Congee with vegetables

05 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by Zoli in breakfast, Chinese, comfort food, gluten free, healthy, jasmine rice, kids, rice, Vegetarian

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Our late Saturday breakfast today was inspired by my sister in law mentioning making some congee. I’ve never made it before and wanted to for a while. Now this versatile tasty dish is going to be a staple in my house. It’s a simple and easy to make rice porridge (hardly any rice; it’s a surprisingly light dish) flavored with a little stock and topped with whatever you want: pork or chicken if you so desire, hot sauce, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, chilies, vegetables such as mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, green beans, green onion, bamboo shoots, and then maybe an egg. There are many recipes out there to be inspired by once you have the basic congee made. The only downside is the time it takes to cook the rice.

I went for a glorious 8-mile run this morning in the bright sunshine and felt exhausted and achy when I got home. Poor hubby (not really) had a late night and was moving very slowly. We needed a light, healthy, nutrient-rich breakfast. I started the congee while I ran a hot bath and let it simmer away for an hour and a half. The last bit of cooking time I prepared the vegetable toppings and poached an egg. Nothing too challenging! A simplified version of congee would be a great meal for young children. I wish I had served this to my young ones when they were toddlers.

Vegetable congee
serves 2 hungry humans
1/4 cup of rice (jasmine rice works well)
4 cups of water
1 cup vegetable stock
pinch of sea salt

Toppings
1 cup shitake mushrooms
1 large carrot, julienned
1 handful fresh cilantro (coriander)
6 green onion, chopped into thirds
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp fresh minced ginger
2 fresh eggs
olive oil
soy sauce
sriracha sauce or chili paste to serve

1) To prepare the congee, bring the rice, salt, water and stock to boil. Turn down to simmer and cover with a lid. Let cook about an hour and a half until the rice has turned to a soupy porridge.
2) Heat up a tbs of olive oil in a frying pan and gently fry the garlic and ginger. Add the mushrooms and a splash of soy sauce. Cook until the mushrooms have absorbed their juices. Set aside.
3) Separately flash fry the carrot and green onion–about 30 seconds. Don’t overcook. Set aside.
4) Either soft boil, hard boil, fry or poach the eggs. I chose to poach them.
5) Serve the congee in bowls with the toppings and a splash of hot sauce, fresh sliced chilies and soy sauce as condiments.
One bowl goes down easily and you do not feel like you’ve had a heavy meal. There’s probably less rice in this than in a portion of vegetable soup with rice. Make for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a late late night feed.

Homemade flour tortillas

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Zoli in bread, flatbread, healthy, kids, kids lunchbox ideas, Mexican, quick and awesome, Street food, tacos, tex mex, the basics, vegan, Vegetarian

≈ 12 Comments

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flatbread, flour tortillas, homemade tortillas, tortillas de harina, white flour

We’re all brainwashed in various ways until some stimulus comes along and opens our eyes. Sometimes we fight change and sometimes a lightbulb just turns on above our heads.
I make an Indian-style dinner about once a week and usually include a homemade bread such as naan, chapatis or puris. I plan the kneading, rolling out and frying into my mealtime cooking and it’s never any trouble. So why then have I only been making tacos when I have tortillas from Trader Joes? Tortillas are just as easy to make as chapatis. I’d just never thought of making them by hand before. And now I feel like a dunce. But no time like the present to break a bad habit. Also check out the strangely lengthy ingredient list on a store-bought packet of tortillas. Especially those El Paso brand ones. Yuck.
I tried a few recipes before I landed on this one. Simple, tasty and easy to make—especially if you’re not precious about perfect circles. Sure a tortilla press would be handy but once you get into the rhythm of rolling out and frying it’s kind of fun (especially with good music or a cool podcast to listen to).

Ingredients
makes about 12 flour tortillas
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 or 1 1/2 cup hot water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

1) Mix the flour with the baking powder and salt.
2) Pour in the olive oil and mix with your fingers until the flour has a crumbly texture. This is the fun part. The flour feels velvety soft.
3) Add in the water (I heated up water in a kettle and poured it in after it boiled). Start with 1 and 1/4 cups and add in another 1/4 cup if you need it.
4) Mix the dough until it comes together and then dump onto a floured work surfaced and knead for a few minutes.
5) Pinch off pieces of dough and roll into about 12 dough balls. Flatten them slightly with your fingers (not your palm) so they are like little thick discs. Cover with kitchen towel or tea towel so they don’t dry out and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
6) To cook, heat up a cast iron skillet if you have one or a heavy bottomed frying pan like me. Roll a dough ball out as thin as you can (paper thin) and as evenly circular as you can. I find that roll, turn, roll, turn, etc. works well.
7) Place the thin tortilla in the hot frying pan (no need to oil the pan) and push down gently on any big air bubbles. Cook for about 30 seconds, then flip over and cook the other side. Flip again and cook the first side a little more if you need to. Place the cooked tortilla under a tea towel so that it stays soft and doesn’t get dried out.
8) While it is cooking, start rolling out the second tortilla. Continue piling the cooked tortillas under a tea towel.
9) Serve straightaway or store in a ziploc bag when they have cooled down. Reheat gently in a frying pan just as you would store-bought tortillas.