Category: Awesome meal for 1

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 stuffed potato jackets


 

The pictures aren’t really great this time. I decided to make these one evening, when I was both hungry, bored and craved something EVIL. These fat beauties are so luscious and filling and cheesy that the guilt doesn’t stay too long.

The stuffing is actually entirely up to you and what you happen to have on you at that moment . I had some mozzarella leftover from a few days, and well that’s how I decided to use it. So here goes.

I had a few medium-sized potatoes, which I baked for 45 minutes at 220℃. Yes I inserted a very thin knife to check for doneness. You can see the surgery mark in the second potato.

 

oil the baking tray and the set these cut up potatoes, skin side down.

Scoop out their innards as much as you can without really tearing up their skins. You don’t have to be overly careful or scoop within an inch of their lives. The green tinge is from a tinted window, I know these aren’t the most fab pics. I have made peace with it.

here’s the filling. It has the scooped out potatoes, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, crushed garlic, mayonnaise, a dash of salt and a bit of crushed red chillies.  These have to get a mixing and smoothed together until its come to a consistency where it somewhat resembles a thick paste of gloriousness.

 

The hollow potatoes are now stuffed. It took about a tablespoonful in each, and then topped off with more grated mozzarella. I also drizzled some olive oil on top to make them a bit more brown, burnt and oozy.

Bake them at 200℃ for 30 minutes, or until you can see the cheese swell up, and tan.

This came out smelling hot and so gorgeous. It was practically oozing all over the tray. A bit of mustard and you’re done. You might not fit into your pants the next day, but it’s totally worth it.

Ingredients

– 3-4 medium-sized potatoes

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp crushed red chillies

2-3 cloves garlic (crushed.)

2 tbsp olive oil (any regular oil will do)

You know the rest.. right.

 

Warm vegetable soup for the soul


Summer’s are all gone, they’re over.. Pulling something out of the fridge is a chore, and I feel hungry all the time.. yup the winters are on their way and it’s by far the best reason to be in my kitchen.. so cozy.. so warm.

this soup came as an epiphany, when I realized it was too late for breakfast and too early for lunch and I wanted to eat something very filling, yet not very tedious.. something comforting but not at the expense of screwing my waistline.. This soup is the perfect fix and easily manageable with a medley of vegetables and top notch taste.. You’ll actually feel proud of downing more than the required amount of greens.. aah the guilt free feeling of eating something hearty..

the ingredients line up is mostly greens, but you can use whichever vegetables you like.. I have bock choy (I’m in love with them as of now), spring onions, lettuce, heaped teaspoon of cornflour, 2 red chillies chopped, 2 fat cloves of garlic, 1/2 inch cube of ginger, 1 long long green chilly, 300 mls water, black pepper, soya sauce, vinegar and of course salt.. I didn’t use any since the soya sauce was more than sufficient.. & yes 2 tsps oil.

Not very artistic, but here is a clear view of all the chopped greens. I think I just tore off the lettuce with my bare hands.. such was my ferocity ( I was watching hulk while cooking this .. sorry !!)

and now we start.. first in were the chillies.. the red and the green

the ginger & the garlic follow.. this is the most fabulous aroma ever.. This was a great meal

Stir ’em together and breathe in deep.. mmm

in goes the black pepper, sprinkle liberally.

followed by the vinegar.. a nice & generous splash

a healthy dose of soya sauce

we now proceed with the vegetables..

It was at this point that I seriously thought I should have used a bigger pot or pan.. but ok.. what is life without a few risks??

can you imagine the concentration I was putting in while stirring this without spilling anything outside and watching Hulk at the same time.. which reminds me ‘how hot is Edward Norton??’ say.. I think it was watching the green man that prompted me to make this soup in the first place.. hmm anyways..

See.. can you see all of it coming together? I was finally able to combine them all without much spillage..

isn’t this the prettiest? Once it’s all combined, just sprinkle the cornglour all over and mix it well in.

add in water because it’s a soup.. you can also ad in your favourite stock.. no problem at all.

