Black Rice
For the past four years now, I noticed that there has been a surge of southeast Asian cuisine. Well of course, we're In that area too. But most specifically, Vietnamese and Thai, and in some nook out there, Indonesian.
I became more curious about Thai food though, as I've frequented in one, Krua-Thai. Their food is really something new and refreshing especially for the Filipino tongue that is fond of overwhelming flavors.
One day, when I was "broke" and wanted something totally different for lunch, I thought I 'd whip up something for myself and do a "Thai" inspired meal, though more like a bastardized kind of Thai recipe. For lack of a better term, I called it "Black Rice". Ingredients are very simple, though I really had to make some substitution to a lot of it.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
chopped garlic 1/3 cup
chopped onion 3/4 cup
soy sauce 1/2 cup (silver swan preferred)
eggplant, sliced in strips
ampalaya (however and how much you want it; I'd go around half a cup to one)
1 teaspoon crushed peppercorn
a teaspoon sugar
2 cups of cooked rice (dry not moist)
tomatoes, sliced - 2
This one's a pretty simple recipe, just put them in a nonstick frying pan, an ordinary pan would do fine as well.
Pre-heat the oil at high heat. Adding the garlic and onions, put it to medium heat so as not to burn them. The soy sauce comes in after, letting it simmer for less than a minute, enough time for the flavors to blend. Eggplant comes next, this one you'd have to stir a bit from time to time then cover the lid at 10sec intervals approximately. When it starts to soften, add the rice and the crushed pepper, then pour the ampalaya thereafter. This part can be a lot of work. If you remember your cook or mom preparing paella, this one's something close to that end process where you have to keep folding the rice in. Do this for a minute till the soy-sauce has coated on each grain. This should take no more than 2 minutes with a wooden ladle. The constant stirring also prevents the rice from burning too. I do turn the heat to the lowest low when doing so. In the middle of that wrestling procedure, pour in the sugar. Finally the tomatoes, I intentionally put them last so it wouldn't get soggy. I always like my tomatoes a bit fresh. This also retains much of its nutrients. Just rest them on top of the rice, no stirring needed. Cover the pan and let it simmer for a minute or so.
There you go, a really simple recipe that's almost a gourmet.
Happy eating!!!
P.S.
oh, I added egg, cooked sunny side up after I did the one in the pic.
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