipe and remembered that we still had some asparagus in the fridge that needed to be used up.

The original recipe called for basmati rice, but we swapped it out for long-grain brown rice. It takes a little longer to cook, but it's a bit healthier and more filling than white rice. We also swapped out the fresh ginger for ginger paste¹ and halved the oil called for. This worked quite well and made a tasty and relatively easy lunch option!

Brown Rice, Asparagus, and Egg Salad

Slightly adapted from The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

Salad

• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1 c. water²
• peanut (or other neutral) oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp. ginger paste
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea slat, ground
• 340g asparagus, trimmed
• 1-2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 c. sliced green onions
• 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted

Dressing

• 1/2 c. rice vinegar
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. ginger paste
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 3 Tbsp. neutral oil
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil

Directions

1. Cook the rice by your preferred method.
2. Meanwhile, heat a few mm of oil in a 6" frying pan over medium-high heat.
3. Beat the eggs with the ginger, garlic and salt.
4. Once the oil is hot, pour in the egg mixture and cook, without stirring, for 2 minutes.
5. Lift the edges of the egg and let the uncooked mixture flow underneath. Cook for 1 more minute.
6. Flip and cook for 1 minute longer.
7. Transfer to a strainer or paper towel to drain.
8. Cut or tear the omelette into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
9. Place a steamer basket over a few cm of boiling water and steam the asparagus for 3-4 minutes.
10. Rinse the asparagus under cold water, transfer to serving bowl, toss with sesame oil, and set aside.
11. Combine the vinegar, sugar, ginger, garlic, and sea salt for the dressing and mix well.
12. Whisking constantly, add the oil in a thin, steady stream.
13. Continue whisking and drizzle in the sesame oil. Set aside.
14. Once the rice is done, add it to the bowl with the asparagus along with the green onions and toss to combine.
15. Pour over the dressing, add the omelette pieces, and stir to mix.
16. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve.

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¹ I doubled the quantity of ginger paste since I find it doesn't tend to have quite as much presence as fresh ginger. If you are using grated fresh ginger, then halve the quantities called for here. ^Back
2 The amount of water needed to cook the rice will vary depending on the method used to cook it. The proportions shown here are appropriate for pressure cooking in an InstantPot. ^Back

A win from Hello Fresh, this recipe takes a while to come together but isn't particularly difficult, and was a big hit with everyone. The chicken is optional but adds some welcome protein.

Mushroom Risotto with Chicken

Hello Fresh

Ingredients

• 400g mixed cremini, button, and oyster mushrooms
• two large sprigs of sage
• 4 tsp vegetable broth concentrate
• 6 C water
• 500g chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1+2 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1½ C arborio rice
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 125g baby spinach
• 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ C white wine
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• ½ C grated parmesan
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp chili flakes

Directions

1. Trim stems from button and cremini mushrooms. Slice caps thinly and retain both caps and stems separately.
2. Hand-shred oyster mushrooms.
3. Strip sage leaves from stems; retain both separately.
4. Combine sage stems, mushroom stems, water, and broth concentrate in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, covered, then reduce heat to medium-low and leave covered.
5. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large, deep-sided skillet over medium-high heat.
6. Add the chicken and cook until cooked through and nicely browned; remove and buffer.
7. Add the remaining olive oil and the sage leaves. Cook until the sage is crispy, ~1 minute. Remove and buffer with the chicken.
8. Add the sliced mushroom caps, oyster mushroom shreds, and onions. Cook, stirring often, until softened, ~6 minutes.
9. Stir in the garlic salt, chili flakes, black pepper to taste, rice, and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until fragrant and rice is coated, 1-2 minutes.
10. Add wine and cook until wine is absorbed, 1-2 minutes.
11. Reduce heat to medium.
12. Add 1 cup broth from the simmering pot (leave stems behind). Cook, stirring often, until broth is fully absorbed.
13. Repeat prior step until 5-6C of broth have been absorbed, rice is tender, and overall texture is creamy.
14. Stir in spinach and let wilt.
15. Stir in parmesan and butter until fully melted and incorporated.
16. Top with fried sage and chicken strips and serve with salad.

Moong Dal Kichidi (Rice-Lentil Porridge)

At this point we've made all of the pulaos and fried rice recipes in the curry book, so I decided to try this "kichidi" instead. I'd never had a kichidi before, but it seems very similar to pongal, another Indian rice-lentil porridge. They are so similar in fact, that I decided to Google around to try to find out what differentiates them.

