When I find myself with a day off anymore I just spend the afternoon in the kitchen concocting things. This has become what relaxes me. Funny because it used to be, when I thought of the kitchen I felt stressed and overwhelmed. It helps to have a huge kitchen. Last Saturday I found myself working on 4 different projects at the same time: 1. adding flour, sugar and milk to an amish bread starter (which I totally messed up by not sealing the bag completely that night after letting air out, and the next morning found it all over the counter and floor) 2. starting some peanut butter cookies 3. breakfast for Tony and I (made up of butternut squash/onion/shallot/garlic cooked in olive oil with parsley, sage, rosemary-no thyme and mozzerella scrambled eggs...turned out lovely and finally, 4. "Asian Rice and Lentils" a recipe from mom's old backpacking cookbooks ("Simple Foods for the Pack") a recipe I make weekly. I used to make it stovetop until I experimented one day with throwing it all in my rice cooker which happened to work perfectly. I know the recipe by heart and have even tweaked it a little by adding a golden delicious apple and sunflower seeds.
Asian Rice and Lentils
1/2 c. rice
1/2 c. lentils
2 T. butter
2 1/2 c. water
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 golden delicious apple, chopped (if you want)
1/2 tsp. each of: cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cayenne, salt
1 bay leaf
2 whole cloves
(Forgive me, I've forgotten how to do this stovetop, and I feel like everyone should have a rice cooker anyway...) Plop the butter in the rice cooker on warm and let it melt, add all ingredients except for water, stir around and let them absorb some butter for a few minutes, then add your water, close the lid and push "cook." Boom. Delicious, high protein lunch or dinner. Tony really likes it with cheddar cheese grated on top. I like it any way and everyday.
5 comments:
Two things-
Cook for how long?
And it was effing awesome to eat this after work on Saturday.
Well, in a rice cooker, it'll just be done when the little light turns on. The beauty!
Well, I seriously doubt anyone would have an electric rice cooker BACKPACKING! Consider the source, dear.
"Saute the ingredients in the oil for a while, then add the water. Cover, put over a warm place of the fire. Go for a walk, or set up your tent, or whatever, and then eat. Roughly 45 minutes." The beauty of this for backpacking is that you can put all the dry ingredients in a zip-lock, and add the water and oil at the campsite. If I recall correctly, the recipe in the book also calls for dried onion.
Yes mom, but I happen to know Beca has a rice cooker. AND I never make it when I'm camping, just every week at home so that's why stovetop cooking instructions are not readily in my brain.
HANNAH. I made this this morning, and I used a full teaspoon each of the spices because I wasn't paying attention to which spoon I was holding.
It tastes like CAYENNE.
Although, that's not altogether unpleasant.
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