Rice Stew with Capsicum and Black Olives

When you find a bowl of left over rice in your fridge, you tend to get creative.

Hundreds of variation can be made with plain rice; all we need is just imagination and ingredients.

I surf my fridge to see what else can I find? 

Hmmn! There is capsicum, , lime leaves, green chilies  and a tin of black olives……and yeah, I also have onions and garlic.

Okay, that should be enough to create a dish and then suddenly I see this small packet of Ching’s secret:  ‘New Chowmein Miracle Masala’

Now this packet has been lying in my fridge since it came with a magazine as sample piece - some two months ago - and I had been meaning to try this one but never had a chance…there is a graphic of noodles on the packet, but there is no hard and fast rule that I must use noodles, is there? The print is so fine that I can hardly read the instructions or the ingredients.

I cut open this packet and smell..okay…reddish brown masala smells quite good. (I am hoping it's vegetarian and does not contain any animal fat or some useless bone powder.) I take a pinch of this masala to taste…its salty, spicy and contains agnomoto so I decide to use this too…..That means I must not use too many chilies and not use any salt at all…..

I quickly slice the cucumber and tomatoes and keep it aside to go with the rice dish….

Then the cooking begins

Step one:

Crush 3 garlic pods with 3 dried red chilies in the pestle.

Step two:

Slice one medium onion, one medium tomato, one medium capsicum, 2 green chilies, 6 olives

Step three:

Heat one tbsp olive oil and fry the crushed garlic and red chilies, add onions, tomatoes, capsicum, and 1 cup cooked rice, stir well

Step four:

Add the Chowmein Masala, and 4-5 lime leaves, mix and then add corn flour solutions (1 tbsp cornflour to 1/2cup water) Stir till the sauce thickens.

Step five:

Add the chopped black olives.

Step Six:

Transfer the stew rice in the plate, arrange the cucumber and tomatoes

Click the picture for your FB profile to share with your friends whom you didn't invite and sit down to eat…hot, hot…

You may have a cup of green tea if you find the masala too hot……just tissue to wipe the nose will not suffice.......

Vegetable Stew

It’s not the cooking that takes time; it’s the thinking about what to cook, of a decision to prepare a particular dish that can take hours. The more the family member we have in the house, the more restricted our choice gets, unless we are ready to cook separately for each member, and of course there are some families that I know, who do even that. How difficult it is, when all the members have different taste, some want food with chilies, some without, some want vegetarian and some strictly non-vegan, some like it dry and some stew, the list is endless and it depends on the woman of the house whether she is ready to comply and please all the members of the house.

It is easier when you have to cook for just one person whom you love too much –

Yes! You get that right! It is easy to just cook for yourself.

Think quickly and assemble the Ingredients

6 pods of garlic, crushed

½ tsp red chili flakes

100 grams vegetarian soya meat

1 medium onion, chopped length-wise

1 medium carrot, chopped slant-wise

1 medium capsicum, chopped length-wise

6 green chilies, chopped length-wise

2-3 basil leaves

2-3 kafir leaves

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cornflour

Let’s cook

1.    On a high flame, stir-fry crushed garlic and red chilies flakes,

2.    Add vegetarian meat, mix till browned,

3.    Add one-by-one, stirring all the time, chopped onions, carrots, capsicum, green chilies, add basil leaves, Kafir leaves, sesame seeds and salt,

4.    Make a corn flour solution by adding 1 tsp of corn flour to two cups of water and add to the vegetables.

5.    Mix till the sauce thickens.

Serve with steamed rice.

Okay, I agree I made too much vegetables,(Burp!) but fret not, dinner was with flat rice noodles

Thank you for the opportunity for sharing my dish on your link at Global Food Festival