“I like rice. Rice is great if you’re hungry and you want 2000 of something.”

                                    —-Mitch Hedberg (Comedian)

Yes.  Sometimes I DO want 2000 of something. Often, in fact.

Fill my plate with rice in any of its iterations—rice pudding, rice soups, risotto, pilafs, and on and on. Don’t even get me started on how much I love a good Indian biryani or a crispy-bottomed Persian tahdig.

So it was that a recent lunch and a movie outing with my good friends and fellow foodies Carole, Maria and Joyce rekindled my love affair with Indian rice. We feasted on a buffet of Indian street foods–pooris, idlis, pakoras– followed by a fragrant plate of saffron-hued basmati rice and other delights. The soft spongy steamed rice idlis–often served as a breakfast food in India– were served with a spicy sambar (lentil) soup. The plate of basmati rice was prepared simply and presented elegantly. The meal left me thinking that I need to put more Indian foods, particularly rice-based ones, on my table and feature more Indian recipes in this blog.

Let’s start with a great Indian Tomato Rice recipe. Indian Tomato Rice would be great served with other Indian dishes for the  home cook that have been featured on Blue Cayenne over the years including Poha (click here), Spiced Indian Corn (click here), Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt (click here), Masala Tea (click here), and Cauliflower and Potato Curry (click here)

Indian tomato Rice

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Ingredients

• 2 to 3 C. leftover cooked basmati rice
• 1/4 C. canola oil
• 1 t. black mustard seeds
• 1/4 t. ground turmeric
• 6 fresh or frozen curry leaves (optional/available in Indian markets or grow your own)
• 1/4 to 1/2 t. red pepper flakes (to your taste and heat tolerance)
• 2 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
• 1 small yellow onion (minced)
• 3 plum tomatoes (cored and roughly chopped)
• 1/4 t. asafoetida (optional--it is an aquired taste/available in Indian markets)
• Kosher salt (to taste)
• 1/4 C. chopped cilantro
• Sliced tomatoes to garnish
• Chopped red chiles to garnish

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add black mustard seeds, turmeric, curry leaves and chile flakes and cook until seeds pop. (Be careful here. Tiny bursting mustard seeds can burn.) This will take 1 to 2 minutes. Add garlic slices, onion and chopped tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes become soft and release their juices. This will take 6 to 8 minutes. Add asafoetida (if using) and salt. Stir rice into the spice/tomato mixture and continue to saute until the flavors permeate the rice.
2. Serve rice garnished with chopped cilantro and chopped red chiles (optional). Enjoy. This is a wonderful rice dish.

Nutrition

Calories

1399 cal

Fat

107 g

Carbs

98 g

Protein

41 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

219

https://bluecayenne.com/rekindling-a-love-affair-with-indian-food-indian-tomato-rice

This recipe is adapted from one that appeared in 2014 in Saveur Magazine. You can find the original recipe here.

For Julia Child it was Coq Au Vin.

Marcella Hazan’s tour de force was her amazing Tomato Sauce.

Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters rocked the culinary world with her Baked Goat Cheese With Baby Lettuces.

“A signature dish is a recipe that identifies an individual chef or restaurant. Ideally it should be unique and allow an informed gastronome to name the chef in a blind tasting. It can be thought of as the culinary equivalent of an artist finding their own style, or an author finding their own voice,” according to Wikipedia.

This delightful (and delicious) Spiced Chickpea Stew With Coconut and Turmeric is Alison Roman’s signature dish. Roman (pictured below demonstrating her impressive refrigerator storage skills–skills that, lamentably, she and I share)  writes for the New York Times food page and is the author of the excellent cookbook Nothing Fancy. As I write this, her recipe has a five-star rating on the New York Times food page with 8644 hits. That means that a whole lot of people love this dish–me included.

Here is the recipe.

This recipe is adapted from a New York Times recipe that appears here.

I’m a potato person. Surely it is my Irish heritage. I love mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, potato cakes and on and on.

I think if I ever were to post on one of the ubiquitos dating sites, I would have to be honest. My ad would read something like: ” Hot Irish girl with green eyes, cute dog and steady pension. Loves long walks on the beach, sunsets and baked potatoes. Your fries or mine? “

So, you guessed it. Today’s recipe is for a potato dish: Crispy Smashed Russets With Green Horseradish Sauce. The potatoes are boiled and then smashed and roasted in butter to give them a crispy crust and a buttery smooth interior. Then they are served on a bed of creamy and herby sauce. Pretty wonderful.

This recipe was adapted from an Eating Well recipe that appears here.