Thank you, Kimchi for making brown rice flavorful in this one-pot meal.
The KISS rule is totally wasted on me! Now, that I have your attention, I meant the Keep It Simple Stupid rule silly J There are days I go into the kitchen thinking, “Just plain rice boiled with veggies today. A one-pot meal in the rice cooker. That’s it!”.
But then I see the chicken stock peeking from the refrigerator door. Oh and the paneer sitting in the chiller feeling neglected. There is also some rosemary about to breathe it’s last. And kimchi which is fermenting away for the last few months. Suddenly, the simple boiled rice with veggies is not so simple anymore. Well! Though there are a lot of ingredients, it is still really simple to put together. The flavors are just so amazing that one wonders, “Did I just throw everything together into the rice cooker?”.
Also, I am not a big fan of brown rice and hence the need to “complicate” things. Also, the lack of time to make a complete Indian meal points me in the direction of a one-pot meal. You can of course create the same dish with white rice; sticky jasmine rice would taste best. But it is okay to eat healthy-ish once in a while, isn’t it?
Ingredients
- Brown rice (preferably pre-soaked for 30-45 mts)-1 cup (I used brown basmati rice, you could use any or even regular basmati or sticky jasmine rice; remember to adjust the water/stock accordingly based on the kind of rice used)
- Chicken or vegetable stock-2.5 cups (if you do not have stock at hand, you could use plain water)
- Chopped kimchi- ¼ cup
- Kimchi juice- ½ cup (If your kimchi is not fermented enough, you could add some rice vinegar to it to increase volume)
- Paneer (cottage cheese) cut into cubes and sautéed until light brown-1 cup
- Green peas- ¼ cup
- A few sprigs of rosemary
- Star anise- 1
- Garlic, chopped fine- 1 teaspoon
- Oil for cooking kimchi- 1 tablespoon
- Sesame oil- 1 teaspoon (optional)
- Salt- 1 teaspoon or to taste
- Spring onions, chopped fine and baby tomatoes for garnish
Instructions
- Add brown rice, stock, paneer, green peas, salt, rosemary and star anise to the rice cooker and cook as usual. You could add as many vegetables as you like- carrots, green beans or even mushrooms (mushrooms would need to be cooked with kimchi separately in the next step and not added to the rice while it is cooking with other vegetables)
- In the meantime, heat oil in a deep heavy bottomed pan, add garlic and sauté for about 30 secs on medium high flame and then add chopped kimchi and stir until almost done. This should take not more than 2 minutes. You do not want the kimchi to cook completely as it would cook some more with the steamed hot rice
- Add the cooked rice with vegetables and kimchi juice to the semi cooked kimchi and give it a nice stir. At this point you could add 1-teaspoon sesame oil for flavor but this is completely optional based on your palette. Cover and let it sit on a low flame for 2 minutes, adjust salt and serve hot topped with spring onions, baby tomatoes and a side of fried egg. I love to drizzle mine with some garlic chili oil for added flavor
Notes
Calories (per serving)- 175 Nutrition- Manganese/Selenium/ Naturally occurring oils/Fiber/Antioxidants It did wonders for your-Cholesterol/Heart diseases/ Gut/ Obesity/ Arthritis This is “My 8 pm Meal”
[kkstarratings]
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