Archive for the ‘Rice’ Category

Cleaning Out the Fridge + Noodle Party + Pineapple Fried Rice: OH MY!

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

Today, Philadelphia smells amazing.

I hope that shocked you into reading yet another post.  I’m not joking about the smell.  I’ve decided the first day of spring is my new favorite day of the year.  Everyone can have my birthday, Christmas, and Thanksgiving, well maybe not Thanksgiving. . . but the first day of spring is MY kind of holiday.

In honor of spring, I’m shaking the dust off of recipes I haven’t written down before I go on vacation and forget everything.  I’m cleaning out the fridge, so excuse me as I clog your RSS feed for a couple days.  I could stagger these posts, but I have good reason to publish this immediately.

Today, I woke up and was just done with being inside.  After hitting the farmer’s market early, Ed and I wandered around the entire city, meeting up with a couple friends and moseying on home.  I came home exhausted, flopped on my bed, and debated dinner for the zillionth time (I’m thinking Quinoa burgers) when I got a quick call from Linzy.  I made this rice on Tuesday and it was a hit at a dinner party I attended.  Linzy was already craving more!

Speaking of eating with friends. . .

MARCH 2009: NOODLE PARTY

A couple noodlemaniac twitter friends, Steph at momofukufor2.com (@momofukufor2) and Shao at friedwontons4u.com (@friedwontons4u) are organizing a little virtual shindig, specifically geared to NOODLES!  We’re each going to be taking some Korean sweet potato noodles (dangmyeong), making a dish and posting them!   You can participate too!  Check this little invite Steph wrote up:

Who: Everyone!

What: We’re all making noodle dishes using dangmyeong, Korean sweet potato glass noodles.

When: Noodle Party posts are going up on March 29th.

Where: Your blog, our blogs. Your twitter, whatever you got.

Why: So we can all dance the noodle dance together! People who join the party will get a Noodle Party badge for their site and of course, as always, everlasting fame!

How: Just give one of us a shout on our blog contact forms, leave a comment, or hit us up on Twitter!  I’m @bigscarykitchen!

Now on to the recipe!

Hints about fried rice:

1.  Always start with cold rice.  If you are in a time crunch, put freshly cooked rice in a big bowl, stir around to let the heat escape then stick it in the fridge.  Prepare the other ingredients and toss the rice a little to cool it.

2.  Cook the ingredients separately and make sure everything is ready before you start cooking.  This cooks up fast.  Use high heat.  Make sure the pan is heat.  Don’t be tempted to constantly move the rice around though.  If you don’t have much room in the pan, cook in groups.

Pineapple Fried Rice
serves six | prep time is about 10 minutes and ten minutes of cooking time

Four cups of long-grain rice
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
A cup (or more if you like) of pineapple, sliced into small pieces
1 T of fish sauce
1 teaspoon of soy sauce (or more to taste)
1/2 T of pineapple juice
2 T of oil
ground pepper to taste

Heat up wok or frying pan and add cooking oil (remember high heat is important).  Add garlic and onion and cook until fragrant, about one minute. Add rice, pineapple pieces, pineapple juice, and stir to distribute evenly.  Add fish sauce and dark soy sauce to blend well with rice. Stir-fry for another minute or so, add pepper to taste and serve.

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Posted in Cooking, Recipes, Rice | 2 Comments »

Cilantro-Lime Roast Chicken with Rice

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

I’m a big old quitter.

Yup, I went out and I ate cheese and some toast a day early.  It was just too nice to snub a drink with friends.  Sorry detox, but sitting outside and eating are my two favorite things.  I caved in and got a quality beer, a couple slices of cheese, and a four slices of tiny toast.

Mm… I’m okay with quitting earlier than planned.  It’s barely a day and the last thing I want to do is go into some sort of coma after stuffing my face at the Bellagio buffet.  I didn’t eat anything super greasy or bad, and for that I’m proud of.  I didn’t realize I would make it this far, but 48 cupcakes and four loaves of bread later, I am free of some of my food dependence.

Now, I have a few more detox meals to post and this is one of them.  Yeaaah, it’s Mexican which I’m finding can be very flavorful without being high sugar and fats.  If you’re looking for an easy crowd pleaser, this is definitely a go to recipe.  IT’s even easy clean up– ONE pan!  One pan!

