Easy Meal

Hey,

So, I've discovered a meal that can be made if you have loads of work to do. You could be cleaning up the house, or working on mini dissertation-like thing (like I've been doing) or whatever keeps you busy or stressed out and still be able to cook and eat something really good when you have the time to finally get some food into your system.

Ingredients
ASDA Mediterranean Vegetables with Cherry Tomatoes (should be available at walk mart)
3/4 of an onion
2-3 garlic cloves
Salt
Hot, ground peppers
Black pepper
Paprika
Sunflower/Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Rice
Water


Method

• Preheat your oven to about 200C.
• In an oven tray with relatively high sides, drizzle a bit of oil then pour in the contents a frozen bag of ASDA Mediterranean Vegetables with Cherry Tomatoes.
• Dice the onion or cut it up irregularly, cut each garlic clove into tiny pieces and pour both into the tray.
• Next,  season the contents of the tray with salt, a sprinkle of black pepper and paprika and some hot, ground pepper.
• Drizzle some more oil over everything, turn and stir them to ensure the spices are near-evenly spread.
• Add a bit of water to the tray and then place it in your over for an hour, but it's best to put it in for a half hour, stir it then put it in for another half hour.
• Wash or rinse some rice until the water runs clear then pour it into a rice cooker with an ample amount of water.
• Season....the water....with some salt, put the lid down on the cooker and turn it on.
• After an hour of what's in the oven being there, if you're not ready to eat yet, just turn off the oven leaving the tray in there.
• When the rice is done cooking, leave the rice cooker on warm if you're not ready to eat.
• When you are eventually ready to eat, get a nice bowl, plate or dish, pour some rice into it and then place the contents of the tray over the rice. You can mix it up while you're eating.

Bon appétit! :)

Spicy Rice

This recipe is practically the same as my amazing fusilli recipe. If you haven't read that recipe yet, read it before you read this one, okay? :)



Ingredients
Long grain rice
1 Shallot
4-5 tablespoons of Dolmio ("spicy") pasta sauce (depending on how much pasta you're making)
African Yellow Pepper/Cameroon Pepper/Any really hot pepper you can get your hands on
Salt
1 Egg
Sunflower Oil


Method

• Pour as much rice as need into a pot, boil some water, pour it over the rice, turn the heat under the pot to max. and cook the rice for about 10 minutes (or until it's done)
• While the rice is cooking, cut up (could be in a regular or irregular shape) one shallot
• In a frying pan, pour in about a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half of sunflower oil and before it gets hot, pour in the cut up shallots and a dash of salt (this will not only get the shallots cooked, but also infuse the oil with the taste of the shallots).
• When the shallots have softened (and before they start browning), pour in the few table spoons of Dolmio sauce, stir everything in the pan together well.
• Add as much of the hot pepper you can get your hands on to the contents of the pan (I love my food spicy so I add A LOT)
• Fry everything for about 30 seconds stirring continuously
• Pour the rice into the frying pan.
• Stir and turn over the contents of the pan till the colour of every rice grain has changed to at least a faint one of that of the pasta sauce and let the everything cook a little (you can add a little more oil here if you think it's needed)
• I would usually add some more pepper here, but you don't have to.
• Next, crack and egg and beat it in a cup or bowl, pour it into the frying pan and stir and turn over the contents of the frying pan to coat the rice with the egg.
• Let everything sit in the pan stirring occasionally until the egg is not visibly raw anymore before turning off the heat.
• Get a bowl, dish some rice into it.
• Get more bowls, be nice and share your rice with friends. Who knows? They might start paying  for you to make it every day.

Recipe: Jollof Rice

Jollof rice ("gel"-"loff") is an African food. It is popularly eaten in Nigeria. I don't think I've ever been to a Nigerian party and not seen Jollof Rice. In schools in Nigeria, you can find it on their menu!
I'm not a huge fan of this (I'm not a huge fan of anything), but people love this (including non-Africans) and I have a recipe for it (that is not the traditional recipe, if there is one). So, here it is:

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Ingredients
1-2 tbsp pure vegetable oil or canola oil

1 large onions, sliced

8 medium-sized frozen tomatoes

4 tbsp tomato purée

2-4 chilli peppers (or any hot pepper) chopped irregularly

Thyme leaves or basil(to taste)

1 tsp ginger

225g/8oz long-grain rice

Salt (to taste) (optional)

1-1.5 tsp sugar (optional)

Preparation method

Place the frozen tomatoes in a bowl of hot water to defrost.

Rinse the rice well to remove excess starch then cook it till it is almost done.

Pour out the water the tomatoes are in, make holes in the tomatoes (using the tip of a knife) and drain the liquid in them into the bowl.

Cut the tomatoes irregularly

Heat the oil in a large pan (saucepan/pot) and cook the onions over a gentle heat until translucent.

Stir in the tomatoes and let it fry for a few minutes.

Add the tomato puree and stir. Let what's in the saucepan fry for about a minute.

Add the liquid drained from the tomatoes, a little at a time, to what's in saucepan and stir. You should have something like a semi-thick sauce. 

Let the "sauce" cook for a few minutes stirring continuously.

Add the peppers and ginger and continue stirring. For about half a minute.

Add the salt and the sugar and stir for about a minute.

Turn off the heat

Add the rice to the contents of the sauce pan and stir till every grain is coated, you can add a little more oil and a little water to the saucepan and stir.

Turn the heat back on (high) for about a minute stirring continuously to make sure every grain is coated then reduce the heat to low.

Cover the saucepan and let the contents of it cook a bit long, or until the rice is fully done or closer to done.

Serve.

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In Nigeria, most of the time, Jollof rice is eaten with plantains on the side. I don't know where plantains can be found anywhere, but in England and African countries. In African countries, it can be found in any food-selling local marketplace and in England, in Indian grocery stores or supermarkets.

I will talk about making plantain in a different blog entry.

Thanks for reading!

If you try out this recipe, please send me a picture of your finished dish and a review of the dish.