Both these dishes are savoury, Indian porridges commonly made from rice and moong dal and often eaten for breakfast. But, having read up on them a bit, I now feel like I have a better handle on what distinguishes them from each other.

First of all, pongals are specifically a south Indian dish while kichidis can be found all over India. And, while pongals are sometimes eaten for dinner, they seem to be mostly considered a breakfast food. Meanwhile, kichidis can be eaten for any meal of the day.

Pongals, in addition to being more geographically restricted, also seem to be more restricted in their ingredients. They are always based on rice and moong dal (skinned split mung beans). While kichidis may feature that pair as their primary ingredients (as this one does), there are a plethora of variants using both different legumes and different grains/starches. Kichidis will also often include vegetables (usually tomatoes and onions and sometimes other vegetables as well), while pongals generally do not. Interestingly, despite this huge range of ingredients, it is pongals and not kichidis who can also come in a sweet form with jaggery and dried fruit in place of the spices and ginger.

And while Iyer calls for turmeric in both his kichidi and pongal recipes, apparently pongal tends to have less turmeric than kichidi on average and be a little less vibrantly yellow.

Other than that, the main difference seems to be the typical accompaniments. Pongal is traditionally eaten with sambhar (although it can certainly work well along-side other curries as well¹). Meanwhile, kichidis -- being more varied in general -- might go with any number of things, but chutneys, pickles, yogurt, and/or papads are some common choices. While vegetable stir-fries are often served with some of the drier, less porridge-y kichidis.

For this particular porridge, Iyer suggests that its ideal companion would be kheema mutter. And, while I do think that would have been delicious, that's not what I ended up doing.

Since I had both kidney beans and eggplant that needed to be used up, I decided to make katarikai goshtu and dahiwaale rajmah instead. Both curries that I hadn't tried yet, would use up the ingredients in question, and seemed reasonably easy to prepare. (I also ended up making a pasta "curry" to use up some arugula, but since that has its own starchy substrate built in, I don't really consider it an accompaniment to the kichidi; it's its own self-contained thing.)

Anyway, the kichidi turned out pleasantly well. It wasn't super flavourful on its own (although the ghee and cumin were nice), but it made a nice backdrop for the various curries it was served with. That said, I think I would like to try adding some tomatoes and onions next time. And probably some chilies as well. Just to give it a little more... presence. And maybe dial back the ghee a bit. Not that it isn't delicious, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to get more deliciousness from vegetables and spices and hopefully be able to rely less on deliciousness from concentrated fat!

So, with that in mind, here is the recipe as I made it, plus a bonus variant with some suggested edits.

Moong Dal Kichidi

From 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. skinned split green lentils/mung beans (moong dal)
• 1 c. long-grain white rice
• 4 c. cold water
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 4 c. boiling water, divided
• 3 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds

Directions

1. Rinse the dal thoroughly.
2. Add the dal and rice to a pot with the cold water.
3. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and skim off and discard any foam that forms on the surface.
4. Add the salt and turmeric.
5. Reduce heat to medium and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until most of the water has been absorbed (~10 minutes).
6. Pour in 1 c. of boiling water and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until that water has also been absorbed (~10 more minutes). Repeat until all the water has been used.
7. Heat the ghee over medium-high heat.
8. Add the cumin to the hot ghee and sizzle for 10-20 seconds.
9. Pour the hot ghee and cumin into the porridge and stir to combine.
10. Serve with pickles, chutney, yogurt, papads, and/or your favourite curries.

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Variants

InstantPot Vegetable Kichidi

Adapted from 660 Curries and Indian Healthy Recipes

Ingredients

• 2-3 Tbsp. ghee, divided
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds, divided
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/8 tsp. ground asafetida
• 1 tsp. bin bhuna hua garam masala or bottle masala (optional)
• 2 tsp. ginger paste
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1-2 fresh green Thai, serrano, or finger chilies, minced
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. green peas (optional)
• 1 c. skinned split green lentils/mung beans (moong dal)
• 1 c. long-grain white rice
• 6-8 c. water

