5.20.2009

Quick Din Din

When I got up this evening to make something for dinner, I had it in mind to do something quick: reheat some leftovers or make some Ramen (you can tell I haven't been poor very often or for very long, as I still like the stuff).
As I was puttering around the kitchen, I remembered that I was going to share some of my Costco-sized bag of basmati rice with a friend. In the process of putting it in a Tupperware for her, I caught the wonderfully nutty scent of the basmati.

I certainly wasn't going to settle for Ramen after that, now was I?



I cooked the rice...



And added it to broccoli and mushrooms, cut small and sautéed in toasted sesame oil, along with a couple of beaten eggs. In retrospect, the amount I made would have been better proportioned with three or four eggs, but they're hard to add in a second batch. Live and learn.

The spicing was tricky for some reason. I didn't want to go to my old standbys (French or Italian seasonings) and I'm not a big fan of the Five Spice powder (at least when I use it, probably incorrectly), so I used salt, pepper, sesame seeds (next time, toasted ones), ginger, a sprinkling of parsley and a few (maybe ten) caraway seeds. Final touch was a little soy sauce.
It was nice and savory. Nothing too "loud." The sesame came out very nicely. I particularly like sesame and basmati together -- I think they compliment each other.

So here was dinner. Much better than leftovers or Ramen:

4 comments:

vince said...

That looks and sounds really good. I'm going to have to try that.

Anne C. said...

Damn spammer (not Vince - the idiot I just deleted!)
Let me know if I missed any spots.

And thank you, Vince. It was really tasty!

Karen said...

Oh Anne, you have me drooling now! I love basmatti and we don't use any other sort of rice. I'll have to try this sort of combination sometime. Ymmm. The photo is the capper, it looks fantastic!

Unknown said...

Your description of care with spices made me chuckle, because John just tried making a veggie locro (Argentine stew dish of maiz with lots of sausage, pigs trotters, etc.) It came out very well indeed, but he overused the rosemary I suggested he try. We all were spitting out little bits of rosemary as we ate the locro. There were a few too many comments on this problem, but I enjoyed the dish very much and didn't have any problem incorporating chewing the rosemary with the rest of it.... :-)