I also added in 1/2 tsp of sugar, just to balance out the taste.. it doesn’t sweeten the soup at all. Just gives it a very nice undertone.

We’re almost done.. just cover it and let cook for 5 minutes or so.. I promise this is going to be the best brunch soup ever.

Uncover for a moment.. look at it boiling, smell in deep and admire for a while

This is it.. it’s done.. it was so pretty I had tears of joy.. every bite is so full of flavors. If you want it as a complete meal, I suggest add in some boiled noodles ,or chunks of ham or leftover chicken.. This was such a good meal, my impatience resulted in a burnt tongue, a t-shirt with soya stains and the most memorable Hulk movie ever.

Have fun with this recipe.. !! Enjoy.


Way too easy macaroni


Home alone, hungry and too lazy to make anything extravagant & in reality not interested in distracting yourself when your favourite movie is on..

Wat do you do? cook something when the commercial break is on.. This is the easiest in fact too embarrassingly easy and crazy delicious version of the lazy wife macaroni edition..

This post doesn’t have the cooking instructions and picture tutorial, for the reasons that I didn’t have my camera on me and that it was almost too lame to put the pictures of a hot skillet and boiling noodles.. really it was that easy..

Ingredients

macaroni/pasta noodles – depending how hungry you are.. I used 3/4 cup

2 tsp olive oil

1 clove crushed garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp turmeric powder (completely optional)

1 tsp chilli flakes (cuz I needed some bite & kick)

Boil your noodles according to package instructions

Heat the oil and add in the garlic, turmeric, chilli & salt and tip in the macaroni.. and that’s it. I got this big bowl and finished it in no time. So basically it took two commercial breaks.. in one I put the macaroni on boil and in the other I made everything else.. Seriously that easy..

Enjoy!!!

Stir fry rice noodles


Living in China, this is a dish that naturally comes to be made.. Actually it’s really quick, easy, spicy and full of some crazy flavours. The fact that it’s a great way to eat a lot of vegetables and the entire house smelling deliciously of garlic and ginger make it annoyingly mouth watering.

You can actually dig out whatever vegetables you want from the fridge and give it your own special touch. I stuck to the green that seemed to flood my fridge these days and well.. they look pretty in any dish.

this was the ingredients line up

rice noodles

1/2 cup green onions

1 green chillies

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic & ginger chopped fine about a small knob (should be lesser than garlic)

1 tsp salt

2-3 tsp vinegar

2 tsp oil

2 tsp chilli in vinegar (it was this bottle of red chillies drenched in vinegar that I found here in China & it was by far the best condiment I had purchased)

2 tsp soya sauce

3-4 bok choys

Please take care while chopping the chillies. They’re not our finger’s friendsNow the best part of these rice noodles (vermicelli) is that there’s no fuss about boiling or anything. You just need to soak them in some water for 15 minutes max and they’re done. I am using room temperature water here.

Now we start.. heat the oil and start by adding in the garlic

followed by the green chillies

followed by onions

now for some soya sauce.. my kitchen at this moment was heavenly.. I could have eaten these vegetables right out of the pan

vinegar & salt as well.. it’s not pictured though

enter the leafy bok choy’s.. these green babies are so freaking tasty and they almost wilt and give the whole dish this green tinge that is s pretty & contrasting with the rest of the vegetables.

the vinegary red chillies that have the most fantastic flavour ever. If I could, I would eat this straight out of a jar..

giving this a good stir and mixing it all together, let the wonderful aroma waft.

Finally the noodles and mix it all well.. yess.. it’s almost done.

and for the last finishing touch.. the green onions.. and that it.

This has to be one of the best meals.. it’s got vegetables, flavour and easy to make. Healthy and crazy tasty. I am so much in love with this new found flavour and taste, I have been mixing and matching this with everything under the sun, with eggs, rice everything..

Enjoy !!!