Directions

1. Rinse the dal very well and set aside.
2. Heat 1-2 Tbsp. of the ghee on sauté medium.
3. Add 1 tsp. of the cumin seeds and bay leaves and sizzle for 20-30 seconds.
4. Add the asafetida and masala (if using) give it a quick stir.
5. Add the ginger paste and stir-fry for 30-60 seconds.
6. Add the onion and chili and stir-fry for 3-5 minutes.
7. Add the tomatoes, turmeric, and salt and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
8. If using peas, add them now and cook for ~2 minutes.
9. Add the dal and stir-fry for ~4 minutes. (Or toast the dal in a dry pan in advance.)
10. Add the rice and water² and stir once or twice.
11. Pressure cook high for 8 minutes. Allow a 15-minute natural release.
12. Heat 1 Tbsp. of ghee over medium-high heat and add the remaining 2 tsp. of cumin seeds.
13. Sizzle the cumin for 10-20 seconds, then add the hot ghee and cumin to the porridge and stir once or twice.
14. Serve as above, with your choice of yogurt, pickles, chutneys, papads, curries, and/or stir-fries.

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¹ Iyer suggests serving the ven pongal in his book with aviyal and katarikai goshtu. ^Back
2 Use the lesser amount for a drier porridge and greater amount for a looser, more soupy porridge. ^Back

This is an Indian dessert, a sweet rice pudding seasoned with cardamom. Interestingly, it doesn't appear in 660 Curries; this recipe was constructed by symbol, about a decade ago, as a synthesis of several other kheer recipes found online. We lost it for a while -- it was originally recorded on a now-defunct family website, and we had no local copy -- but I was able to fish the recipe out of our chat logs and reproduce it here.

The cooking time is fairly flexible depending on how thick you want it; we generally aim for a more soupy texture, but you can thicken it up by simmering it for a bit longer. It can be served either hot or cold.

While this writeup uses white sugar (and that's how we've always made it), I think it might be interesting to try it with jaggery sometime. Similarly, we generally make it with raisins (which symbol prefers to currents for this application), but I'd like to try it with various other fruits at some point.

Kheer

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp ghee (or unsalted butter)
• ¾ C basmati rice
• ½ indian bay leaf (or 1 bay laurel leaf + 1 cinnamon stick)
• 6 green cardamom pods (or ½ tsp ground decorticated cardamom)
• 6 C milk (or 3 C milk + 375mL evaporated milk + 1½ C water)
• ½ C sugar
• ¼ C raisins (or dried currants)
• scant ½ tsp vanilla extract
• nuts (such as cashews, pistachios, or slivered almonds) as garnish

Directions

1. Heat ghee in a heavy pot over medium heat.
2. Add rice and toast, stirring, for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the bay leaf, cardamom, and milk. Carefully bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally.
4. Once the mixture has reduced somewhat, add the sugar and dried fruit and continue to simmer until the desired consistency is reached.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
6. Serve hot or cold, optionally garnished with nuts.

This was pretty tasty and also pretty easy to make. Not an all-time favourite, but I'd make it again next time we have cabbage to destroy. It requires a bunch of ingredients, but apart from the cabbage they're all things we have on hand reliably, and half of them are just combined to make the sauce so it's not as complicated as it looks.

Tuna Cabbage Rice Bowl

Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp gochujang
• 2 tbsp gochugaru
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp sugar
• 800g green cabbage, cored and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 4 green onions, sliced, whites and greens divided
• 1 tbsp oil
• 300g tinned tuna, drained
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• black pepper
• 2 C cooked rice
• 4-6 soft-boiled eggs
• toasted sesame seeds

Directions

1. Whisk together the gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, mirin, oyster sauce, garlic, and sugar to form the sauce; set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add the green onion whites and cook until fragrant, ~1 minute.
4. Add the cabbage and onion and stir-fry until the cabbage softens, 3-5 minutes.
5. Add the tinned tuna and continue stir-frying for another 3 minutes.
6. Remove from heat. Add the sesame oil and black pepper to taste.
7. Serve over rice, garnished with the eggs, sesame seeds, and green onion greens.

Congrí (Cuban Black Beans and Rice)

I had initially intended to follow the Cook's Country recipe for black beans and rice. But their version was meant to be a quick method using canned black beans and I didn't have any of those on hand. I thought about trying to adapt it but, in the end, I decided that I'd rather just look up an entirely different recipe onilne.

