Month: October 2012

Schezuan Rice


 

Leftovers !!! the most dreaded word in a house. Nothing good ever comes out of leftovers they say. My fridge is full of so much stale food they say. Actually leftovers are just some food already cooked for you, and all you’ve gotta do is change something about it and make it into another meal.

In my case I had a bowlful of leftover rice. To me, leftovers can result in some of the most versatile snacks, dinners, meals. Just tinkering around with some random pulled out food from a fridge raid can result in creative meals you never thought you’d otherwise have.

I made a fabulous bowl of fiery Schezuan rice with green peppers.

You can either use the Schezuan sauce that comes out of jars or make some of your own. Of-course life is easy if it comes out of a jar but since I didn’t have any, I opted to make some for myself, and its piece of cake.

Ingredients for Schezuan sauce in case you’re not using it from a jar.

this might not be the authentic recipe (sorry Sichuan, China), but this is how I make… it’s ferociously hot and lip smacking tasty.

8-10 dried red chillies soaking in water for at least a couple of hours.

10 cloves of garlic minced

2 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp chilli sauce

1 tsp pepper

2 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp water

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp oil

Drain the red chillies soaking in water and grind them into a fine paste. In a pan, add oil, mix in the garlic and saute until soft and golden, Now add the ginger and saute. Take a moment to die in the fragrance emitting from your pan and stir in the ground chilly paste.

add salt, pepper, sot sauce, chilli sauce, water and mix until bubbling and thick. finally add in the sugar and vinegar. Mix until fully incorporated and thickened. Allow to cool.

Ingredients for Schezuan Rice

Cooked rice – I had about a 1.5 cup

small onion diced

peppers sliced thinly. I had green, but you can use any colour you like.

2 tbsp Schezuan sauce (recipe above)

1 Tbsp oil.

1/2 tsp salt

The procedure is pretty straightforward. Heat oil in a pan, add in the onions and cook until softened. Add in the peppers and saute until the onions have caramelized a bit and taken on the peppery flavour. add the Schezuan sauce, and mix until the vegetables have turned red. Finally mix in the rice until coated with the sauce. Serve very hot..

 

 

Cheesy pizza.


Excuse these latest pictures, and feast ye eyes on this hunk of a cheesy pizza. Hot out of the oven and made from scratch. It’s fresh and it’s fast and it’s a feast.

This dainty little thing fed about 5 people. It’s not exactly thin crust, though you could make that if you wished. This was a fat, almost focaccia like base with tons of toppings and cheese.

Ingredients 

for the dough base:

500 gms strong flour

1 packet active dry yeast.

230 mls lukewarm water

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

20 mls olive oil.(regular olive oil)

Toppings

300 gms of good mozzarella cheese

diced and chopped vegetables/meats of your choice.(billions of combinations, have fun with your food)

– I used peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic, chillies diced thin.

Pizza sauce- my recipe

4-5 medium-sized blanched tomatoes.

1 tsp oregano

1 small chopped onion

3-4 garlic cloves

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil (regular not extra virgin)

1 tbsp butter

1/2 cup red wine (any good red wine)it really brings in the flavours.

1/2 tsp crushed black pepper.

DOUGH BASE

Firstly dissolve the sugar in the lukewarm water and keep aside.

Sift the flour, salt and add in the yeast. mix well. gradually add in the warm water to the flour and knead well to make a smooth, stretchy dough. If you need a mixer for the this, go ahead and knock yourself out. I love a bit of intense labour work and made a dough simply using my hands.

Once the dough is nice and smooth, and I kneaded for a good 10-15 minutes, add in the oil and knead again. Once done, leave it to rise in a warm place, cover with a well oiled cling film or moist tea towel. This rising will take about an hour.

PIZZA SAUCE 

in a food processor give the tomatoes a few pulses so that they size down a bit and are quicker to cook.

In a saucepan, heat oil and butter and add the minced garlic cloves and onions. add a pinch of salt and cook until translucent. Tip in the tomatoes and cook until softened and thickened about 10 minutes. Once the gloopy sauce has turned into a thicker paste and you see bits sticking into the saucepan add in the wine stirring continuously ensuring that all the caramelized pieces are deglazed and mixed into the sauce. Once the wine starts bubbling out and reducing, start adding in the oregano, salt and pepper. Let it all cook till it’s no longer watery and looks spreadable.

Leave it to cool, and check out your pizza dough. give it a couple of good punches, once you see it has doubled in size and let it deflate. Leave it to rise again for another 15 minutes and get on with the pan/tray you want to make your pizza in.

I used a jelly roll pan which was about 12X12X1 inch and generously oiled it.

Tip in the dough into the pan and start stretching it to fit completely. It might not look like it will fit, but yes it will. make sure that it’s not uneven. keep smoothening it out and make it fit well.

Once done spread the pizza sauce leaving at least 1/2 inch along the border of the pizza. sprinkle with half of the grated mozzarella cheese and adorn with toppings. Mound the remaining cheese on top and bake for 25 minutes in a  hot 200℃ oven.

Slice it into the pan, don’t even bother taking it out. Feed as many or reserve for a delicious cold breakfast next day.

Buttery Vanilla Cake.


Not the best picture, I know. This cake was made on a special request, fairly late in the evening, for my younger brother. His demands were simple. A very unpretentious, basic, spongy, no frill vanilla cake, which is easily wolfed down.

This is a recipe I have on my finger tips and it’s so buttery, so luscious and spongy that you don’t feel the need to slather any icing on it. Tea cake, breakfast cake, anytime cake- this will fit the bill.

My photographs have to be excused, I clicked them without any natural lights and edited them a bit on instagram.

Ingredients

Butter 150 gms

flour 250 gms

sugar 180 gms

2 large eggs

milk 200mls

1.5 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

It’s fairly simple as cakes go. Sift the flour and baking powder and keep aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (I used a hand mixer for this). Crack in the first egg, beat until well incorporated, now crack in the second egg and mix well.

Add the vanilla extract, keep mixing all through. It’s this addition of air that makes this batter so light and spongy.

add the flour mixture and milk, in 3 alternating additions. Mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl. The batter is done.

Transfer into a well greased baking pan and smoothen the top. I also tap it a bit on the surface so there are no air bubbles and it doesn’t result in a dome shape.

bake at 170℃ for 35 minutes. Ovens may vary sometimes, so you need to check with a toothpick for doneness after 30 minutes.

This cake though easily eaten just as it and in fact tastes best that way can also be iced, filled, frosted to your liking.