red.rice

Today at the Asian Market we discovered this beautiful red whole grain rice (I must confess that was the only reason I bought it) and I figured that taste wise it couldn’t be too far from the regular whole grain rice, and would give me a boost in my quest to create an original ‘eat-your-dinner’ recipe, even though I ended up mixing and matching ingredients to create a ‘sort-of-thai’, ‘kinf-of-vietnamese’ fried rice, it was well worth the effort. I also found out that Red Rice is being used in China as a dietary aid to lower cholesterol; they have even started developing medicines from this type of rice. So it is healthy too.

The whole point of this blog is to share inventive alternatives for everyday cooking, and this recipe was pretty much that! I bought my beautiful rice, but didn’t plan on much more than that. I left the market with one small can of coconut milk (good to have in case you have a curry emergency), cilantro, one piece of ginger, one carrot, and one giant sweet potato. I know the sweet potato sounds strange, but I found a Japanese baked sweet potato recipe that sounds amazing. I might write about it later. That is, if it turns out good.

I got home, got my groceries out, and realized that my choices weren’t all that consistent, and I really wanted to do something with the rice. I had week-old brussel sprouts, eggs, lime, and onions. I could make brussel sprout fried rice! That’s not too weird, is it? Well the lesson behind this story is you can make dinner with whatever you have at hand. I hope you like it! Eduardo gave it 4/5 ‘ed points’, he’s started rating recipes, I’d say it’s a VERY good score for ‘Brussel Sprout Fried Rice’, but we’ll call it ‘Red Rice’.

* I forgot to mention the rice! It is wonderful, it’s nutty and has a more delicate flavor than that of regular brown rice. The grains are also long and thin, which gives it a very nice texture.


R E C I P E

1 cup red whole grain rice
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 pinch of chili pepper
1 small onion
1 ½ cups of sliced brussel sprouts
½ carrot in very small cubes
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of sugar
¼ cup of soy sauce
The juice of one lime
1 egg (optional)
2 + 1 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro (keep some for garnish)
One one-inch piece of fresh ginger sliced
One clove of garlic sliced

For the rice:
This can be done up to one day ahead. Wash the rice, once is enough; this is not starchy rice. Soak it for a couple of hours, this is not necessary but it will cut the cooking time (whole grain rice tends to take longer). To cook it, rinse the water, measure two cups of water, put it on the stove on high heat until it boils, lower the heat, and cover until all the water has been absorbed or evaporated.

For the vegetables:
Heat a wok or a large pan, add the oil. When the oil thins, add chili pepper, the onion and chopped carrots. When the onion turns translucent, add the sliced brussel sprouts and cook for a couple of minutes. The brussel sprouts should be crunchy, and a bright green. Don’t overcook them, they get gray and bitter. Put aside.

For the sauce:
Mix the soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and lime. Some chili paste would be nice too, if you like it spicier.

Toppings:
Fry the ginger and garlic.
Make a thin egg omelet (a little bit of sugar in here works great). Roll it, and slice it thinly.
Roughly chop the cilantro. You’ll mix two tablespoons with the rice and reserve one for garnish.

To finish:
Heat the rice + veggies quickly, mix the two together carefully. Set aside from the heat, incorporate the sauce or dressing + two tablespoons of cilantro. Top with omelet, the fried garlic and ginger and the reserved cilantro!





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