I stuck pretty close to the recipe I selected. Although I did halve all the quantities. And then halved the oil again (just to try to trim a few calories). And I used brown rice instead of the parboiled called for because long-grain brown is our default rice. And, since I didn't have any chorizo (or bacon or salted pork belly or smoked ham hocks or any of the various other pork products called for), I chopped up half a block of smoked tofu and tossed that in instead. Definitely not as rich and meaty as the pork would've been but, if nothing else, it made for a convenient way to use up the tofu.

And, of course, as is almost traditional for me at this point, I forgot to add the cilantro at the end. Oh well... it'll be good on the leftovers.

Congrí

Slightly adapted from Food52

Ingredients

• 225g dried black beans
• 6 c. water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 onion¹, chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 dry Spanish chorizo sausage², chopped
• 2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1/2 Tbsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/2 Tbsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper, ground
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/16 tsp. ground turmeric
• chicken stock, as needed
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine beans, water, and bay leaf and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for ~90 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat.
4. Add bell pepper and onion and cook for 3-4 minutes.
5. Add garlic and cook for another minute.
6. Add chorizo and cook for 2-3 minutes.
7. Add rice and cook for another couple of minutes.
8. Add cumin, garlic powder, pepper, salt, oregano, and turmeric and cook for 30-60 seconds longer.
9. Remove from heat and set aside until beans are done. (It's okay if the beans are still a bit firm after the initial 90 minutes of cooking, they will get cooked more with the rice.)
10. Once the beans are cooked enough to eat, but still somewhat firm, remove from heat.
11. Pour off and measure the bean cooking water. If you're using homemade stock (or if you didn't need to add much stock to your bean water), then you may want to add a bit of extra salt to your liquid. I added ~1/2 tsp. to mine.
12. Add enough chicken stock to the water to bring the volume up to 4 c.
13. Add the beans and the bean liquid to the rice mixture.
14. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
15. Cover and reduce heat to low.
16. Cook, covered, for ~30 minutes.
17. Remove from heat and stir the rice.
18. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes.
19. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve!

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¹ I was fresh out of bell peppers, so I actually omitted both the bell pepper and the onion and put in 2 c. of frozen "spaghetti mix" instead. It's a combination of red and green bell pepper, onion, carrot, and celery. That gave me the pepper and onion that I needed and I figured that the addition of a bit of carrot and celery wouldn't hurt. ^Back
2 As noted above, I didn't have any pork products available, so I used smoked tofu instead. The Cook's Country recipe called for salted pork belly as the meaty component. And I saw others that called for bacon and one that incorporated smoked ham hocks. So... the takeaway seems to be use something meaty, salty, and preferably involving pork; smoke optional. ^Back

Rice Pilaf (with Variations)

I needed some rice to go with tonight's dinner. Normally I'd either do plain rice or grab something out of 660 Curries. But I decided to try out something from Cook's Country instead. Rice cooked with "curry powder", apples, and raisins was... if not a staple of my childhood, at least common enough to be familiar. The Cook's Country version leaves out the raisins, but the other elements are similar: onion, garlic, curry powder, apples, toast the rice first...

I think, if I were doing it again, I'd include the raisins. The apple alone doesn't feel like quite enough. I'd also rearrange the ordering of the ingredeints. I added the curry powder with the onions like it said, but that really limits how much you can toast the rice without risking burning the spices. Nex time I'd add the garlic with the rice (not after like the recipe says) and only add the curry powder after the rice is toasted. I figure the raisins can go in at that point too.

NB: I've adapted this recipe for the brown rice and cooking in the InstantPot. If you're using different rice or cooking on the stovetop, your cooking time and the amount of liquid required will be completely different. Adjust as necessary to match what and how you're cooking.

Curried Rice Pilaf

Slighlty adapted from Cook's Country June/July 2016

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1/4 c. golden raisins
• 1 Tbsp. Madras curry powder
• 1 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 apple¹, chopped
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Melt butter over medium-high heat. (Sauté "high" for InstantPot.)
2. Add onion and cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add garlic and rice and cook for ~2 minutes longer.
4. Add raisins and curry powder and cook for another 30 seconds or so.
5. Add stock.
6. Cover InstantPot and set to pressure cook on "high" for 20 minutes.
7. Allow for a 10-minute natural release, then release any remaining pressure and fluff the rice.
8. Mix in apple and cilantro and serve.

