Unusual tamarind fried rice with vegetables

Unusual tamarind fried rice with vegetables with
 baked eggplant and eggplant sauce

Fried rice is universal and is always a welcomed by anyone. Chinese fried rice is famous. Fried rice can be eaten by itself or with accompaniments. In this recipe I have added cabbage, carrot and chickpea. Therefore it can be taken without any other accompanying dish.

The taste of fried rice depends on the creativeness of the person making it and the ingredients used.

Today I am going to make tamarind fried rice. It will be mildly hot and sour. It is different from all other fried rices. The special ingredient I am going to use is tamarind juice combined with other spices.

This is not a new recipe. This is a traditional age old recipe. But I have added vegetables to be more nutritious and tasty.
One advantage is this is that you can keep the cooked rice for three to four days in the refrigerator. It can also be frozen and kept for longer. In this recipe the tamarind juice along with turmeric acts as a preservative.
It is easy and fast to make it as you can cook the rice in a rice cooker.

                                   Recipe summary
                                             For
                Unusual tamarind fried rice with vegetables
Preparation time:  20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4

1. Soak  3 table spoons split chick pea for 3 hrs. Boil it with 2 cups water. Cook in low heat till it is cooked and not mushy.
Reserve the chickpea and the boiled water.

Ingredients

2 Add 2 cup rinsed rice, 3½ cups water. and boiled chick pea with water, 1 grated carrot, 200 grams shredded cabbage and ½ teaspoon salt to the rice cooker and switch on the cooker.

3. When the rice cooker turns off add 2 teaspoon sesame oil and mix well with a long handled spoon or a long chop stick so that the rice grains will not stick to one another.

4. Soak 50 grams tamarind in ½ cup warm water and squeeze out  tablespoons of tamarind juice and set aside.

Ingredients

5. In a large sauce pan or a wok heat 4 table spoons of oil. When the oil becomes hot reduce the heat to low and add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds,and when it splutters add ½ teaspoon cumin seeds followed by 5 dry chili broken into ¼ inch small pieces, fry for 1 minute, add 1 big onion chopped,fry for two minutes and add 1 sprig curry leaves chopped fry few seconds and add tamarind juice, ¼ inch ginger shredded, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon salt and increase the heat to medium and bring to a boil.

Unusual tamarind fried rice 
with vegetables with
 baked eggplant 
and eggplant sauce

Then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 3 minutes.

Add the cooked rice and stir well with a long ladle or spoon. I use a long chopstick and long handled ladle. Take the rice off the heat.





Unusual tamarind fried rice with vegetables is ready.
                                  

                        Recipe follows in detail with pictures.

                     

Preparation time:  20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients
Main

Ingredients for Unusual tamarind fried rice with vegetables

2 cups rice
1 carrot grated
200 grams cabbage shredded
3 table spoons split chick pea
50 grams tamarind (5 tablespoons of juice)
2 teaspoon sesame oil
Others
3 ½ cups water 2 cups to boil chickpea.
½ teaspoon salt
 I big onion chopped
¼ inch ginger shredded
1 sprig curry leaves
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sesame oil
Spices
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
5 dry chili broken into ½ inch small pieces
I have used sesame oil.in this recipe. If you find the aroma too strong you may substitute it with butter or olive oil.

Preparation

Chickpea

Soak the chickpea for 3 hrs. 

Chickpea is soaked for 3 hours and cooked

Boil it with 2 cups water.
 When the water comes to a boil reduce the heat to low and simmer it till split chickpea becomes soft. Don’t make it mushy.
Reserve the chickpea and the boiled water.

Method
Rinse the rice. 

Rinsed Rice

Add it to the rice cooker pan. Add 3½ cups water.You may get ½ cup of  of water with chickpea.
Add grated carrot, shredded cabbage, cooked chickpea with the boiled water and salt.

Rice, vegetables and soaked and boiled chickpea

Switch on the rice cooker.

Rice cooking mid way

When the rice cooker turns off add 2 teaspoon sesame oil and mix well with a long handled spoon or a long chop stick so that the rice grains will not stick to one another.

Add oil and mix well after cooking the rice

Soak tamarind in ½ cup warm water and squeeze out 5 tablespoons of tamarind juice and set aside.

In a large sauce pan or a wok heat 4 table spoons of oil. When the oil becomes hot reduce the heat to low and add mustard seeds. When it splutters add cumin and cut dry chili.
Fry for 1 minute, add onion and fry for two minutes.
Now add curry leaves, fry for few seconds and add tamarind juice, ginger, salt, and turmeric and increase the heat to medium and bring to a boil.
Then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 3 minutes.
Add the cooked rice and stir well with a long ladle or spoon. I use a long chopstick and long handled ladle. Take the rice off the heat.

Rice is fried in a wok

Unusual tamarind fried rice with vegetables with baked eggplant

Now your fried rice is ready to serve. I served with eggplant salad and eggplant peel salad. It was great.