I have a particular way of eating when there are multiple dishes on one plate. I go through and taste them all and through this decide which dish I want to be last on my plate because as we all know, you always save the best for last. I found it very difficult last night to make that decision, I just kept going around and around on my plate trying to figure out which bit I liked most. It never happened and so I finished off with a bite from the pappadum and a sip of wine. Just in case you don't know a pappadum is an Indian flat bread made from lentil flour. I just got the ones from the store but it would be pretty interesting to make your own. The ones in the store have quite a bit of sodium in them so just be ware.
Here is what you need:pappadum
tofu
curry paste
rice
veggie broth ( I used the dissolvable cubes)
frozen organic veggies
sprouts
garlic
olive oil
I first poured a glass of wine. It is the wine I mentioned in the previous blog from Portugal. It got better after it had been opened a while. My initial thought when I took my first sip was that this wine was not going to go well with dinner...surprisingly it did. The wine was a bit too in between for me...it either needed to commit to being a light wine or just go big and bold.
Then I started the water for my rice. Once that was boiling I dropped in a quarter of a cube of veggie broth. I let that mix in and poured in the rice. I turned the stove down to low heat and let simmer for 30 minutes.
In the meantime I took a dollop of olive oil and a tablespoon of curry paste and mixed that in a saucepan. I then added in the tofu and cooked that up for about 10 minutes, just sauteing it. Then I brushed the pappadums lightly with olive oil and but them in the micro for 45 seconds and once they were done I placed them on the plate.
When the rice it down to about 10 minutes left add another little dollop of olive oil to your saucepan and mix in your frozen veggies. The mix I used was red peppers, asparagus, yellow peppers, and carrots. I also added a frozen bunch of spinach. I must admit I used to believe that frozen veggies were unhealthy and not the "right" way to cook. However, it was brought to my attention that frozen organic veggies would have more nutrients because they are harvested when they are ripe and then frozen where as many of the veggies we buy fresh were picked before they were ripe and then put on shelves, not being completely packed with all the good stuff they are supposed to be. So it is for that reason I use frozen organic veggies for all my cooking.
Once you have the veggies and tofu all stirred in together and cooking, add in the garlic and once it is fragrant you are done, remove from the pan and place on your plate. By this time the timer should have beeped for the rice and there should still be a little water left and the rice is slightly uncooked. Pour the rice into the saucepan that just had the veggies and tofu in it. Boil off some of the water and keep on a medium heat. Add in a handful of sprouts and toss together with the rice. Once all the water is absorbed and you can see the rice is cooked dish up onto your plate and you are ready to go.
This is definitely not a traditional dish but the wine, the rice and the curried tofu and veg all went very well together. Try it, I think you would agree.
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