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Variations

Basic Rice Pilaf with Thyme

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1 tsp. minced fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp. dried thyme)
• 1 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock

Cilantro-Jalapeño Rice Pilaf

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 fresh jalapeño, seeded and minced
• 1 1/2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 tsp. lime zest
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Herbed Rice Pilaf with Almonds

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 tsp. lemon zest
• 1/4 c. almonds, toasted and chopped
• 1/4 c. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 tsp. chopped fresh tarragon

Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 60g cremini mushrooms, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1 tsp. poultry seasoning
• 1 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

Vegan Version

• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1/4 c. golden raisins
• 1 Tbsp. Madras curry powder
• 1 1/2 c. vegetable stock
• 1 apple¹, chopped
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

I've called for coconut oil here because I thought it would go nicely with the fruit and "curry" vibe. I think canola, corn, or some other neutral oil would probably be a good choice for the rest. Or even margerine or vegan butter. Pick your favourite fat!

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¹ I'd use a Granny Smith (or other tart variety) for preference, but pretty much any apple will do. ^Back

Karuvapillai Shaadum (Rice with Curry Leaves)

Based on the name, I was expecting this dish to involve whole, fresh curry leaves. It does not. Instead it relies on karuvapillai podi (curry leaf powder) for its unique flavour. Unique and incredibly delicious, by the way! And also very easy to make. Definitely a keeper.

Karuvapillai Shaadum

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. mustard oil
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 2 Tbsp. karuvapillai podi
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. water

Directions

1. Set InstantPot to sauté medium and add oil (or heat pot over medium-high heat on stovetop).
2. Add mustard seeds, cover, and cook until they've stopped popping (30-60 seconds).
3. Add rice and stir to coat.
4. Add karuvapillai podi, salt, and water.
5. Stir to combine and seal the InstantPot.
6. Pressure cook on high for 20 minutes.
7. Remove lid and fluff rice with a fork or rice paddle.
8. Cover and keep warm until ready to serve.

Quick Chicken Jambalaya

I'm not sure whether I can honestly claim to have made this recipe or not. I made a lot of substitutions.

Okay, so I almost always use brown rice in place of white, so that one maybe doesn't count. And we cook it in the InstantPot because that's generally easier than whatever method the recipe uses by default. And I swapped out the olive oil for bacon grease because I had it on hand and I thought it'd be tasty. Okay, so that's all alright. But then we start straying farther from the path...

First there's the shredded rotisserie chicken in place of the skinless, boneless chicken thighs. Then, in the absence of the traditional andouille sausage, we opted for some sweet Chinese sausage instead. And because it needs to be cooked before eating, we tossed it in with the rice to cook rather than adding it to the skillet with the chicken. After that, we came to the bell pepper. Having used up our last bell pepper this morning, I decided to use this frozen "spaghetti" mix instead. It's a mix of chopped onion, carrot, celery, green bell pepper, and just a touch of red bell pepper. I figured that the addition of onion and celery along with the bell pepper would be at least "in the spirit" of the recipe since those are the three components of the Cajun/Creole "holy trinity". I guess, by also including carrot, it may have entered into some unholy union with mirepoix, but... oh well. We were already far enough off the rails at this point that I wasn't worried about a little bit of carrot messing things up!

We're almost finished with my deviations now, I promise. Last thing: since the "spaghetti mix" already included onions, we decided to just omit the green onions from the recipe. I'm not usually one to turn down more alliums, but they didn't really seem necessary with onion already in there doing its thing.

Okay, yeah, so I know that's a lot of changes. As I said, I'm not sure I can say that I actually made the dish described in the recipe. But I made something and it was tasty!

Quick Chicken Jambalaya (or something somewhat like it)

Adapted from Cook's Country June/July 2019

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 225-350g sliced Chinese sausages (or andouille sausages if you wanna be all authentic and accurate)
• 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp. ketchup
• 2 tsp. Creole seasoning, divided
• 2 Tbsp. bacon grease or olive oil
• 1 1/2 c. frozen "spaghetti mix" or Creole "holy trinity"
• 300-400g shredded rotisserie chicken

Directions

1. Place the rice, water, and sausage in the InstantPot and pressure cook on "high" for 18 minutes with a 10-minute natural release.
2. Meanwhile, combine Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, and 1/2 tsp. of the Creole seasoning. Mix well and set aside.
3. Melt bacon grease over medium heat.
4. Add spaghetti mix/holy trinity and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-8 minutes.
5. Add chicken and remaining 1/2 Tbsp. of Creole seasoning and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside until rice has finished cooking.
6. Once rice is ready, return pan with chicken to medium-low heat and add rice and sausages.
7. Stir in sauce and cook, stirring frequently, for ~5 minutes.

