Coconut Lemon Basmati Rice & My Original Tomato Chicken Recipe

     Right so. I came across this recipe when I was watching Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals. He's an incredible chef by the way, I highly recommend watching his cooking shows. So hats off to him for this fabulous and extremely easy recipe.

"Rice is great if you're really hungry and

want to eat two thousand of something."

~ Mitch Hedberg

Coconut Lemon Basmati Rice

Ingredients

1 cup Basmati rice

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup water

half a lemon (with the juice squeezed out)

Pour the water, rice and coconut milk into a pot on the stove and bring to a boil.

(It doesn't matter how you do this really, as long as they all go in.)

Cover the pot and let boil for 8-10 minutes until desired consistency.

Once the rice is cooked, remove it from the stove.

Place the squeezed lemon half in the center of the pot and cover it again.

(This is to let the rice absorb some of the lemon fragrance. I find it best to cut the base of the lemon half so both sides are exposed. This is so the fragrance is more evenly distributed.)

So your rice should have the consistency that rice usually has,

if it is too wet remove the lid of the pot to let some of the excess water evaporate.

Serves 4

      This is one of the simplest most fool-proof recipes I know. The number one rule of cooking rice is one part rice, two parts water. So in this case we're just switching out one part of water with coconut milk. You can use other types of rice but I think the texture of Basmati rice really works in this case. I'm sure you could just use a rice cooker but honestly whats the fun in that. This goes well with almost any Asian meat or vegetable dish, whatever is to your liking. Go on and experiment :) Or you could just use my tomato chicken recipe.

      So I mentioned in my last post that I've been coming up with some recipes of my own. I was bored so I decided to play with some of the food in my house. But trust me, if you do it right (provided I type it out right) its actually pretty good. I've gotten good feedback from my family members and myself. [Warning: I never write down my recipes so its usually just impromptu cooking. The measurements may be off, I might miss out a few ingredients or maybe just give you the wrong instructions.] So here goes.

An Lyn's Original (thus, not very good)

Tomato Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

6-7 pieces of chicken fillet

(depending on how many you want)

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 lemon

soy sauce

salt

pepper

mixed herb spices

nutmeg 

coriander (powder form)

olive oil

1 tomato

1 onion

1/2 cup tomato sauce

Use a knife to score one or both sides of each chicken fillet.

(This helps it absorb more flavor and cook faster)

Marinate in plain yogurt for at least 5 minutes.

You can also leave it in the fridge for a few hours.

(This really tenderizes the chicken and makes it juicier)

This is the part where I kind of estimated the ingredients and just put random things in really. But it turned out tasting pretty good so I'm not complaining:

For the chicken marinade, add a drizzle of olive oil,

the juice from half or one whole lemon

(I'd try half first, then add according to how I like it),

pinch of salt and pepper,

one or two table spoons of soy sauce

(maybe more depending on how much you want),

a sprinkle of nutmeg and coriander (in powder form).

I would really encourage you to experiments with the ingredients here and add your own, there's no incorrect way of doing it. Mix the ingredients together and start dipping your yogurt covered chicken in it to marinate. Save the excess marinate sauce.

Start chopping your onion and tomato.

Add one or two tablespoons of olive oil into a hot pan and wait until hot.

Then fry the onions to your liking.

Add the marinated chicken to the onions in the pan

(or you can remove the onions if this makes it easier).

Fry the chicken until it is all cooked then add the tomatoes, onions and tomato sauce.

(An alternative is to remove the chicken first then add the tomatoes, onions and tomato sauce to then pan, afterwards pouring it onto the chicken).

Serves 4-5

     So I know this may be confusing. So much for my original recipe. But if you do try it, please leave your thoughts in the comments below! I shall post one more original recipe when I find the time.

" This sounds like a brag, but I know how to make good fried rice.

I learned in college.

There are two secrets - take the rice after you cook it and let it get cold in the fridge.

Then cook the egg like you're making a fried egg and just before it's done,

dump the rice and veg on it and swirl it around."

~ Patton Oswalt