Curry and Rice

Unfortunately Mrs Cook Japan has a cold at the moment…but is this a bad thing?  Well to a degree, but that is until you realise her medicinal take on combating said lurgy is to indulge in a fiery curry.  So in a way its true, “every cloud does have a silver lining”.



As regular readers will have realised by now, I’m a pretty honest and upstanding chap, so I won't pretend that I made the 3 curries – that would be just too extreme, but the trusty Cook Japan rice cooker was called into action for the accompanying rice…



…so basmati rice went in the rice cooker, along with a bit of salt and a drizzle of oil to keep its delicate grains firm and tender, and then for a bit of added vavavoom we added some mung beans and fresh herbs – yummy!  Again another sterling performance by our favourite kitchen appliance.

Its a great rice combination and an absolute winner alongside this plethora of curry delights…chicken chat (below), prawn methi (bottom) and the house special which is a lamb meatball curry (top).



…i feel hungry again just blogging it…

 

Kind of like dry-curry (and a bit like kedgeree), but also a bit like neither…

…you know how some days there’s nothing really in the fridge, freezer or cupboards from which to concoct dinner?  Well that’s where this came from and thankfully was jolly tasty as well.

As you would expect, and know by now, there was the typical abundance of rice to be found in the cupboards.   It wasn’t to difficult to find an onion, couple of beans and lentils, eggs and the random element in the dish, a frozen “chip shop” battered cod piece from the dark recesses of the freezer.  As for seasoning, curry powder, cumin and some of the usual suspects from the spice rack were roped in for the task as well.

So the idea was something like a Japanese dry curry (basically a kind of curry-flavoured fried rice) and a bit like kedgeree. 

Onions were fried, battered cod went in the oven and then was chopped up, and while all this was going on the trusty Cook Japan rice cooker was busy cooking up some rice with beans and lentils.  Once the rice was cooked, in went the onions, fish pieces and some seasoning and the whole thing mixed up and left on “keep warm” until it was time for dinner…

 

…so as you can see its a bit like a dry curry and kind of like kedgeree, in fact a pretty good random combination that worked out really tasty, full of flavour and a great way to use up a bunch of bits and bods to make dinner…

…ooh, then I thought “i know”, and cooked up a nice hard boiled egg to give it a bit more of a kedgeree feel (well kind of, if you don’t look to closely)…

Basmati Rice with Mung Beans (topped with fried onions and hummus)

Today, felt like a healthier more simple day after a bit of excess over the weekend – a bowl of miso soup did feature!

This was a recipe my sister very kindly passed on, she even bought us the Moong Dal/mung beans to go with it…



This is so easy to make, washed basmati rice is mixed with the mung beans (split green beans) and put in the Cook Japan rice cooker.  All you then have to do is press “Start” and wait for it to finish cooking – talk about simple and my word is it tasty.



Rather than cooking my normal “x” number of cups, this was made with 2/3 cup of rice and 1/3 cup of mung beans as the ratio to which water was added.  While the rice cooker was working its magic, I leisurely fried some onions and grabbed the remaining hummus from the fridge.

Hey presto, the rice is cooked, the onions go on top and hummus makes a great accompaniment…



…the rice cooker is sitting there on “keep warm”, think i’ll pop back to the kitchen and have a bit more!
For more information visit: www.cookjapan.co.uk