It's been a while since I've made anything out of our Cook's Country magazines and I was feeling at a bit of a loss for dinner inspiration, so I figured maybe it was time to browse the recipe list again. This chili looked easy and tasty and I already had most of the ingredients on hand, so it seemed ideal. Not least of all because it would let us use up a little more ground beef, which we have in abundance at the moment.

The original recipe involved cooking the rice in the skillet and then keeping it warm in individual serving bowls while you cook the chili in the same skillet you used for the rice. I appreciate that this avoids dirtying a second cooking vessel. But I wasn't crazy about cooking the two components sequentially and bringing the oven into the mix, so I opted to use the InstantPot for the rice and let it do its thing while TF helped me put together the chili.

Skillet Chili Bowls

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2020

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro, divided
• 2 tsp. grated lime zest, divided
• 2-3 Tbsp. lime juice, divided
• 450g ground beef (preferably 90% lean)
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt¹, divided
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1 Tbsp. bacon fat
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 chipotle in adobo, minced
• 450mL tomato sauce
• 2 c. cooked black beans²
• 1 c. frozen corn
• grated Cheddar, to serve (optional)
• pickled jalapeños, to serve (optional)

Directions

1. Combine sour cream, 2 Tbsp. of the cilantro, 1 tsp. of the lime zest, and half the lemon juice and mix well. Set aside and chill until ready to use.
2. Mix beef with the water, baking soda, 1/4 tsp. of the salt, and pepper and let rest for 20-30 minutes.
3. Cook the rice by your preferred method with 1/2 tsp. of the salt.³
4. Once the rice is done, stir in the remaining lime zest, lime juice, and cilantro.
5. Melt the bacon grease over medium heat.
6. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook for ~7 minutes.
7. Add the beef and cook for another 6-7 minutes.
8. Add cumin, garlic, and chipotle and cook for 1 minute.
9. Add tomato sauce, beans, and corn and cook for 5 more minutes.
10. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
11. Serve chili over rice and topped with Cheddar, jalapeños, and/or crema (the cilantro-lime sour cream mixture).

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¹ The original recipe called for a whopping 2 tsp. of salt! 1/4 tsp. in the beef, 1/4 tsp. in the crema, 1/2 tsp. in the rice, and 1 tsp. added to the chili in the last 5 minutes of cooking. That seemed like way too much to me. Especially since we were using tinned beans and tinned tomato sauce (both of which the recipe specifically calls for). If you are cooking your own beans from scratch and making your own tomato sauce, then you might find you need to add a little salt at the end of cooking, but taste it first! ^Back
2 I forgot to get my beans cooking ahead of time, so we didn't have any black beans ready to hand for the chili. My second and third choice would've been kidney or pinto beans, but we didn't have any of those pre=cooked either. I ended up tossing in a tin of cannellini (white kidney) beans. They actually worked pretty well! Although I do think it would've been even better with black beans. ^Back
3 For me this means a 1:1 ratio of rice and water in the InstantPot on high pressure for 18 minutes (for long-grain brown rice) with a 10-minute natural release. ^Back

I posted a different recipe for congee a couple years back. However, as noted in the original recipe, there are a lot of different ways to make congee. I did up a slightly different take on congee recently. It's still the same basic concept, but I decided to write it up anyway. As before, this is a very flexible recipe, so do with it what you will.

For this particular congee incarnation, I started with a cooked chicken and made the stock from scratch, so I've included those instructions below. You can, of course, use store-bought stock or even water. Pork bones also work well. Follow your heart!

Chicken Congee

Ingredients

Broth

• 1 whole cooked chicken
• 2-4 c. vegetable peelings and scraps¹
• 3L water
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 (7-8cm) cinnamon stick
• 1 star anise
• small knob of fresh ginger

Congee

• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1/4 c. short-grain white rice²
• 2-3 Tbsp. dried goji berries
• Broth from above
• 1/4 of the meat from the chicken
• salt, to taste
• white pepper, to taste

Toppings

• sesame oil
• chopped fresh cilantro
• chopped dry-roasted peanuts
• toasted sesame seeds

Directions

Broth

1. Remove the chicken meat from the bones and reserve both the meat and carcass separately.
2. Combine the chicken carcass with all the other broth ingredients in InstantPot (or in a pot on the stove) and slow cook on "high" for 2-3 hours.
3. Strain the broth and discard the solids.

