To you who eat a lot of rice because you’re lonely,
To you who sleep a lot because you’re bored,
To you who cry a lot because you are sad, I write this down.

Chew on your feelings that are cornered like you would chew on rice.
Anyway, life is something that you need to digest.

– Chun Yang Hee

Happy Christmas and all the blessing of the season.

First off, apologies for the delay in posting anything. To be honest, I’m still adjusting to life in Ireland and it’s hard to get used to managing my time properly. It’s very easy to watch a lot of Netflix and to spend hours upon hours reading. Thankfully, with Christmas here things are a little more busy and cooking-centric. However, any tips on time management and creating a proper blogging schedule would be HIGHLY appreciated. I feel as if I am wasting my year off instead of making the most of it.

Around 8 years ago, my sister and I took an Oriental Cooking Class where our instructor, a lovely Malaysian lady, taught us how to make so many amazing dishes from onion bhajis to rogan josh to spring rolls. The most important lessons that remained with us, that we still talk about even now, were the ones she taught us about rice: a) always soak and rinse your rice thoroughly, and b) never use boil-in-a-bag rice because it hasn’t been cleaned properly. Now, whenever I see boil-in-a-bag rice I give a little grimace, and whenever I prepare rice I soak it for a minimum of thirty minutes to an hour and then rinse in order to get rid of as much dirt and dust as you can. As she mentioned at the time, and as I am sure you are already aware, rice sits out to dry once it is harvested. I never really thought much about it before this class but, consequently, rice can be filthy. Her recommendation is to rinse the rice until the water runs clear.

This recipe is a really, really easy one that I have made several times for friends and family and can be used with a variety of cuisines from Thai to Mexican. The first time I made it was when I cooked Thai food with my friend, Becky, who used to edit for me when I lived in Korea (I now do all my own editing so any mistakes are completely my own!).  Since then I’ve made it several times most recently in a Korean fusion recipe that I will be working on again in the new year as well as when I made the Oven Roasted Yogurt Chicken and Vegetable Curry.  It also can be served with my Tomato, Bean and Avocado Salad to make a more substantial meal or as a satisfying accompaniment to Roasted Pork Chops and Sweet Potatoes. I generally make the most basic version (minus the optional ingredients) but the added ingredients give it a little extra pizzaz. The best parts of this recipe are that in the time it takes to cook the rice, you will have everything you need prepared and all the ingredients are readily available the world over. So whether you need a break from potatoes this week, or if your Christmas includes rice this recipe is for you.

Easy Dressed up Coriander/Cilantro Rice

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 2 cups uncooked rice (I usually use either Basmati or Glutinous Rice)
• 4 cups water
• ½ tbsp butter/oil/ghee
• fresh coriander/cilantro, chopped
• juice of ½ to 1 lemon
• juice of a lime (optional)
• 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3-5 scallions, finely diced (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Put the rice and water in a saucepan over high heat and stir. Once at the boil, cover and reduce the heat to the lowest temperature and cook as per package directions. Basmati rice is usually around  10-12 minutes. I always made glutinous rice in my rice cooker so I never actually paid attention to how long it took to cook as it beeped when it was done.
2. Once all the water has been absorbed, fluff the rice with a fork and then add the butter along with the lemon juice and lime juice, if using, and stir well.
3. Add the garlic and coriander and stir well.
4. If you are using the scallions, you can sprinkle on top of the rice when serving, or stir them in at the same time as the garlic and coriander.
5. Serve immediately.

Tips

Leftovers: Use the leftover rice with tuna salad instead of making tuna burgers. Alternatively, you can use the rice for gimbap.