September 8 2003
Leftover cooking
Tonight it was my turn to cook.
Only I hadn’t prepared for it. So I raided the fridge. What did I find:
2 decaying peppers: one green, one red.
1 decaying red onion
2 cooked chicken thighs from safeway
1 decaying carrot
2 ripe tomatoes
2 ripe sweetcorn cobs from the Indian shop on the High Street
So - I hit upon an idea …
Finely chop all of the above ingredients (except for the sweetcorn). Wash some Basmati rice. Put some spices on standby …
And here goes:
Fry the onions and carrots first for a few minutes:
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Then add the chopped halves of green and red pepper. Thaw some pre-pulped ginger, garlic and chillie from the freezer and toss it in. Stir and fry for a few minutes - an then add the chopped and de-seeded tomato:
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Keep stirring this for a few more minutes - and then add the ground spices: 1 teaspoon ground coriander, 1 teaspoon haldi (tumeric), 1 teaspoon salt, and 2 teaspoons garam masala. Stir in and fry/roast until the aroma prevails - will take a few minutes - and then toss in the washed Basmati rice:
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After the rice has been stirred in - splash generously some lemon juice
- and then stir it around - and then add 1.5 times the volume of rice
of water:
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Let the mixture sizzle on high heat - and then add the cooked chopped chicken. And whilst that is all sizzling away - prepare a really low-flame burner on the hob:
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After the pot gets to a fierce boil - transfer to the low flame burner and simmer for 15 minutes. (DON’T TAKE THE LID OFF DURING THIS TIME!) And then afterwards - give it a gentle turning over before returning to the low flame:
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Whilst the rice mixture is simmering on its home run - prepare some fresh corn-on-the-cob for boiling and grilling. Right now - sweetcorn cobs are approaching end-of-season - so you should be able to pick up sweetcorn cobs for around 4 for £1 - anything more and you’re being ripped off! Asda are doing 2 for 50p at the moment - and your local Asian grocer will probably be doing 4 for under £1. Get them while you can!
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After boiling the corn-on-the-cobs for around 8 minutes - take out of pan and then sprinkle some salt and pepper on them - and skewer them with barbeque sticks - and then butter them all around generously before placing under a hot grill:
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Grill the corn-on-the-cobs untill you get golden brown edges to them - and then server up with the spicy-chicken-rice. It makes for a delicious meal. Wash down with some McGuigan Black Label Merlot. Perfect for marking the end of Summer:
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Have you tried this? Even
if you haven't - let me know what you think!
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