Congee

1. While the broth is cooking, soak the rice. Place in a bowl with enough water to cover for 30 minutes, then drain and set aside.
2. Place all the congee ingredients in InstantPot (or in a pot on the stove) and simmer for 1-2 hours depending on what texture and consistency you prefer. You may want to cook it either partially or fully uncovered for some of the time (again, depending on your preferred consistency).
3. Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and white pepper.

Serving

1. To serve, top each portion with a drizzle of sesame oil, then place the peanuts, cilantro, and sesame seeds on top.
2. If desired, sriracha or Laoganma can be added to give a hit of spiciness.
3. Other toppings may be added or substituted. Popular choices include: fried wontons/noodles, chopped scallions/green onions, sprouts, microgreens, and/or sautéed mushrooms. Salted duck eggs and century eggs are also popular congee inclusions.

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¹ I often save vegetable scraps and peels and toss them in a large Ziploc bag in the freezer. When the bag gets full, I toss them in the InstantPot with some water and seasonings (and possibly bones of some sort) and slow cook for a few hours until I have a delicious stock. This time I think my bag contained onion, garlic, bell pepper, ginger, carrot, pink oyster mushroom and lion's mane mushroom (courtesy of Noki Farms), and possibly a few other things as well. If you don't have any vegetable scraps handy, then feel free to just toss in some onions, carrots, mushrooms, and whatever else seems tasty. ^Back
2 I was originally planning to make this congee with only brown rice but, after cooking for a little over an hour, the consistency was still more like rice soup with a clear broth than what I expect for congee. I added the short-grain rice to see if the extra starch would help thicken it up. I also cooked it with the lid off for a little bit. I'm not sure if it was the extra rice or the extra cooking or the time with the lid off that did the trick but, at the end of another hour, it was looking much better! ^Back

Arroz a la Mexicana

This recipe comes from The Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy; it has been adapted to be amenable to single-pot preparation in the Instant Pot using brown rice.

Arroz a la Mexicana (Mexican Rice)

The Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy, pp.288-289

Ingredients

• 1 large tomato, cored
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 large garlic clove
• 1½ C long-grain brown rice
• ⅓ C oil
• 1½ C broth, salted¹
• ⅓ C peas
• 1 small carrot, julienned

Directions

1. Blend together the tomato, onion, and garlic; buffer.
2. Heat the oil in the instant pot on sautée medium
3. Add the rice and stir until well coated. Cook, stirring often, until rice is toasted, ~4 minutes.
4. Drain most of the oil.
5. Adjust setting to sautée high. Add tomato blend and cook, stirring constantly, until liquid has almost completely cooked off. (The book claims that this will take 3 minutes, it took me closer to 10.)
6. Stir in broth, peas, and carrots.
7. Seal pot and set to pressure cook high, 20 minutes.
8. Once cooking finishes, wait ten minutes, then release pressure and fluff rice.

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¹ If using commercial broth, prepare 1½ C as-is. If using home-made broth without salt, add 1½ tsp of salt to it. ^Back

This is a basic Burmese fried rice. It has some elements in common with other fried rice dishes that I've made but, unlike Chinese fried rice, there is no sauce added at the end. The rice is simple fried with some turmeric, shallots, and peas and served with lime wedges. I appreciate the simplicity and it is very delicious. (Although, if you're willing to add another step, I do think it would be very nice with scrambled eggs!)

Fried Rice with Shallots

Slightly adapted from Burma: Rivers of Flavor by Naomi Duguid

Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. oil
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 (or more) sliced shallots
• 4-5 c. cooked rice
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. green peas
• scrambled eggs (optional)
• 2-3 Tbsp. fried shallots
• lime wedges (optional)

Directions

1. If you want to add some scrambled eggs, you can make them in the wok, then transfer them to a plate while you cook the rice in the wok.
2. Heat the wok over medium-high heat.
3. Drizzle in the oil and swirl to coat.
4. Add the turmeric and shallots and stir-fry for ~5 minutes.
5. Increase heat to high and add rice.
6. Add salt, peas, and scrambled egg (if using).
7. Stir-fry until rice is seared and peas are cooked.
8. Add the fried shallots and stir-fry for another 30-60 seconds.
9. Serve with lime wedges if desired.