"Thai inspired" Rice with Cabbage and Carrots
Recipe taken from from petitchef.it. I just don't use fish paste since I can't find a gluten free version around.
One of my go-to winter recipes, when cabbage is abundant and cheap and I'm tired of always eating it in the same ways.
I especially love to make huge pans of this rice, that I then eat for days and days or freeze for future use (though when frozen, the veggies lose their crunch).
Ingredients
❧ Rice, preferably long-grain and wholemeal/brown
❧ A cabbage - the one you see me using is a curly variety, because that's the cheapest local one. Any cabbage will do.
❧ A few carrots
❧ An onion
❧ Curry powder
❧ Soy sauce
❧ Vegetable oil (I use extra virgin olive oil)
Preparation
❧ Boil the rice in abundand water and NO SALT. Cook it a little less than usual, as it will do a couple minutes of cooking time in the pan.
❧ Thinly slice an onion - or less, depending on how much of your cabbage you're cooking. I usually use a medium/big-sized onion for one whole cabbage.
In a big pan, have it slowly fry on a small flame until it's browned a little.
I personally love the darker outer leaves - they're a bit tougher, but more flavourful. I cut them separately, removing the stalk in the middle - it's way too tough for this recipe. I cut them into strips and set them aside.
As for the actual body of the cabbage, it's a piece of cake to slice! The toughest part is cutting it in half, as it will be quite tough. After that, you take each half and just cut small vertical slices, and there you have it! Cabbage strings!
❧ You'll want to cut the carrots into little strips as well - "Julienne" style. When I took the pics I used to cut them by hand - I wouldn't recommend it, unless you have a good knife! There's some neat and cheap object specifically for this.
❧ Time to cook the veggies! I start by stir-frying for a couple of minutes the toughest bits by themselves. So, the outer leaves of the cabbage and, in this case, the carrot strips as well, as they're quite thick. I find that when using a proper cutting tool I'm able to get them much finer - in that case, I add them along the rest of the cabbage.
❧ When the veggies are almost done, add in the rice and mix them all together for a couple more minutes in the pan!
❧ You can adjust salt by simply adding more soy sauce!
I like to be really generous with my veggie-to-rice ratio! You can obviously change proportions according to you taste.
The veggies don't keep their crunch once frozen and warmed up again in my experience, but it's still really good, so I like to cook this meal in big batches.
Enjoy your meal!
