Tag Archives: food

Golden Basmati Rice with Peas

This little Indian side dish is beautiful. Golden-yellow rice with bright green peas–I love a meal with strong, vibrant colors. And it’s so easy! This is the bed for the Tikka Masala dish I’ll be sharing with y’all next week. I used this Pastor Ryan recipe as a basis once before for my Pasilla-Spiced Pumpkin Basmati recipe, but I really wanted to share the basic, easy version. Easy, that is, if you have a rice cooker.

‘Cause if you don’t, you’re no friend of mine!

Just kidding–you’re all my friends. But I’ll at least pity you and cry salty, salty tears on your behalf. I don’t know what the heck I’d do without my rice cooker.

Don’t know what to eat? Rice with butter! Need something filling and cheap to accompany an expensive piece of fish? Rice! Need to focus all your attention on the meat/protein portion of the meal? Toss the rice in the cooker and fuhgettaboutit!

I hope you’ve taken my words to heart.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

2 cups basmati rice
4 cups water
4 TBS butter
1 TBS turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 cups frozen peas (or more, to taste)
Cilantro to garnish, optional

Put the rice, salt, and turmeric in the rice cooker and stir everything around until combined.

See that pile of turmeric?

I didn’t stir mine in, so it clumped together. No harm done since I tossed it vigorously once the rice was cooked, but it would have been easier if I’d stirred it in beforehand. Anyway, add the water and butter, and cook in the rice cooker until done.

Add the frozen peas a few minutes before serving, and toss them in the hot rice.

The heat of the rice will cook them to the perfect temperature.

If desired, garnish with cilantro.

Serve!

Wow. Are we really, um, done here? I don’t think I’ve ever posted an easier recipe, or one with so few instructions. Are you proud, Carrie?

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Healthy Mushroom and Shallot Quiche

Recovering from vacation . . . it’s painful. So I plan on telling you all about Alaska, but that day is not today. Today, I will drown my sorrows in food. Specifically, some good food.

My lovely friend Cassia has a lovely food blog. Granted, she hasn’t had much time recently to post since she’s entering her second year of graduate school and is up to her ears in books and papers and such, but that doesn’t stop me from gleaning delicious recipes from over yonder, such as this pasta, and now–this quiche.

Cassia made this quiche for our friend Jess Strickler’s baby shower last year. I remember thinking “Oh man! I’ve got to make this!” Then, a year went by. And here we are today, resurrecting the dreams of yesterday.

As you may have guessed by the title, this is not a cheesy, rich quiche (click here for that experience). It only has 4 eggs, a splash of milk, and no cheese. Hence the “healthy.” The real whammy from my perspective is: no half and half. No heavy cream. Let’s get this healthified fungi fest on the road!

Ingredients

(Serves 5)

2 TBS butter
1 1/2 lbs sliced mushrooms
6 cloves garlic
4 shallots
3 green onions
1 1/2 TBS fresh oregano leaves
2 tsp basil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dry mustard
4 eggs
3/4 cup 2% or whole milk
1 unbaked 9 inch frozen pie crust

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Pop in the frozen pie crust for 10 minutes.

When you remove it, it should be nice and golden all over.

Lower the temperature to 375 F.

Dice the shallots and garlic . . .

. . . slice the mushrooms (if they don’t come pre-sliced like mine), and chop up those green onions, for gosh’s sake!

Sorry, I had some bossiness urges that I had to get out there. If not, they fester and I become BossMan McMonsterPants. And I guarantee that’s not what my husband is looking for when he comes home after a long day on campus.

Melt the butter in a large skillet. When melted, add the mushrooms, garlic, shallots, green onions, and all the spices and seasonings.

I added the green onions a little later because I like ’em a little on the crispier side.

Don’t you love fresh oregano? This isn’t the first time that mushrooms and oregano have got together in my kitchen and shown the world they were meant for each other.

Cook over medium high to high heat, stirring occasionally, until all the mushroom liquid has evaporated.

Remove the mushrooms from the heat and let them cool completely. I was kind of in a hurry due to the rumblings of certain stomachs in the household, so I sped things up by Extending My Long Arm of Justice and placing the mushrooms in the freezer.

Break the eggs into a bowl and add the milk.

I’m sorry, heavy whipping cream. I’m sorry I abandoned you!

Whisk together the eggs and milk.

Once the mushrooms are cool, add them to the eggs.

 Stir to combine . . .

. . . then pour the mixture into the pie crust.

Beat yourself over the head because the innards don’t fit in the outtards.

Then stop beating yourself when you realize you can bake the remaining filling in an adorable red ramekin. Phew.

Bake the quiche for 40 minutes, or until puffy and starting to brown on top. Here’s the red ramekin-full, which I took out after about 30 minutes:

Let it sit for about 5 minutes before serving–this will allow it to set inside.

She’s a beaut, alright.

Serve with fresh oregano leaves sprinkled over top.

Next time I need to buy a bigger pie crust, because this one ended up simply too full–and I like a higher ratio of crust-to-innards.

See? Totally overstuffed.

But still delicious.

P.S. When we ate the leftovers the following night, the quiche was even better. This may be because I sprinkled all kinds of fresh Parmesan over the top before popping it in the oven to get hot.

“Healthy-schmealthy,” said my taste buds. Whoops. I think they learned that from me.

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