Quick Fixes !

Dear Foodies,

Like I mentioned in my previous post, cooking for one is a whole new experience. I now have the license to experiment to my hearts content. My pantry is stacked and stocked with soo many new ingredients. I have been having an Indian dinner with rice just once a week for the last three weeks...yup! thats how much I am playing around with ingredients.

The week I moved, I saw a lot of Thai cooking going around in the blogs. That kinda dominated my taste buds for the rest of the week. I had some rice leftover from a previous meal (and that seems to happen everyday, I end up having a box in the fridge for every day of the week !!) I wanted to eat something Thai. I longingly looked in my fridge and realized I had absolutely no veggies, even frozen ones :( This was just the 2nd or 3rd day and I still had to get used to the thought that 'things don't end up in the house if I don't go to the store' :) But I was smart enough to buy all the curry pastes...hehe..so I chopped up some onions and opened up a can of chickpeas and made this yummy rice.


I am not going to pen down this recipe in my usual 'ingredients and recipe list' style. To call this a recipe would be stretching things a bit too far ;)

Heat 2 tsp of Peanut oil in a pan, toss in 1/2 chopped onion and a handful of drained, washed chickpeas, patted dry. I wanted the chickpeas to get a little crunchy. Next mix in 1 -11/2 tsp of Thai red curry paste. The paste gives out a little oil when heated and as the aroma of the spices starts filling up your kitchen move the pan away from the heat and stir in 2 Tbsp coconut milk. (Thai without coconut is not Thai :P) Season it with a little salt and add in 1tsp of Thai chilli garlic paste if you need more heat or in my case since I bought it I had to use it :) Simmer for a minute or two, add in 2 cups of rice & stir to incorporate the curry paste. A bowl of this hot rice with some yoghurt was soo yummy and satisfying. You can surely add veggies that you have in hand and make it more healthy and hearty meal.

You might now be wondering what the first pic is all about then. Well that was later in the week when I went and bought some frozen stir fry style veggies to make a propah' meal. That night I could not decide what I wanted more, Thai/Chinese ? So I added a little of both these flavors. I did not want to eat rice and so used Orzo instead and tricked my mind into thinking I was eating the ever so comforting rice :)

Heat a 2 tsp of oil in a pan, toss in 1/2 a chopped onion and microwaved frozen veggies after a minute. I had snow peas, broccoli, red peppers, water chestnuts and onions. Since you don't want to loose the crunch in the veggies, quickly add some soy sauce (I bought Tamari, following B & J's post ) season with salt and pepper, some red pepper flakes and a little of that Thai curry paste. The liquid from the veggies and soy sauce will help in blending the paste into the vegetables. I cooked some orzo pasta in a separate pan and added that to the veggies. And my meal was ready :) The lovely color of the pasta is courtesy the Tamari.

A lot more of such simple, quick and wild recipes coming up... any new ideas from you guys will be sincerely put to test, so let me know ! :)