Cilantro-Lime Roasted Chicken
serves 4 | 5 minutes prep and 40 minutes cooking time

1 chicken (about three pounds) cut into six pieces, defrosted and deskinned
2 T of olive oil
1t of chile powder
1t of ground cumin
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1 lime
1t of salt
1t of black pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c of fresh cilantro, chopped
8  shallots, halved

Preheat the the oven to 425.

Chop the chicken and remove skin.  Place in a baking pan that fits everything in one layer snuggly (I used a 9×13 pan)  Add everything into the pan toss, coating everything well.  Toss the pan into oven, it’s okay if the oven is not completely pre-heated.  Cook the chicken for about twenty minutes, turn the chicken around and leave it in the oven for twenty more minutes.  Once chicken is done, turn off the oven and serve!

Lime-Cilantro Rice

I used a rice cooker, so when I made the rice, I put the juice of a lime in with the cooking water.  Once done, throw in a quarter cup of fresh cilantro and a couple pinches of salt and pepper!

Posted in Chicken, Cooking, Detoxing, Recipes, Rice | 1 Comment »

Dinner from a Package

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

There are quite a few things that will make you stop and think, “Maybe I should be eating lighter and healthier.”

Today, I bought my first swimsuit in years. It’s cute, vintage-looking, and hopefully will be flattering on me (I ordered it online.) You will also never see a picture of me in it on this blog, so please refrain from any comments. I’m headed to Las Vegas in late March with my good friend Lauren for my first vacation since 2007. We’re very excited and we hope to escape the cold to soak in some sun (with about eight billion coats of sunscreen.)

So tonight, when my planned dinner was cancelled due to snow, I contemplated all the wonderful things I could eat. Leftovers or a quesadilla, something simple, when the doorbell rang.

John & Josephine
My dear John had stopped by to kill some time before going home. He has an hour commute and I could tell he was tired and just wanted to space out before heading home. As he sat, asking about my day and if I knew how to make gyoza, I knew I would be feeding two now, so I decided to cook dinner the quickest way I knew how– from the package. Start to finish, 20 minutes.

I’m not big on substituting names or using nicknames and I ask every person before I shove their face on my blog (aside from Adrian who forfeited his right when he took pictures of himself with my camera). These are the people in my life. They’re adorable and pretty and I love them all and I want you to see their faces and want to squeeze them like I get to do every day.

So, without further adieu, a light dinner in 20 minutes from a package with less sodium and more filling than a Lean Cuisine. Additionally, this is so versatile, I can’t even begin to think of all the combinations you could do. You can substitute any fish or seafood for the salmon, add more and/or different soft vegetabls, and play around with the herbs.


Dill Lemon Salmon with Rosemary Rice

Salmon Dinner:
1 filet of salmon per person (about 6 oz each)
1/2 zucchini, cut up into fourths per person
3-4 big pinches of dried dill
splash of white wine
salt and pepper
1/2 lemon
*special tools: parchment paper*

Preheat oven to 450
Take two sheets of parchment paper, one on top of the other, and sprinkle a pinch of dill. Place salmon on top (I cook two pieces of filet per package). Sprinkle bit of salt, pepper, and dill.
Place the zucchini on the salmon, sprinkle a bit of salt, pepper, and dill.
Fold the parchment paper together across the filets of salmon. Pinch tightly.
Tightly roll and flatten the other two sides of the parchment paper. (I got this tip from Steamy Kitchen where there is also an excellent video.)
Open the package carefully and pour about a Tablespoon of white wine.
Refold the package tightly and stick in the oven for 10-15 minutes depending on how thick the salmon filets are.
Open package (yeah, you can’t eat the parchment, sorry.), serve the fish and throw away the parchment.

Rosemary Rice Pilaf
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
A couple pinches of dried rosemary
1 1/4 cup of rice
1 3/4 of chicken broth
A couple pinches of salt and pepper

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Throw in dried rosemary and garlic until pungent.
Add rice, salt, and pepper for about a minute.
Crank the heat to high, pour in the rest of the chicken broth and mix everything a little, make sure it’s not sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once it boils vigorously, cover and turn the heat to low.
Do not remove the saucepan lid. Let simmer for about 15 minutes. Then you can take off the lid and fluff that rice.

Congratulations, you’ve made rice without a rice cooker!

Posted in Fish, Recipes, Rice | No Comments »

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